Transliteration
In matters of script, Punjabi uses Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi. On this grammar page Punjabi is written in "standard orientalist" transcription as outlined in Masica (1991:xv). Being "primarily a system of transliteration from the Indian scripts, based in turn upon Sanskrit" (cf. IAST), these are its salient features: subscript dots for retroflex consonants; macrons for etymologically, contrastively long vowels; h denoting aspirated plosives. Tildes denote nasalized vowels, while grave and acute accents denote low and high tones respectively.
Vowels and consonants are outlined in the tables below. The vowels table shows the character used in the article (ex. ī) followed by its IPA value in backslashes (ex. /iː/). See Punjabi language#Phonology for further clarification.
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | ī /iː/ | ū /u/ | |||
| Close-mid | ē /eː/ | i /ɪ/ | u /ʊ/ | ō /oː/ | |
| Mid vowel | a /ə/ | ||||
| Open-mid | e /ɛː/ | o /ɔː/ | |||
| Open | ā /aː/ |
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Post-alv./ Palatal |
Velar | Glottal | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p /p/ ph /pʰ/ |
b /b/ | t /t̪/ th /t̪ʰ/ |
d /d̪/ | ṭ /ʈ/ ṭh /ʈʰ/ |
ḍ /ɖ/ | k /k/ kh /kʰ/ |
g /g/ | ||||||||
| Affricate | c /tʃ/ ch /tʃʰ/ |
j /dʒ/ | ||||||||||||||
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ṇ /ɳ/ | ñ /ɲ/ | ṅ /ŋ/ | |||||||||||
| Fricative | f /f/ | s /s/ | z /z/ | ś /ʃ/ | x /x/ | ġ /ɣ/ | h /h/ | |||||||||
| Tap or Flap | r /ɾ/ | ṛ /ɽ/ | ||||||||||||||
| Approximant | v /ʋ/ | y /j/ | ||||||||||||||
| Lateral approximant |
l /l/ | ḷ /ɭ/ | ||||||||||||||
Read more about this topic: Punjabi Grammar