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Gurmukhī script From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Gurmukhi script) Jump to: navigation, search This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support, you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More... The Gurmukhī (ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ) script, derived from the Later Sharada script and standardised by Guru Angad Dev in the 16th century, was designed to write the Punjabi language. The whole of the Guru Granth Sahib's 1430 pages are written in this script. The word Gurmukhi is commonly translated as "from the Mouth of the Guru".

Gurmukhi is a form of writing system called an abugida, as each consonant has an inherent vowel (a), that can be changed using vowel signs.

Modern Gurmukhi has forty-one consonants (Vianjans), nine vowel symbols (Laga Matra), two symbols for nasal sounds (Bindi and Tippi) and one symbol which duplicates the sound of any consonant (Addak). In addition, four conjuncts are used: three subjoined forms of the consonants Rara, Haha and Vava, and one half-form of Yayya. Use of the conjunct forms of Vava and Yayya is increasingly scarce in modern contexts.

Gurmukhi has been adapted to write other languages, such as Braj Bhasha, Hindi, Sanskrit and Sindhi.

Contents [hide] 1 Origins 1.1 Gurmukhi etymology 2 Alphabet 3 Vowels 3.1 Vowel Examples 4 Halant 5 Numerals 6 Other Signs 7 Visarg 8 Ek Onkar 9 Gurmukhi in Unicode 10 Bibliography 11 External links

[edit] Origins Like most of the North Indian writing systems, the Gurmukhi script is a descendant of the Brahmi script. The Proto-Gurmukhi letters evolved through the Gupta script, from 4th to 8th century, followed by the Sharada script, from 8th century onwards, and finally adapted their archaic form in the Devasesha stage of the Later Sharada script, dated between the 10th and 14th centuries.

The traditional accounts, such as the references found in the Janamsakhi literature, say that the Gurmukhi script was invented by the second Sikh Guru, Guru Angad Dev. However, it would be correct to say that the script was standardised, rather than invented, by the Sikh Gurus. E.P. Newton (Panjabi Grammar, 1898) writes that at least 21 Gurmukhi characters are found in ancient manuscripts: 6 from 10th century, 12 from 3rd century BC and 3 from 5th century BC. Apparently, the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev also used the Gurmukhi script for his writings.

There are two major theories on how the Proto-Gurmukhi script emerged in the 15th century. G.B. Singh (1950), while quoting Abu Raihan Al-Biruni's Ta'rikh al-Hind (1030 AD), says that the script evolved from Ardhanagari. Al-Biruni writes that the Ardhanagari script was used in Bathinda, including Sindh and western parts of the Punjab in the 10th century. For some time, Bhatinda remained the capital of the kingdom of Bhatti Rajputs of the Pal clan, who ruled North India before the Muslims occupied the country. Because of its connection with the Bhattis, the Ardhanagari script was also called Bhatachhari. According to Al-Biruni, Ardhanagari was a mixture of Nagari, used in Ujjain and Malwa, and Siddha Matrika or the Siddham script, a variant of the Sharada script used in Kashmir.

Pritam Singh (1992) has also traced the origins of Gurmukhi to the Siddha Matrika.

Tarlochan Singh Bedi (1999) writes that the Gurmukhi script developed in the 10-14th centuries from the Devasesha stage of the Sharada script. His argument is that from the 10th century, regional differences started to appear between the Sharada script used in Punjab, the Hill States (partly Himachal Pradesh) and Kashmir. The regional Sharada script evolves from this stage till the 14th century, when it starts to appear in the form of Gurmukhi. Indian epigraphists call this stage Devasesha, while Bedi prefers the name Pritham Gurmukhi or Proto-Gurmukhi.

Gurus adopted the Proto-Gurmukhi script to write the Guru Granth Sahib, the religious scriptures of the Sikhs. Other contemporary scripts used in the Punjab were Takri and the Lande alphabets. Also Takri was a script that developed through the Devasesha stage of the Sharada script, and is found mainly in the Hill States, such as Chamba, where it is called Chambyali and in Jammu, where it is known as Dogri. The local Takri variants got the status of official scripts in some of the Punjab Hill States, and were used for both administrative and literary purposes until the 19th century. After 1948, when Himachal Pradesh was established as an administrative unit, the local Takri variants were replaced by Devanagari.

Meanwhile, the mercantile scripts of Punjab known as the Lande were normally not used for literary purposes. Landa means alphabet "without tail", applying that the script did not have vowel symbols. In Punjab, there were at least ten different scripts classified as Lande, Mahajani being the most popular. The Lande alphabets were used for household and trade purposes. Compared to the Lande, Sikh Gurus favoured the use of Proto-Gurmukhi, because of the difficulties involved in pronouncing words without vowel signs.

The usage of Gurmukhi letters in Guru Granth Sahib meant that the script developed its own orthographical rules. In the following epochs, Gurmukhi became the prime script applied for literary writings of the Sikhs. Later in the 20th century, the script was given the authority as the official script of the Eastern Punjabi language. Meanwhile, in Western Punjab a form of the Urdu script, known as Shahmukhi is still in use.

[edit] Gurmukhi etymology The word Gurmukhi is commonly translated as "from the Mouth of the Guru". However, the term used for the Punjabi script has somewhat different connotations. The opinion given by traditional scholars is that as the Sikh holy writings, before they were scribed, were uttered by the Gurus, they came to be known as Gurmukhi or the "Utterance of the Guru". And consequently, the script that was used for scribing the utterance was also given the same name. However, the prevalent view among Punjabi linguists is that as in the early stages the Gurmukhi letters were primarily used by Gurmukhs, or the Sikhs devoted to the Guru, the script came to be associated with them. Another view is that as the Gurmukhs, in accordance with the Sikh belief, used to meditate on the letters ਵ, ਹ, ਗ, ਰ which jointly form ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ or God in Sikhism, these letters were called Gurmukhi or the "speech of the Gurmukhs". Subsequently, the whole script came to be known as Gurmukhi.

[edit] Alphabet The Gurmukhi alphabet contains thirty-five distinct letters. The first three letters are unique because they form the basis for vowels and are not consonants. Except for Aira, the first three characters are never used on their own. See the section on vowels for further details.

Name Pron. Name Pron. Name Pron. Name Pron. Name Pron. ੳ Ura ਅ Aira  ੲ Iri  ਸ Sussa Sa ਹ Haha Ha ਕ Kakka Ka ਖ Khukha Kha ਗ Gugga Ga ਘ Ghugga Gha ਙ Ungga Nga ਚ Chuchaa Ca ਛ Chhuchha Cha ਜ Jujja Ja ਝ Jhujja Jha ਞ Yanza Nya ਟ Tainka Tta ਠ Thutha Ttha ਡ Dudda Dda ਢ Dhudda Ddha ਣ Nahnha Nna ਤ Tutta Ta ਥ Thutha Tha ਦ Duda Da ਧ Dhuda Dha ਨ Nunna Na ਪ Puppa Pa ਫ Phupha Pha ਬ Bubba Ba ਭ Bhubba Bha ਮ Mumma Ma ਯ Yaiyya Ya ਰ Rara Ra ਲ Lulla La ਵ Vava Va ੜ Rahrha Rra

In addition to these, there are six consonants created by placing a dot (bindi) at the foot (pair) of the consonant:

Name Pron. ਸ਼ Shusha paireen bindi Sha ਖ਼ Khukha paireen bindi Khha ਗ਼ Gugga paireen bindi Ghha ਜ਼ Zuzza paireen bindi Za ਫ਼ Fuffa paireen bindi Fa ਲ਼ Lulla paireen bindi Lla

Lulla paireen bindi was only recently added to the Gurmukhi alphabet. Some sources may not consider it a separate letter.

