5abi - Gyan Ratan - Punjabi Lessons

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Lesson 1	Lesson 2	Lesson 3	Lesson 4

pwT 5	pwT 6
Lesson 5	Lesson 6

Introduction

It has been a long standing demand of the 5abi.com readers that we should, using the techniques of information technology and the multi-media capabilities of the Internet, provide a series of Punjabi learning modules. Although, due to our limited resources, we have not been able to develop interactive, computer based learning packages, here we present a series of simple and useful lessons which, we hope, our readers (particularly the second generation overseas Punjabis) will find them helpful in their quest to learn the Punjabi language. What is more important, the lessons are devised by someone who for his years of commitment and dedication has taught himslef the Gurmukhi script and has agreed to develop these lessons for the 5abi.com readers.

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Rupinderpal Singh Dhillon

Rupinderpal Singh Dhillon, has lived in the UK most of his life and has the first hand experience of the difficulties of learning one's mother language in an alien environment. All over the world, especially in the Western countries, there are many Punjabi learning schools set up by the respective Governments and non-Government organisations (mainly Gurudwaras). Sadly, they all lack modern teaching aids and learning material (books etc.) readily available for all the other modern languages. This is attributable mainly due to fact that such material is neither developed nor available in the mother country, i.e. the Punjab. To address this issue the overseas Punjabi community (especially the Punjabi businesses and entrepreneurs) can do a lot, in terms of sponsoring such developments. We look forward to their suggestions and views.

Please contact us at: punjabi@5abi.com

Lesson 1: In this lesson you will learn :

	The Gurmukhi Alphabet
	The Punjabi Sound System
	The Vowels
	The Basic Greetings
	Punjabi sentence word order
	Traditional and Diaspora Punjabi

The Gurmukhi Alphabet

In Punjabi, the Alphabet is called Varnhmaalaa ( vrxmwlw). The script that we will be using is Gurmukhi Lipee (gurmuKI il`pI ). Below is a table showing each letter how to pronounce it and the English (Roman script) equivalent sound.


oorrha	airhaa	eerhee	sassa	hahaa
ooh	a	e	s	h

kakkaa	khakha	gaggaa	ghagha	nganngaa
k	kk	g	gh	ng

chachchaa	chachchaa	jajjaa	jhajjaa	njannjaa
ch	sh	j	jh	nj

tainkaa	thaththaa	daddaa	dhaddhaa	nhaanhaa
t	th	d	dh	nh

tattaa	thaththaa	daddaa	dhaddaa	nannaa
t	th	d	dh	n

pappaa	phaphphaa	babbaa	bhabbaa	mammaa
p	ph	b	bh	m

yayyaa	raaraa	lallaa	vavvaa	rhaarhaa
y	r	l	v/w	rh

shashshaa	khakhkhaa	ghaghghaa	zazzaa	faffaa
sh	kh	gh	z	f

The Punjabi Sound System

The Punjabi sound system is more complicated and different from the English one. As has been seen, there are thirty-five letters in the Punjabi Language. There are ten vowels in total
with some supporting consonants or accents. Below is an indication how these work and how to pronounce letters.

