Shahmukhi facts for kids

Shahmukhi (Punjabi: شاہ مُکھی, Gurmukhi: ਸ਼ਾਹਮੁਖੀ, lit. 'from the mouth of the Shah') is an Abjad developed from the Perso-Arabic alphabet script, used for the Punjabi language. It came into use in Punjabi Sufi literature, from the 12th century and onwards. It is generally written in the Nastaʿlīq calligraphic hand, which is also used for Urdu. Shahmukhi script is the standard script in Pakistani Punjab used for Punjabi. Perso-Arabic is one of two scripts used for Punjabi, the other being Gurmukhi used in the Indian Punjab.

Shahmukhi is written from right to left, while Gurmukhi is written from left to right. It is also used as the main alphabet to write Pahari–Pothwari in the Pothohar region of Punjab and Azad Kashmir.

History

The Shahmukhi alphabet was first introduced by the Muslim Sufi poets of Punjab in the 12th century for the Punjabi language. It eventually became the conventional writing style for the Muslim populace of the Pakistani province of Punjab following the Partition of India, while the largely Hindu and Sikh modern-day state of Punjab, India adopted the Gurmukhi script to record the Punjabi language.

The name 'Shahmukhi' is a recent coinage, imitating its counterpart 'Gurmukhi'. However, the writing of Punjabi in the Perso-Arabic script is well-attested from the 12th century onwards. According to Dhavan, Punjabi began to adopt the script as a "side effect" of educational practices in Mughal-era Punjab, when Punjabi Muslims learned the Persian language in order to participate in Mughal society. Educational materials taught Persian to Punjabi speakers by using Punjabi written in Persian's alphabet, which was a novel innovation. This was one of the first attempts in writing and standardising the Punjabi language; prior to this, Punjabi was primarily a spoken language, not formally taught in schools.

Shackle suggests that the Gurmukhi script was not favoured by Punjabi Muslims due to its religious (Sikh) connotations.

Alphabet

Shahmukhi script is a modified version of the Arabic script. While it is virtually identical to the Urdu alphabet, it is sometimes considered as a superset when additional letters are attempted to be included, representing Punjabi phonology; hence all Urdu readers can naturally read Shahmukhi (and vice versa) without any practical difficulty. For writing Saraiki, an extended Shahmukhi is used that includes 4 additional letters for the implosive consonants (ٻ, ڄ, ݙ, ڳ).

Vowel diacritics

Like Urdu, Shahmukhi also has diacritics, which are implied - a convention retained from the original Arabic script, to express short vowels.

Consonants

No Punjabi words begin with ں, ھ, or ے. Words which begin with ڑ are exceedingly rare, but some have been documented in Shahmukhi dictionaries such as Iqbal Salahuddin's Waddi Punjabi Lughat. The digraphs of aspirated consonants are as follows. In addition, ل and لؕ form ligatures with ا: لا (ـلا) and لؕا (ـلؕا).

Aspirates

• ے (waddi ye) is only found in the final position, when writing the sounds e (ਏ) or æ (ਐ), and in initial and medial positions, it takes the form of ی.
• Vowels are expressed as follows:

Difference from Persian and Urdu

Shahmukhi has more letters added to the Urdu base to represent sounds not present in Urdu, which already has additional letters added to the Arabic and Persian base itself to represent sounds not present in Arabic. Characters added which differ from Persian but not Urdu include: ٹ to represent /ʈ/, ڈ to represent /ɖ/, ڑ to represent /ɽ/, ں to represent /◌̃/, and ے to represent /ɛ:/ or /e:/. Furthermore, a separate do-cashmi-he letter, ھ, exists to denote a /ʰ/ or a /ʱ/, this letter is mainly used as part of the multitude of digraphs, detailed below. Characters added which differ from Urdu include: ࣇ to represent /ɭ/ and ݨ to represent /ɳ/. These characters, however are rarely used.

Pronunciation

The letter ژ is pronounced 'j' in French or as vision in English and the letter ع is often transliterated in many ways due to its changing sound in various Arabic and Persian words.

Shahmukhi software

There is no authentic software available exclusively for the Shahmukhi script yet, currently available Urdu softwares are used for Shamukhi. However, Urdu softwares does not cover all of the tones of the Punjabi language. For example there is no character available in Urdu software to represent the tone of alphabet character ـݨـ in the Punjabi language. Although this character had been used in writings by the Sufis and other muslim Punjabi writers since the 12th century.

Gallery

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  An example of poetry in Shahmukhi by Bulleh Shah, a prominent Sufi-poet

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  Another example of poetry by Bulleh Shah in Shahmukhi

See also

In Spanish: Shahmují para niños

• Gurmukhī alphabet
• Saraiki alphabet