[edit] Vowels Gurmukhi follows similar concepts to other Brahmi scripts and as such, all consonants are followed by an inherent‘a’sound (unless at the end of a word when the ‘a’ is usually dropped). This inherent vowel sound can be changed by using dependent vowel signs which attach to a bearing consonant. In some cases, dependent vowel signs cannot be used – at the beginning of a word or syllable for instance – and so an independent vowel character is used instead.

Independent vowels are constructed using three bearer characters: Ura (ੳ), Aira (ਅ) and Iri (ੲ). With the exception of Aira (which represents the vowel 'a') they are never used without additional vowel signs.

Vowel Name IPA Ind. Dep. with /k/ Letter Unicode ਅ (none) ਕ Mukta A [ə] ਆ ਾ ਕਾ Kanna AA [ɑ] ਇ ਿ ਕਿ Sihari I [ɪ] ਈ ੀ ਕੀ Bihari II [i] ਉ ੁ ਕੁ Onkar U [ʊ] ਊ ੂ ਕੂ Dulankar UU [u] ਏ ੇ ਕੇ Lavan EE [e] ਐ ੈ ਕੈ Dulavan AI [æ] ਓ ੋ ਕੋ Hora O [o] ਔ ੌ ਕੌ Kanuara AU [ɔ]

Dotted circles represent the bearer consonant. Vowels are always pronounced after the consonant they are attached to. Thus, Sihari is always written to the left, but pronounced after the character on the right.

[edit] Vowel Examples Word Transcription Meaning ਆਲੂ ālū potato ਦਿਲ dil heart [edit] Halant The Halant (੍) character is not used when writing Punjabi in Gurmukhi. However, it may occasionally be used in Sanskritised text or in dictionaries for extra phonetic information. When it is used, it represents the suppression of the inherent vowel.

The affect of this is shown below:

ਕ – Ka ਕ੍ – K [edit] Numerals Gurmukhi has its own set of numerals that behave exactly as Hindu-Arabic numerals do. These are used extensively in older texts. In modern contexts, they are being replaced by standard Latin numerals although they are still in widespread use.

0 - ੦ 1 - ੧ 2 - ੨ 3 - ੩ 4 - ੪ 5 - ੫ 6 - ੬ 7 - ੭ 8 - ੮ 9 - ੯ [edit] Other Signs Bindi (ਂ) and Tippi (ੰ) are used for nasalisation (similar to the ‘n’ sound in words ending in ‘ing’). In general, Onkar (ੁ) and Dulankar (ੂ) take Bindi in their initial forms and Tippi when used after a consonant. All other short vowels take Tippi and all other long vowels take Bindi. Older texts may not follow these conventions.

The use of Addak (ੱ) indicates that the following consonant is geminate. This means that the subsequent consonant is doubled or reinforced.

[edit] Visarg The Visarg symbol (ਃ) is used very occasionally in Gurmukhi. It can either represent an abbreviation (like period is used in English) or it can act like a Sanskrit Visarga where a voiceless ‘h’ sound is pronounced after the vowel.

[edit] Ek Onkar Ek Onkar (ੴ) is a Gurmukhi symbol that is often used in Sikh literature. It literally means ‘one God’.

[edit] Gurmukhi in Unicode The Unicode range for Gurmukhi is U+0A00 to U+0A7F. Using Unicode for Gurmukhi has only recently started to become widespread. Many sites still use proprietary fonts that convert Latin ASCII codes to Gurmukhi glyphs.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F A00  ਁ ਂ ਃ   ਅ ਆ ਇ ਈ ਉ ਊ         ਏ A10 ਐ    ਓ ਔ ਕ ਖ ਗ ਘ ਙ ਚ ਛ ਜ ਝ ਞ ਟ A20 ਠ ਡ ਢ ਣ ਤ ਥ ਦ ਧ ਨ  ਪ ਫ ਬ ਭ ਮ ਯ A30 ਰ  ਲ ਲ਼   ਵ ਸ਼   ਸ ਹ     ਼   ਾ ਿ A40 ੀ ੁ ੂ        ੇ ੈ     ੋ ੌ ੍ A50                  ਖ਼ ਗ਼ ਜ਼ ੜ   ਫ਼ A60            ੦ ੧ ੨ ੩ ੪ ੫ ੬ ੭ ੮ ੯ A70 ੰ ੱ ੲ ੳ ੴ [edit] Bibliography Following books/articles have been written on the origins of the Gurmukhi script (all in the Punjabi language):

Gurbaksh (G.B.) Singh. Gurmukhi Lipi da Janam te Vikas. Chandigarh: Punjab University, 1950.

Ishar Singh Tãgh, Dr. Gurmukhi Lipi da Vigyamulak Adhiyan. Patiala: Jodh Singh Karamjit Singh.

Kala Singh Bedi, Dr. Lipi da Vikas. Patiala: Punjabi University, 1995.

Kartar Singh Dakha. Gurmukhi te Hindi da Takra. 1948.

Piara Singh Padam, Prof. Gurmukhi Lipi da Itihas. Patiala: Kalgidhar Kalam Foundation Kalam Mandir, 1953.

Prem Parkash Singh, Dr. "Gurmukhi di Utpati." Khoj Patrika, Patiala: Punjabi University.

Pritam Singh, Prof. "Gurmukhi Lipi." Khoj Patrika. p.110, vol.36, 1992. Patiala: Punjabi University.

Sohan Singh Galautra. Punjab dian Lipiã.

Tarlochan Singh Bedi, Dr. Gurmukhi Lipi da Janam te Vikas. Patiala: Punjabi University, 1999.

[edit] External links Punjabi Computing Resource Centre Saab - A free Unicode 4.0 OpenType Gurmukhi font Gurmukhi pseudo text generator Unicode Punjabi (Gurmukhi/Shahmukhi) WebBased OnScreen Keyboard<-- Free online Punjabi (Gurmukhi) lessons Learn Gurmukhi Omniglot's guide to Gurmukhi Test for Unicode support in Web browsers Unicode script chart for Gurmukhi (PDF file) Introduction to Gurmukhi The Advanced Centre for Technical Development of Punjabi language, Literature and Culture, Punjabi University, Patiala Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurmukh%C4%AB_script" Categories: Articles containing Indic text | Abugida writing systems | Sikhism

ViewsArticle Discussion Edit this page History Move Watch Personal toolsLbns42@aol.com My talk My preferences My watchlist My contributions Log out Navigation Main Page Community Portal Featured articles Current events Recent changes Random article Help Contact Wikipedia Donations Search Toolbox What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Printable version Permanent link Cite this article In other languages Brezhoneg Deutsch Gurmukhī script From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Gurmukhi script) Jump to: navigation, search This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support, you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More... The Gurmukhī (ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ) script, derived from the Later Sharada script and standardised by Guru Angad Dev in the 16th century, was designed to write the Punjabi language. The whole of the Guru Granth Sahib's 1430 pages are written in this script. The word Gurmukhi is commonly translated as "from the Mouth of the Guru".

