Phonology
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iː | uː | |||
| Close-mid | eː | ɪ | ʊ | oː | |
| Mid | ə | ||||
| Open-mid | ɛː | ɔː | |||
| Open | aː |
The long vowels (the vowels with ) also have nasalized versions.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental/ Alveolar |
Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɳ | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Plosive and Affricate |
voiceless | p | t̪ | ʈ | t͡ʃ | k | ||
| voiceless aspirated | pʰ | t̪ʰ | ʈʰ | t͡ʃʰ | kʰ | |||
| voiced | b | d̪ | ɖ | d͡ʒ | ɡ | |||
| Fricative | (f) | s (z) | (ʃ) | ɦ | ||||
| Flap | ɾ | ɽ | ||||||
| Approximant | ʋ | l | ɭ | j | ||||
- Tone
Punjabi has three phonemically distinct tones that developed from the lost murmured (or "voiced aspirate") series of consonants. Phonetically the tones are rising or rising-falling contours and they can span over one syllable or two, but phonemically they can be distinguished as high, mid, and low.
A historical murmured consonant (voiced aspirate consonant) in word initial position became tenuis and left a low tone on the two syllables following it: ghoṛā "horse". A stem final murmured consonant became voiced and left a high tone on the two syllables preceding it: māgh "October". A stem medial murmured consonant which appeared after a short vowel and before a long vowel became voiced and left a low tone on the two syllables following it: maghāuṇā "to have something lit". Other syllables and words have mid tone.
Read more about this topic: Punjabi Language