Language Blog

This is a companion post to a previous post that lists the consonants of the Punjabi alphabet. Or, in other words, now I can finally provide some closure to being able to read Punjabi. (Making sense of what I read, of course, is a totally different problem.)

The first three letters of the alphabet — ੳ, ਅ, and ੲ — are not used by themselves. Each serves as a foundation on which independent vowels are formed. Vowels take two forms: (1) independent vowels, which stand alone or can be used as the first letter in a word, are formed by adding a vowel sign to one of the three bases; and (2) dependent vowels, which are formed by adding a vowel sign to a consonant (in the second case, the vowel can not be the first letter of the word).

Dependent Vowels

Independent Vowels

Key

• Generally, h denotes aspiration.
• For ਤ, ਥ, ਦ, and ਧ, the underlined t and d denote dental consonants, i.e., the tongue is placed behind the front teeth. ਟ, ਠ, ਡ, and ਢ, with d and t not underlined denote retroflex consonants, i.e., the tongue is placed further back in the mouth with its tip against the palate.
• The first three letters, ੳ, ਅ, and ੲ, are not used on their own. They are used in combination with dependent vowels to form independent vowels, e.g., ਉ is u, ਆ is aa, and ਈ is ii, however by themselves they represent nothing.
• Alphabetical order is left to right, down to the next row then left to right, etc.

Punjabi Alphabet