Gurmukhi is a form of writing system called an abugida, as each consonant has an inherent vowel (a), that can be changed using vowel signs.

Modern Gurmukhi has forty-one consonants (Vianjans), nine vowel symbols (Laga Matra), two symbols for nasal sounds (Bindi and Tippi) and one symbol which duplicates the sound of any consonant (Addak). In addition, four conjuncts are used: three subjoined forms of the consonants Rara, Haha and Vava, and one half-form of Yayya. Use of the conjunct forms of Vava and Yayya is increasingly scarce in modern contexts.

Gurmukhi has been adapted to write other languages, such as Braj Bhasha, Hindi, Sanskrit and Sindhi.

Contents [hide] 1 Origins 1.1 Gurmukhi etymology 2 Alphabet 3 Vowels 3.1 Vowel Examples 4 Halant 5 Numerals 6 Other Signs 7 Visarg 8 Ek Onkar 9 Gurmukhi in Unicode 10 Bibliography 11 External links

[edit] Origins Like most of the North Indian writing systems, the Gurmukhi script is a descendant of the Brahmi script. The Proto-Gurmukhi letters evolved through the Gupta script, from 4th to 8th century, followed by the Sharada script, from 8th century onwards, and finally adapted their archaic form in the Devasesha stage of the Later Sharada script, dated between the 10th and 14th centuries.

The traditional accounts, such as the references found in the Janamsakhi literature, say that the Gurmukhi script was invented by the second Sikh Guru, Guru Angad Dev. However, it would be correct to say that the script was standardised, rather than invented, by the Sikh Gurus. E.P. Newton (Panjabi Grammar, 1898) writes that at least 21 Gurmukhi characters are found in ancient manuscripts: 6 from 10th century, 12 from 3rd century BC and 3 from 5th century BC. Apparently, the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev also used the Gurmukhi script for his writings.

There are two major theories on how the Proto-Gurmukhi script emerged in the 15th century. G.B. Singh (1950), while quoting Abu Raihan Al-Biruni's Ta'rikh al-Hind (1030 AD), says that the script evolved from Ardhanagari. Al-Biruni writes that the Ardhanagari script was used in Bathinda, including Sindh and western parts of the Punjab in the 10th century. For some time, Bhatinda remained the capital of the kingdom of Bhatti Rajputs of the Pal clan, who ruled North India before the Muslims occupied the country. Because of its connection with the Bhattis, the Ardhanagari script was also called Bhatachhari. According to Al-Biruni, Ardhanagari was a mixture of Nagari, used in Ujjain and Malwa, and Siddha Matrika or the Siddham script, a variant of the Sharada script used in Kashmir.

Pritam Singh (1992) has also traced the origins of Gurmukhi to the Siddha Matrika.

Tarlochan Singh Bedi (1999) writes that the Gurmukhi script developed in the 10-14th centuries from the Devasesha stage of the Sharada script. His argument is that from the 10th century, regional differences started to appear between the Sharada script used in Punjab, the Hill States (partly Himachal Pradesh) and Kashmir. The regional Sharada script evolves from this stage till the 14th century, when it starts to appear in the form of Gurmukhi. Indian epigraphists call this stage Devasesha, while Bedi prefers the name Pritham Gurmukhi or Proto-Gurmukhi.

Gurus adopted the Proto-Gurmukhi script to write the Guru Granth Sahib, the religious scriptures of the Sikhs. Other contemporary scripts used in the Punjab were Takri and the Lande alphabets. Also Takri was a script that developed through the Devasesha stage of the Sharada script, and is found mainly in the Hill States, such as Chamba, where it is called Chambyali and in Jammu, where it is known as Dogri. The local Takri variants got the status of official scripts in some of the Punjab Hill States, and were used for both administrative and literary purposes until the 19th century. After 1948, when Himachal Pradesh was established as an administrative unit, the local Takri variants were replaced by Devanagari.

Meanwhile, the mercantile scripts of Punjab known as the Lande were normally not used for literary purposes. Landa means alphabet "without tail", applying that the script did not have vowel symbols. In Punjab, there were at least ten different scripts classified as Lande, Mahajani being the most popular. The Lande alphabets were used for household and trade purposes. Compared to the Lande, Sikh Gurus favoured the use of Proto-Gurmukhi, because of the difficulties involved in pronouncing words without vowel signs.

The usage of Gurmukhi letters in Guru Granth Sahib meant that the script developed its own orthographical rules. In the following epochs, Gurmukhi became the prime script applied for literary writings of the Sikhs. Later in the 20th century, the script was given the authority as the official script of the Eastern Punjabi language. Meanwhile, in Western Punjab a form of the Urdu script, known as Shahmukhi is still in use.

[edit] Gurmukhi etymology The word Gurmukhi is commonly translated as "from the Mouth of the Guru". However, the term used for the Punjabi script has somewhat different connotations. The opinion given by traditional scholars is that as the Sikh holy writings, before they were scribed, were uttered by the Gurus, they came to be known as Gurmukhi or the "Utterance of the Guru". And consequently, the script that was used for scribing the utterance was also given the same name. However, the prevalent view among Punjabi linguists is that as in the early stages the Gurmukhi letters were primarily used by Gurmukhs, or the Sikhs devoted to the Guru, the script came to be associated with them. Another view is that as the Gurmukhs, in accordance with the Sikh belief, used to meditate on the letters ਵ, ਹ, ਗ, ਰ which jointly form ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ or God in Sikhism, these letters were called Gurmukhi or the "speech of the Gurmukhs". Subsequently, the whole script came to be known as Gurmukhi.

[edit] Alphabet The Gurmukhi alphabet contains thirty-five distinct letters. The first three letters are unique because they form the basis for vowels and are not consonants. Except for Aira, the first three characters are never used on their own. See the section on vowels for further details.

Name Pron. Name Pron. Name Pron. Name Pron. Name Pron. ੳ Ura ਅ Aira  ੲ Iri  ਸ Sussa Sa ਹ Haha Ha ਕ Kakka Ka ਖ Khukha Kha ਗ Gugga Ga ਘ Ghugga Gha ਙ Ungga Nga ਚ Chuchaa Ca ਛ Chhuchha Cha ਜ Jujja Ja ਝ Jhujja Jha ਞ Yanza Nya ਟ Tainka Tta ਠ Thutha Ttha ਡ Dudda Dda ਢ Dhudda Ddha ਣ Nahnha Nna ਤ Tutta Ta ਥ Thutha Tha ਦ Duda Da ਧ Dhuda Dha ਨ Nunna Na ਪ Puppa Pa ਫ Phupha Pha ਬ Bubba Ba ਭ Bhubba Bha ਮ Mumma Ma ਯ Yaiyya Ya ਰ Rara Ra ਲ Lulla La ਵ Vava Va ੜ Rahrha Rra

In addition to these, there are six consonants created by placing a dot (bindi) at the foot (pair) of the consonant:

Name Pron. ਸ਼ Shusha paireen bindi Sha ਖ਼ Khukha paireen bindi Khha ਗ਼ Gugga paireen bindi Ghha ਜ਼ Zuzza paireen bindi Za ਫ਼ Fuffa paireen bindi Fa ਲ਼ Lulla paireen bindi Lla

Lulla paireen bindi was only recently added to the Gurmukhi alphabet. Some sources may not consider it a separate letter.

