The Punjabi Pronounciations

The Punjabi Pronounciations

The Punjabi Pronounciations 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}

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