s	is pronounced like the s in snake.
h	is pronounced like h as in hot.
k	is said like k as in kite.
K	does not have an English equivalent, but is pronounced like kh as in khaki.
g	is pronounced as g as in goat.
G	is the same as gh in ghost.
\|	is pronounced like the middle of Penguin or the end in wing.
c	is pronounced as ch as in the word cheat.
C	is pronounced like sh as in shower, robustly aspirated.
j	is pronounced like j as in Jungle, the tongue being positioned next to the lower teeth.
J	is pronounced as jh robustly aspirated.
\	is a sound not found in the western languages, and is uttered with a palatal sound.
t	is pronounced like t as in the middle of the word constrain, with less discharge of breath and the tongue placed further back.
T	sounds like the end of wheat, with the last letter robustly aspirated.
f	is pronounced as d as in dumb, the d rounded heavily, however less expiration of breath and the tongue much further back
F	is pronounced as dh is in drummer robustly aspirated.
x	is a retroflex nasal sound as in ' nah' if the 'a' was deleted.
q	is softly unaspirated, being similar to a softly said 'Tim'.
Q	is pronounced as th as in the word third, but robustly aspirated.
d	is pronounced as d as in then, with less expiration of breath.
D	is pronounced dh as is like 'then', powerfully aspirated.
n	is pronounced as n as in night, with the tongue firmly placed next to the teeth.
p	is pronounced as p as in aspirin with less expiration of air.
P	is pronounced as f as in fight, being the aspirated version of p .
b	is pronounced as b as in bin and bat.
B	is pronounced as bh as in bard, if the word was pronounced as a halfway between a p and bh.
m	is pronounced as m as in marriage or mother.
X	is pronounced as y as in yard.
r	is pronounced as r as in matador or in razor , without dropping the r.
l	is pronounced as l as in like or lion .
v	pronounced as v and is a cross between a V in vexed and W in wart, without rounding the lips and without the upper teeth being grazed by the lower lip.
V	the closest example to this is the English name ' Barrat', but said as if a h is placed in between the two R's.
S	is as in Shimmer.
^	As in the Scottish Loch.
Z	as in gosh pronounced as if a h follows g.
z	as in Zebra
&	As in Frankenstein.

The last five row of letters have a dot or Paireen Bindee ( pYrIN ibMdI ), literally dot at letter's foot. Many of these sounds originate from Urdu (or Persian). There are also subjoined consonants, which are just (pYrIN) Paireen, or ' of the foot'. There are three.

( H ) h

( R ) r

There are also five nasally pronounced consonants.

\|	these possess two accents.
\	a . ibMdI bindee & M it~pI Tippee
x	Nh}
n	N}
m	M}

The Vowels

Punjabi has twice as many vowels as English, namely ten, which are all pronounced exactly as they are written. There are two types of vowels. Independent ones and dependent ones. The latter require a consonant for support. In dependent vowels can begin words and syllables. They are also used when a consonant cannot support two vowels or a diphthong. The latter that is the use of two vowels within a syllable is very common in Punjabi. In the case of independent vowels three principle letters are used which require accents for support. These are:

a (O), A (A), e (E)

Dependent vowels are a little more complex, so the table below compares both types to provide the reader with a feel for their use.

Dependent Vowels
Accent	Example	Vowel	English
- a	s sa	mukqw	Muktaa
w aa	vw vaa	kMnw	Kannaa
i i	iz zi	ishwrI	Sihaaree
I ee	eI ee	ibhwrI	Bihaaree
u u	au oh	AONkV	Aunkarh
aUuU oo	aU oo	dulYNkV	Dulainkar
y e	ly le	lWv	Laanv
Yai	sY sai	dulWv	Dulaanvaan
o o	ro ro	hoVw	Horhaa
O au	gO gau	knOVw	Kanaurhaa

Independent Vowels
Accent	Example	Transliteration	English
A a	AsIN	assi	us
Aw aa	AwlU	alloo	potatoe
ie i	ie~k	eik	one
eI ee	eIst	eesat	East
au oh	auh	ohho	They
aU oo	aUT	ooth	Camel
ey e	ey	eis	is
AY ai	AYqvwr	aitavaar	Sunday
o O	AwE	ahaaoh	come
aO au	AOto	auto	auto

This brings us onto two subjects regarding accents. Primarily Punjabi is an intoned language like that of the Chinese, but with a low pitch, high pitch and levelled out one. Secondly, the behaviour of the letter or symbol is dependant upon the carried accent (mainly vowels). The most alien one to the English speaker is the Mukhta or invisible a. Whereas in English the silent n is written but not heard, in Punjabi the soft a is heard but not written. So mar is spelt mr, that is mr.

In the next lesson we'll learn about the rules governing the use of these vowels.



	Lesson prepared by: Rupinderpal Singh Dhillon Please contact us at: punjabi@5abi.com