[edit] Vowels Gurmukhi follows similar concepts to other Brahmi scripts and as such, all consonants are followed by an inherent‘a’sound (unless at the end of a word when the ‘a’ is usually dropped). This inherent vowel sound can be changed by using dependent vowel signs which attach to a bearing consonant. In some cases, dependent vowel signs cannot be used – at the beginning of a word or syllable for instance – and so an independent vowel character is used instead.

Independent vowels are constructed using three bearer characters: Ura (ੳ), Aira (ਅ) and Iri (ੲ). With the exception of Aira (which represents the vowel 'a') they are never used without additional vowel signs.

Vowel Name IPA Ind. Dep. with /k/ Letter Unicode ਅ (none) ਕ Mukta A [ə] ਆ ਾ ਕਾ Kanna AA [ɑ] ਇ ਿ ਕਿ Sihari I [ɪ] ਈ ੀ ਕੀ Bihari II [i] ਉ ੁ ਕੁ Onkar U [ʊ] ਊ ੂ ਕੂ Dulankar UU [u] ਏ ੇ ਕੇ Lavan EE [e] ਐ ੈ ਕੈ Dulavan AI [æ] ਓ ੋ ਕੋ Hora O [o] ਔ ੌ ਕੌ Kanuara AU [ɔ]

Dotted circles represent the bearer consonant. Vowels are always pronounced after the consonant they are attached to. Thus, Sihari is always written to the left, but pronounced after the character on the right.

[edit] Vowel Examples Word Transcription Meaning ਆਲੂ ālū potato ਦਿਲ dil heart [edit] Halant The Halant (੍) character is not used when writing Punjabi in Gurmukhi. However, it may occasionally be used in Sanskritised text or in dictionaries for extra phonetic information. When it is used, it represents the suppression of the inherent vowel.

The affect of this is shown below:

ਕ – Ka ਕ੍ – K [edit] Numerals Gurmukhi has its own set of numerals that behave exactly as Hindu-Arabic numerals do. These are used extensively in older texts. In modern contexts, they are being replaced by standard Latin numerals although they are still in widespread use.

0 - ੦ 1 - ੧ 2 - ੨ 3 - ੩ 4 - ੪ 5 - ੫ 6 - ੬ 7 - ੭ 8 - ੮ 9 - ੯ [edit] Other Signs Bindi (ਂ) and Tippi (ੰ) are used for nasalisation (similar to the ‘n’ sound in words ending in ‘ing’). In general, Onkar (ੁ) and Dulankar (ੂ) take Bindi in their initial forms and Tippi when used after a consonant. All other short vowels take Tippi and all other long vowels take Bindi. Older texts may not follow these conventions.

The use of Addak (ੱ) indicates that the following consonant is geminate. This means that the subsequent consonant is doubled or reinforced.

[edit] Visarg The Visarg symbol (ਃ) is used very occasionally in Gurmukhi. It can either represent an abbreviation (like period is used in English) or it can act like a Sanskrit Visarga where a voiceless ‘h’ sound is pronounced after the vowel.

[edit] Ek Onkar Ek Onkar (ੴ) is a Gurmukhi symbol that is often used in Sikh literature. It literally means ‘one God’.

[edit] Gurmukhi in Unicode The Unicode range for Gurmukhi is U+0A00 to U+0A7F. Using Unicode for Gurmukhi has only recently started to become widespread. Many sites still use proprietary fonts that convert Latin ASCII codes to Gurmukhi glyphs.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F A00  ਁ ਂ ਃ   ਅ ਆ ਇ ਈ ਉ ਊ         ਏ A10 ਐ    ਓ ਔ ਕ ਖ ਗ ਘ ਙ ਚ ਛ ਜ ਝ ਞ ਟ A20 ਠ ਡ ਢ ਣ ਤ ਥ ਦ ਧ ਨ  ਪ ਫ ਬ ਭ ਮ ਯ A30 ਰ  ਲ ਲ਼   ਵ ਸ਼   ਸ ਹ     ਼   ਾ ਿ A40 ੀ ੁ ੂ        ੇ ੈ     ੋ ੌ ੍ A50                  ਖ਼ ਗ਼ ਜ਼ ੜ   ਫ਼ A60            ੦ ੧ ੨ ੩ ੪ ੫ ੬ ੭ ੮ ੯ A70 ੰ ੱ ੲ ੳ ੴ [edit] Bibliography Following books/articles have been written on the origins of the Gurmukhi script (all in the Punjabi language):

Gurbaksh (G.B.) Singh. Gurmukhi Lipi da Janam te Vikas. Chandigarh: Punjab University, 1950.

Ishar Singh Tãgh, Dr. Gurmukhi Lipi da Vigyamulak Adhiyan. Patiala: Jodh Singh Karamjit Singh.

Kala Singh Bedi, Dr. Lipi da Vikas. Patiala: Punjabi University, 1995.

Kartar Singh Dakha. Gurmukhi te Hindi da Takra. 1948.

Piara Singh Padam, Prof. Gurmukhi Lipi da Itihas. Patiala: Kalgidhar Kalam Foundation Kalam Mandir, 1953.

Prem Parkash Singh, Dr. "Gurmukhi di Utpati." Khoj Patrika, Patiala: Punjabi University.

Pritam Singh, Prof. "Gurmukhi Lipi." Khoj Patrika. p.110, vol.36, 1992. Patiala: Punjabi University.

Sohan Singh Galautra. Punjab dian Lipiã.

Tarlochan Singh Bedi, Dr. Gurmukhi Lipi da Janam te Vikas. Patiala: Punjabi University, 1999.

[edit] External links Punjabi Computing Resource Centre Saab - A free Unicode 4.0 OpenType Gurmukhi font Gurmukhi pseudo text generator Unicode Punjabi (Gurmukhi/Shahmukhi) WebBased OnScreen Keyboard<-- Free online Punjabi (Gurmukhi) lessons Learn Gurmukhi Omniglot's guide to Gurmukhi Test for Unicode support in Web browsers Unicode script chart for Gurmukhi (PDF file) Introduction to Gurmukhi The Advanced Centre for Technical Development of Punjabi language, Literature and Culture, Punjabi University, Patiala Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurmukh%C4%AB_script" Categories: Articles containing Indic text | Abugida writing systems | Sikhism

ViewsArticle Discussion Edit this page History Move Watch Personal toolsLbns42@aol.com My talk My preferences My watchlist My contributions Log out Navigation Main Page Community Portal Featured articles Current events Recent changes Random article Help Contact Wikipedia Donations Search Toolbox What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Printable version Permanent link Cite this article In other languages Brezhoneg Deutsch Gurmukhī script From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Gurmukhi script) Jump to: navigation, search This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support, you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More... The Gurmukhī (ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ) script, derived from the Later Sharada script and standardised by Guru Angad Dev in the 16th century, was designed to write the Punjabi language. The whole of the Guru Granth Sahib's 1430 pages are written in this script. The word Gurmukhi is commonly translated as "from the Mouth of the Guru".

Gurmukhi is a form of writing system called an abugida, as each consonant has an inherent vowel (a), that can be changed using vowel signs.

Modern Gurmukhi has forty-one consonants (Vianjans), nine vowel symbols (Laga Matra), two symbols for nasal sounds (Bindi and Tippi) and one symbol which duplicates the sound of any consonant (Addak). In addition, four conjuncts are used: three subjoined forms of the consonants Rara, Haha and Vava, and one half-form of Yayya. Use of the conjunct forms of Vava and Yayya is increasingly scarce in modern contexts.

Gurmukhi has been adapted to write other languages, such as Braj Bhasha, Hindi, Sanskrit and Sindhi.

Contents [hide] 1 Origins 1.1 Gurmukhi etymology 2 Alphabet 3 Vowels 3.1 Vowel Examples 4 Halant 5 Numerals 6 Other Signs 7 Visarg 8 Ek Onkar 9 Gurmukhi in Unicode 10 Bibliography 11 External links seeancient scripts.com To mention the "Iluminated Adi" Granth folio with Nisan ( mool mantar) of the writer Gobind Singh: the Granth see google.com/Gobind Singh/Granth folio with Nisan ALSO hTTP://W3.NPS. Navy post graduate school/DLI Defense Language Institute.edu/ http://w3.en.Wikipedia.org/Hindi Speaking regions/ Dialects of Hindi/brief history of Hindi 7th century emerge as Apabhramsha (possible Abrahamism Bible) 750 BCE:Gradual emergence of post-vedec Sanskrit/to 1198: Sonia Gandhi's Hindia lessons attract attention. inspiration for this thinking is in comparison to modern Capital-Democratic-techno-Advanced social -economic model one who is enlightend or spiritual-scientific should consider ancient meditation that can still help the evolution of modern humanity, think the stimulus of modern interaction is only for those most successfully adapted to use these tools to interact and be confident with well-being where as the modernization is not neccessarily human enough for those who can not adapt fast enough even though the claims are sincerely good forthe coomon good. Those who fall by the way side are distracted and pined down by their interests or web of focus to live everyday lives. they can not look up and out of the matricies of modern social -economic model even though ancient language and inspiratin can from thousands of years ago help them to live in comfort and well being even today and to excell humanity to the strol. beyond even in bridge of science and vision quest for projection and longevity of preservation through science and space terra-trans rellocation

[edit] Origins Like most of the North Indian writing systems, the Gurmukhi script is a descendant of the Brahmi script. The Proto-Gurmukhi letters evolved through the Gupta script, from 4th to 8th century, followed by the Sharada script, from 8th century onwards, and finally adapted their archaic form in the Devasesha stage of the Later Sharada script, dated between the 10th and 14th centuries.

The traditional accounts, such as the references found in the Janamsakhi literature, say that the Gurmukhi script was invented by the second Sikh Guru, Guru Angad Dev. However, it would be correct to say that the script was standardised, rather than invented, by the Sikh Gurus. E.P. Newton (Panjabi Grammar, 1898) writes that at least 21 Gurmukhi characters are found in ancient manuscripts: 6 from 10th century, 12 from 3rd century BC and 3 from 5th century BC. Apparently, the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev also used the Gurmukhi script for his writings.

There are two major theories on how the Proto-Gurmukhi script emerged in the 15th century. G.B. Singh (1950), while quoting Abu Raihan Al-Biruni's Ta'rikh al-Hind (1030 AD), says that the script evolved from Ardhanagari. Al-Biruni writes that the Ardhanagari script was used in Bathinda, including Sindh and western parts of the Punjab in the 10th century. For some time, Bhatinda remained the capital of the kingdom of Bhatti Rajputs of the Pal clan, who ruled North India before the Muslims occupied the country. Because of its connection with the Bhattis, the Ardhanagari script was also called Bhatachhari. According to Al-Biruni, Ardhanagari was a mixture of Nagari, used in Ujjain and Malwa, and Siddha Matrika or the Siddham script, a variant of the Sharada script used in Kashmir.

Pritam Singh (1992) has also traced the origins of Gurmukhi to the Siddha Matrika.

Tarlochan Singh Bedi (1999) writes that the Gurmukhi script developed in the 10-14th centuries from the Devasesha stage of the Sharada script. His argument is that from the 10th century, regional differences started to appear between the Sharada script used in Punjab, the Hill States (partly Himachal Pradesh) and Kashmir. The regional Sharada script evolves from this stage till the 14th century, when it starts to appear in the form of Gurmukhi. Indian epigraphists call this stage Devasesha, while Bedi prefers the name Pritham Gurmukhi or Proto-Gurmukhi.

Gurus adopted the Proto-Gurmukhi script to write the Guru Granth Sahib, the religious scriptures of the Sikhs. Other contemporary scripts used in the Punjab were Takri and the Lande alphabets. Also Takri was a script that developed through the Devasesha stage of the Sharada script, and is found mainly in the Hill States, such as Chamba, where it is called Chambyali and in Jammu, where it is known as Dogri. The local Takri variants got the status of official scripts in some of the Punjab Hill States, and were used for both administrative and literary purposes until the 19th century. After 1948, when Himachal Pradesh was established as an administrative unit, the local Takri variants were replaced by Devanagari.

Meanwhile, the mercantile scripts of Punjab known as the Lande were normally not used for literary purposes. Landa means alphabet "without tail", applying that the script did not have vowel symbols. In Punjab, there were at least ten different scripts classified as Lande, Mahajani being the most popular. The Lande alphabets were used for household and trade purposes. Compared to the Lande, Sikh Gurus favoured the use of Proto-Gurmukhi, because of the difficulties involved in pronouncing words without vowel signs.

The usage of Gurmukhi letters in Guru Granth Sahib meant that the script developed its own orthographical rules. In the following epochs, Gurmukhi became the prime script applied for literary writings of the Sikhs. Later in the 20th century, the script was given the authority as the official script of the Eastern Punjabi language. Meanwhile, in Western Punjab a form of the Urdu script, known as Shahmukhi is still in use.

[edit] Gurmukhi etymology The word Gurmukhi is commonly translated as "from the Mouth of the Guru". However, the term used for the Punjabi script has somewhat different connotations. The opinion given by traditional scholars is that as the Sikh holy writings, before they were scribed, were uttered by the Gurus, they came to be known as Gurmukhi or the "Utterance of the Guru". And consequently, the script that was used for scribing the utterance was also given the same name. However, the prevalent view among Punjabi linguists is that as in the early stages the Gurmukhi letters were primarily used by Gurmukhs, or the Sikhs devoted to the Guru, the script came to be associated with them. Another view is that as the Gurmukhs, in accordance with the Sikh belief, used to meditate on the letters ਵ, ਹ, ਗ, ਰ which jointly form ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ or God in Sikhism, these letters were called Gurmukhi or the "speech of the Gurmukhs". Subsequently, the whole script came to be known as Gurmukhi.

[edit] Alphabet The Gurmukhi alphabet contains thirty-five distinct letters. The first three letters are unique because they form the basis for vowels and are not consonants. Except for Aira, the first three characters are never used on their own. See the section on vowels for further details.

Name Pron. Name Pron. Name Pron. Name Pron. Name Pron. ੳ Ura ਅ Aira  ੲ Iri  ਸ Sussa Sa ਹ Haha Ha ਕ Kakka Ka ਖ Khukha Kha ਗ Gugga Ga ਘ Ghugga Gha ਙ Ungga Nga ਚ Chuchaa Ca ਛ Chhuchha Cha ਜ Jujja Ja ਝ Jhujja Jha ਞ Yanza Nya ਟ Tainka Tta ਠ Thutha Ttha ਡ Dudda Dda ਢ Dhudda Ddha ਣ Nahnha Nna ਤ Tutta Ta ਥ Thutha Tha ਦ Duda Da ਧ Dhuda Dha ਨ Nunna Na ਪ Puppa Pa ਫ Phupha Pha ਬ Bubba Ba ਭ Bhubba Bha ਮ Mumma Ma ਯ Yaiyya Ya ਰ Rara Ra ਲ Lulla La ਵ Vava Va ੜ Rahrha Rra

In addition to these, there are six consonants created by placing a dot (bindi) at the foot (pair) of the consonant:

Name Pron. ਸ਼ Shusha paireen bindi Sha ਖ਼ Khukha paireen bindi Khha ਗ਼ Gugga paireen bindi Ghha ਜ਼ Zuzza paireen bindi Za ਫ਼ Fuffa paireen bindi Fa ਲ਼ Lulla paireen bindi Lla

Lulla paireen bindi was only recently added to the Gurmukhi alphabet. Some sources may not consider it a separate letter.

[edit] Vowels Gurmukhi follows similar concepts to other Brahmi scripts and as such, all consonants are followed by an inherent‘a’sound (unless at the end of a word when the ‘a’ is usually dropped). This inherent vowel sound can be changed by using dependent vowel signs which attach to a bearing consonant. In some cases, dependent vowel signs cannot be used – at the beginning of a word or syllable for instance – and so an independent vowel character is used instead.

Independent vowels are constructed using three bearer characters: Ura (ੳ), Aira (ਅ) and Iri (ੲ). With the exception of Aira (which represents the vowel 'a') they are never used without additional vowel signs.

Vowel Name IPA Ind. Dep. with /k/ Letter Unicode ਅ (none) ਕ Mukta A [ə] ਆ ਾ ਕਾ Kanna AA [ɑ] ਇ ਿ ਕਿ Sihari I [ɪ] ਈ ੀ ਕੀ Bihari II [i] ਉ ੁ ਕੁ Onkar U [ʊ] ਊ ੂ ਕੂ Dulankar UU [u] ਏ ੇ ਕੇ Lavan EE [e] ਐ ੈ ਕੈ Dulavan AI [æ] ਓ ੋ ਕੋ Hora O [o] ਔ ੌ ਕੌ Kanuara AU [ɔ]

Dotted circles represent the bearer consonant. Vowels are always pronounced after the consonant they are attached to. Thus, Sihari is always written to the left, but pronounced after the character on the right.

[edit] Vowel Examples Word Transcription Meaning ਆਲੂ ālū potato ਦਿਲ dil heart [edit] Halant The Halant (੍) character is not used when writing Punjabi in Gurmukhi. However, it may occasionally be used in Sanskritised text or in dictionaries for extra phonetic information. When it is used, it represents the suppression of the inherent vowel.

The affect of this is shown below:

ਕ – Ka ਕ੍ – K [edit] Numerals Gurmukhi has its own set of numerals that behave exactly as Hindu-Arabic numerals do. These are used extensively in older texts. In modern contexts, they are being replaced by standard Latin numerals although they are still in widespread use.

0 - ੦ 1 - ੧ 2 - ੨ 3 - ੩ 4 - ੪ 5 - ੫ 6 - ੬ 7 - ੭ 8 - ੮ 9 - ੯ [edit] Other Signs Bindi (ਂ) and Tippi (ੰ) are used for nasalisation (similar to the ‘n’ sound in words ending in ‘ing’). In general, Onkar (ੁ) and Dulankar (ੂ) take Bindi in their initial forms and Tippi when used after a consonant. All other short vowels take Tippi and all other long vowels take Bindi. Older texts may not follow these conventions.

The use of Addak (ੱ) indicates that the following consonant is geminate. This means that the subsequent consonant is doubled or reinforced.

[edit] Visarg The Visarg symbol (ਃ) is used very occasionally in Gurmukhi. It can either represent an abbreviation (like period is used in English) or it can act like a Sanskrit Visarga where a voiceless ‘h’ sound is pronounced after the vowel.

[edit] Ek Onkar Ek Onkar (ੴ) is a Gurmukhi symbol that is often used in Sikh literature. It literally means ‘one God’.

[edit] Gurmukhi in Unicode The Unicode range for Gurmukhi is U+0A00 to U+0A7F. Using Unicode for Gurmukhi has only recently started to become widespread. Many sites still use proprietary fonts that convert Latin ASCII codes to Gurmukhi glyphs.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F A00  ਁ ਂ ਃ   ਅ ਆ ਇ ਈ ਉ ਊ         ਏ A10 ਐ    ਓ ਔ ਕ ਖ ਗ ਘ ਙ ਚ ਛ ਜ ਝ ਞ ਟ A20 ਠ ਡ ਢ ਣ ਤ ਥ ਦ ਧ ਨ  ਪ ਫ ਬ ਭ ਮ ਯ A30 ਰ  ਲ ਲ਼   ਵ ਸ਼   ਸ ਹ     ਼   ਾ ਿ A40 ੀ ੁ ੂ        ੇ ੈ     ੋ ੌ ੍ A50                  ਖ਼ ਗ਼ ਜ਼ ੜ   ਫ਼ A60            ੦ ੧ ੨ ੩ ੪ ੫ ੬ ੭ ੮ ੯ A70 ੰ ੱ ੲ ੳ ੴ [edit] Bibliography Following books/articles have been written on the origins of the Gurmukhi script (all in the Punjabi language):

Gurbaksh (G.B.) Singh. Gurmukhi Lipi da Janam te Vikas. Chandigarh: Punjab University, 1950.

Ishar Singh Tãgh, Dr. Gurmukhi Lipi da Vigyamulak Adhiyan. Patiala: Jodh Singh Karamjit Singh.

Kala Singh Bedi, Dr. Lipi da Vikas. Patiala: Punjabi University, 1995.

Kartar Singh Dakha. Gurmukhi te Hindi da Takra. 1948.

Piara Singh Padam, Prof. Gurmukhi Lipi da Itihas. Patiala: Kalgidhar Kalam Foundation Kalam Mandir, 1953.

Prem Parkash Singh, Dr. "Gurmukhi di Utpati." Khoj Patrika, Patiala: Punjabi University.

Pritam Singh, Prof. "Gurmukhi Lipi." Khoj Patrika. p.110, vol.36, 1992. Patiala: Punjabi University.

Sohan Singh Galautra. Punjab dian Lipiã.

Tarlochan Singh Bedi, Dr. Gurmukhi Lipi da Janam te Vikas. Patiala: Punjabi University, 1999.

[edit] External links Punjabi Computing Resource Centre Saab - A free Unicode 4.0 OpenType Gurmukhi font Gurmukhi pseudo text generator Unicode Punjabi (Gurmukhi/Shahmukhi) WebBased OnScreen Keyboard<-- Free online Punjabi (Gurmukhi) lessons Learn Gurmukhi Omniglot's guide to Gurmukhi Test for Unicode support in Web browsers Unicode script chart for Gurmukhi (PDF file) Introduction to Gurmukhi The Advanced Centre for Technical Development of Punjabi language, Literature and Culture, Punjabi University, Patiala Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurmukh%C4%AB_script" Categories: Articles containing Indic text | Abugida writing systems | Sikhism

ViewsArticle Discussion Edit this page History Move Watch Personal toolsLbns42@aol.com My talk My preferences My watchlist My contributions Log out Navigation Main Page Community Portal Featured articles Current events Recent changes Random article Help Contact Wikipedia Donations Search Toolbox What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Printable version Permanent link Cite this article In other languages Brezhoneg Deutsch **** this is your ascention point of origin in NPS.Navy.mil.eduThis was added to Blog Wikipedia notes fromÑ This is SitKara Len Young "LenYogiaswami" recognized as Pundit (enlightened one from the Hindu  (theologian, Priest or wisdom seeking enlightened one) a Spiritual Epiphany (please see meaning epiphany google.com)) by gifted  Punjabi Hindu Papoo Royal saved orphan by "The Death Angles of Mother Teresa"in New Deli   from Guru student of Mumbai, Bombay India, born Structural Engineer Pundit, Guru David Nagar a "Student  Pundit" of historical Guru Master """Äuro""""  "Aurobindo"of Auroville India and the Diva ( Dieva in Hindi "Mother"his goddess companion in Nomestae  (grown in the spirit they are spirits for the divine inspiration for all divine students and reincarnation) From the German language researching the Doit People .Take the search from  Navy DLI Defense Language Institute website http:// w3:NPS.Navy.mil.edu/ see Punjabi/Arabic/Farsi/Chinese/German, in Monterey, California of USA see this Universities Link. See the link to Persian-Arabic =Hindi legally Urdu, one can believe in transition to have meant (du as doit) like Hindu(hin* du) in origin. Then go to Aryan languages origin and Genesis and sources or Etymology and archeological motivation as a look at this factual and researched information. Do so looking for enlightened sources to common intellectualism and convergence of religious spiritual teachers even Jesus studying with a student Guru of Buddha for 19 years and historically referred to Isaiah in Turkey during his time and the "Teacher profit Guru" mentioned in Saudi Arabian Islam even after his death during his own lifetime as possible sightings for reincarnation which he would have learned from the spiritual evolution and teachings from Buddhism coming from Greek and Jewish religious instruction with Divine inspiration from the God head concept of predestination. After learning about the Aryans the Indus region with considerable emphasis to the Punjabi Gurumukhi (from the Guru religious script and words) search that leads to Arabic transplant language sources that even end up to migration of language through the Muslim religion to the African Continent and Saudi Arabia.

Inspiration for this thinking is in comparison to modern Capital-Democratic-techno-Advanced social-economic model one who is enlightened or spiritual-scientific should consider ancient meditation that can still help the evolution of modern humanity, think the stimulus of modern interaction is only for those most successfully adapted to use these tools to interact and be confident with well-being where as the modernization is not necessarily human enough for those who can not adapt fast enough even though the claims are sincerely good for the common good. Those who fall by the way side are distracted and pined down by their interests or web of focus to live everyday lives. they can not look up and out of the matrices of modern social -economic model even though ancient language and inspiration can from thousands of years ago help them to live in comfort and well being even today and to excel humanity to the Astrol.-Greatbeyond even in bridge of science and vision quest for projection and longevity of preservation through science and Space Terra-Trans Relocation. definition of sanity during the times of madness one should know that insanity is when one continues to do something that effects them negatively and not realizing that repeating the same activity does not change the out come or tries to force it into fantasy, artificial or want a different outcome.

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Phonetics Sounds

As you know, the English alphabet is far from being a regular and consistent system of representing all the sounds in English. For instance, think of the letter group ough. How many different way can it sound like:

Word Rhymes with.. (in Standard American Dialect) through true though go cough off thought not tough stuff

And as you can see, "ough" can produce a myriad of sounds seemingly randomly. In addition, these endings may rhyme different in other dialects of English as well. Therefore linguists cannot rely on such whimsical system to scientifically represent sounds in a language. The solution was the creation of symbols explicitly designed to represent all sounds that humans can produce. We call such systems "Phonetic Alphabets".

Unfortunately concensus is the last thing linguists have between them and consequently several systems exist. The most famous one is the International Phonetic Alphabet or IPA, but the American Phonetic Alphabet is also quite widespread. I have chosen to adhere to the American system in this page because that's what I've been taught in. If you are familiar with the IPA there shouldn't really be any problems once you understand corresponding equivalent symbols in the two systems.

The following are some of the signs of the American phonetic system. When used for transcription, sounds are put inside square brackets, ie [ ]. Related and similar sounds in a language often occur in complementary distribution, that is, each of these sounds appear only in unique situations. For example, in English, the "t" in "top" sounds different from that in "stop". However, the "t"-sound in "stop" (which is less powerful the "t" in the beginning of a word) only occurs after a "s" sound, while the "t" in "top" occurs everywhere else, and therefore these two sounds are in complementary distribution. We call this set of sounds a phoneme, and write it between two slashes, ie / /.

Formally, /t/ becomes [t] after [s], and becomes [th] everywhere else. The superscript h means that the consonant before it is produced with a little more air.

Consonants:

Some important points:

V+ denoted "voiced", and V- is "voiceless". Voiceless and voiced simply mean that whether the vocal cords vibrate while making a sound. If you put your hand on your throat and alternate between saying "cod" and "god", you'll notice that "god" makes your vocal cord (or larynx) vibrates more. This is called voiced. [p], [t], and [k] are unaspirated. For people who know Spanish well, they correspond to the sounds in 'pelo', 'té', and 'cosa'. Such sounds do not occur alone in English, but mostly after the consonant [s], such as in 'space'. Compare 'space' and 'pace', and you'll notice how the /p/ in 'pace' is stronger. As just mentioned, the sounds /p/, /t/, and /k/ in English occuring at the beginning of the word is aspirated, meaning that more air is pushed out. In Linguistics they are transcribed as [ph], [th], and [kh]. You may think that is impossible to have aspirated /b/, /t/, and /g/, but Proto-Indo-European and Indic languages have them (like in the name of the great Indian epic Mahabharata). The columns on the chart refer to points of articulation, that is, places in your mouth where sounds are produced. Bilabial means both of your lips come together, and the sound comes out there (you can feel the vibration between your lips if you try). Labio-dental between your upper lip touches your lower teeth. Inter-dental sounds are relatively rare in the world, and what you do is put your tongue between your two rows of teeth. Apico-alveolar means putting the tip of your blade right behind your upper row of teeth. Apico-palatal sounds are also called Retroflex. They are pronounced like the Apico-aveolar except with your tongue curled back a little. The most common example for an American English speaker is the 'r' in "road". Retroflex /d/ and /t/ occur in Indian languages (both Indo-European and Dravidian). Lamino-palatals are very much like apico-palatals but instead having the tip of your tongue as the highest point the blade, the part behind the tip, almost touches the roof of your mouth. Dorso-velar, or just velar, sounds are produced between the back of your tongue and the back of your palate. Its cousin, Uvular makes your uvula vibrates, like Parisian French /r/. Glottal simply means your larynx. The categories that form the bold rows refer to the type of articulation. Stops are sounds that are maintained for a very short amount of time. You can't stretch no matter how hard you try. On the other hand, Fricatives can persists for forever. Compare between /t/ and /s/. Sometimes you can merge stops and fricatives to get Affricates, which starts as a stop and turns into a fricative. The /ch/ in English "church" is just an example of an affricate. It starts as a /t/, and turns into a /sh/ sound. Nasals are, well, nasal. They make your sinus vibrates. I have no idea why Liquids are called liquids. The voiced apico-palatal liquid /r/ occurs in American English "red" and the voiced apico-alveolar liquid /l/ is like in English "lock", not "table". The flap is the Spanish short /r/, ie in "toro". Also occurs in Italian, Japanese, and American English in the form of the /dd/ in "ladder" or /tt/ in "butter" said rapidly. Semi-vowels are really vowels that appear as the less-powerful part of a diphthong. In other words, they are non-syllabic vowels. Vowels:

Even though they look like English, don't be tempted to pronounce the symbols as if they were English letters. For instance, the symbol [i] really sounds like the 'ee' in "reed". The symbol [e] doesn't sound like the 'e' in 'be', but more like French 'être'.

When you say a vowel, you unconsciously change your tongue and lip into an unique configuration characterized by three attributes:

Unrounded vs rounded. This feature applies to your lip. If you say [u] as like "room", you'll notice that your lips forming a circle and you look like you're about to kiss someone. On the other hand, if you say [i] as in "feet" your lips are straight. That's why before you take a picture in America you will tell the people you're about to capture on film to say "cheese", because [i] makes the lips look like smiling. High to low. You probably never noticed this, but when you say a vowel part of your tongue will raise toward the roof of your mouth while other parts will stay near the bottom. The height of your tongue's peak determines the vowel you say. The sound [i] like in "feet" forces your tongue higher up than, say, the sound [a] as in "father". Front, central, and back. This same peak that I just described above can also change in position in your mouth. When the peak is closest to your teeth, it is in front. Toward the throat is back. Between the two is, obviously, central. With [i], the peak of the tongue is a little bit behind your teeth, while with [u] the peak of the tongue is at the back of your mouth, near where the hard palate changes to the soft palate. If you can't picture it, try feeling around with your finger. Vowels can be long or short. A long vowel is denoted by a colon after the vowel. The best example in English of long vs short can be found in cases like "sad" (long) and "sat" (short). Notice how the 'a' (phonetically [æ]) sounds longer in "sad" than in "sat". So, "sad" is transcribed as [sæ:d] while "sat" is [sæt]. Tones

In many languages of the world, tone plays an important role in distinguishing one morpheme from another.

Notice that tone isn't the same as stress or intonation. All of these involve changes in the pitch of the voice. Stress, sometimes also known as accent, is the rise and fall of the pitch throughout the syllables of a word. In English, there is usally a highest stress in a word, like "kéyboard" or "exáct", but also in some cases two stresses, one higher than the other, occur, like "singularity". Intonation is the rise and fall of the pitch throughout the words of a sentence. Notice how the statement "You are sick" sounds different from the question "You are sick?" In the statement, the words have more or less even pitches with respect to each other. On the other hand, the question's pitch peaks at the adjective "sick". Both contrasts with an interjection like "You are sick!", which places highest pitches on "You" and "sick".

Tone is somewhat like stress in that it also is the rise and fall of the pitch throughout a word. However, tone is used to distinguish words that have the same sounds which may have unrelated meanings, while stress is not. (Actually, in a few cases, stress does serve to distinguish different meanings or version of the same word, but never consistently as tone.)

Furthermore, the beginning pitch and the ending pitch of a tone is central to distinguishing words. Slightly different beginning or ending pitch means different words. On the other hand, the highest point in a stress can be any degree of pitch above the unstressed syllables. The difference doesn't matter as long as the stress rises above the other syllables.

There are several ways of representing tones in Romanization. Pinyin (for transcribing Mandarin) and Vietnamese uses diacritics. Some phonetic transcriptions use single digit numbers. So 1 in Cantonese is the high falling tone, 2 is the low falling tone, and so on. Neither system directly indicates the tone.

There are two other systems that do directly illustrate the tonal change. One uses a vertical bar to denote a scale, and horizontal or diagonal lines to represent the change in pitch.

The best system that I have seen is a two digit number, ranging from 1 to 5. The first (leftmost) digit is the starting pitch, and the second (rightmost) digit is the ending pitch. Together, it tells you which pitch to start and which to end.

Since I am a native speaker of Cantonese, I'll use its tonal system for demonstration. In traditional Cantonese, there are 9 basic tones, but in my dialect (Hong Kong) the high rising and low rising tones have become indistinguishable. Also, the high falling tone has become very similar to the high-level tone (which doesn't technically exist in Cantonese but can be found in Mandarin). I will try to reproduce all the distinguishing details in these tones, but don't take my pronunciation as canonical. The rest are relatively close to reality.

Description Example Sounds High falling [ma53] "mother" AU | WAV Low falling [ma31] "sesame; hemp" AU | WAV High rising [ma35] ??? AU | WAV Low rising [ma13] "horse" AU | WAV Mid level [ma33] "question marker" AU | WAV Low level [ma11] "to scold" AU | WAV High short [pok55] "to hit" (quite onomatopeic) AU | WAV Mid short [pok44] "to struggle (restlessly)" AU | WAV Low short [pok22] "thin" AU | WAV

Copyright © 1996-2005, Lawrence Lo. All Rights Reserved Origins of Writing Systems Mythological Origins

Among many ancient societies, writing held a extremely special and important role. Often writing is so revered that myths and deities were drawn up to explain its divine origin.

In ancient Egypt, for example, the invention of writing is attributed to the god Thoth (Dhwty in Egyptian)My addition hypothesis Prime I :possible they were aware of an older system as a concubine culture that was once in the Indus region known as also Doit  much like Dhwty, who was not only the scribe and historian of the gods but also kept the calendar and invented art and science. In some Egyptian myths, Thoth is also portrayed as the creator of speech and possessing the power to transform speech into material objects. This ties in closely with the Egyptian belief that in order for a person to achieve immortality his or her name must be spoken or inscribed somewhere forever.

In Mesopotamia, among the Sumerians the god Enlil was the creator of writing. Later during Assyrian, and Babylonian periods, the god Nabu was credited as the inventor of writing and scribe of the gods. And similar to Thoth, Mesopotamian scribal gods also exhibit the power of creation via divine speech.

Among the Maya, the supreme deity Itzamna was a shaman and sorceror as well as the creator of the world. (In fact, the root of his name, "itz", can be roughly translated as "magical substance, usually secreted by some object, that sustains the gods"). Itzamna was also responsible for the creation of writing and time-keeping. Strangely enough, though, Itzamna isn't a scribal god. This duty falls on usually a pair of monkey gods as depicted on many Maya pots and is also preserved in the highland Maya epic "Popol Vuh". Still, in one rare case, the scribe is a rabbit.