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43-562: Europe North America Oceania The Vār or Vaar ( Gurmukhi : ਵਾਰ , Shahmukhi : وار‎‎ ), in Punjabi poetry , is a heroic ode or ballad which generally narrates legend such as stories of Punjabi folk heroes or a historical event. Examples include the feats of Dulla Bhatti and Raja Rasalu , Amir Khusrau's Vaar for Ghazi Malik who took the throne of Delhi in 1320, the Vaar of Shaikh Khokhar , and Najabat's Nadar Shah Di Var which describes

86-554: A disciple or a student. Thus, Sikhs have a student–teacher relationship with their Gurus since their teachings, written in Guru Granth Sahib , serve as a guide for the Sikhs. According to Sikh beliefs, all the Gurus contained the same light or soul and their physical body was a vessel for containing the same essence. When one Guru passed, the successor inherited this light and that is why

129-434: A long vowel (/a:/, /e:/, /i:/, /o:/, /u:/, /ɛ:/, /ɔː/, which triggers shortening in these vowels) in the penult of a word, e.g. ਔਖਾ aukkhā "difficult", ਕੀਤੀ kī̆ttī "did", ਪੋਤਾ pō̆ttā "grandson", ਪੰਜਾਬੀ panjā̆bbī "Punjabi", ਹਾਕ hākă "call, shout", but plural ਹਾਕਾਂ hā̆kkā̃ . Except in this case, where this unmarked gemination is often etymologically rooted in archaic forms, and has become phonotactically regular,

172-542: A subscript ਵ would produce ਸ੍ਵ ( sʋə- ) as in the Sanskrit word ਸ੍ਵਰਗ (/ sʋə ɾᵊgə/, "heaven"), but followed by a regular ਵ would yield ਸਵ - ( səʋ- ) as in the common word ਸਵਰਗ (/ səʋ əɾᵊgə̆/, "heaven"), borrowed earlier from Sanskrit but subsequently changed. The natural Punjabi reflex, ਸੁਰਗ /sʊɾᵊgə̆/, is also used in everyday speech. For example, the regular ਹ is used after vowels as in ਮੀਂਹ (transcribed as mĩh ( IPA: [míː] ), "rain"). The subjoined ਹ ( ha ) acts

215-492: Is also a conjunct form of the letter yayyā , ਯ→੍ਯ , a later form, which functions similarly to the yakaśă , and is used exclusively for Sanskrit borrowings, and even then rarely. In addition, miniaturized versions of the letters ਚ, ਟ, ਤ, and ਨ are also found in limited use as subscript letters in Sikh scripture. Only the subjoined /ɾə/ and /hə/ are commonly used; usage of the subjoined /ʋə/ and conjoined forms of /jə/, already rare,

258-470: Is derived from Sharada in the Northwestern group, of which it is the only major surviving member, with full modern currency. Notable features include: Gurmukhi evolved in cultural and historical circumstances notably different from other regional scripts, for the purpose of recording scriptures of Sikhism , a far less Sanskritized cultural tradition than others of the subcontinent. This independence from

301-952: Is generally believed to have roots in the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet by way of the Brahmi script , which developed further into the Northwestern group ( Sharada , or Śāradā, and its descendants, including Landa and Takri ), the Central group ( Nagari and its descendants, including Devanagari , Gujarati and Modi ) and the Eastern group (evolved from Siddhaṃ , including Bangla , Tibetan , and some Nepali scripts), as well as several prominent writing systems of Southeast Asia and Sinhala in Sri Lanka, in addition to scripts used historically in Central Asia for extinct languages like Saka and Tocharian . Gurmukhi

344-446: Is increasingly scarce in modern contexts. To express vowels (singular, sură ), Gurmukhī, as an abugida , makes use of obligatory diacritics called lagā̃ . Gurmukhī is similar to Brahmi scripts in that all consonants are followed by an inherent schwa sound. 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

387-501: Is not always obligatory: The letter ਸ਼, already in use by the time of the earliest Punjabi grammars produced, along with ਜ਼ and ਲ਼, enabled the previously unmarked distinction of /s/ and the well-established phoneme /ʃ/, which is used even in native echo doublets e.g. rō̆ṭṭī-śō̆ṭṭī "stuff to eat"; the loansounds f , z , x , and ġ as distinct phonemes are less well-established, decreasing in that order and often dependent on exposure to Hindi-Urdu norms. The character ਲ਼ ( ḷa ),

430-588: Is not used when writing Punjabi in Gurmukhī. 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 effect of this is shown below: The ḍaṇḍī (।) is used in Gurmukhi to mark the end of a sentence. A doubled ḍaṇḍī , or doḍaṇḍī (॥) marks the end of a verse. The visarga symbol (ਃ U+0A03)

473-546: Is used in all spheres of culture, arts, education, and administration, with a firmly established common and secular character. It is one of the official scripts of the Indian Republic , and is currently the 14th most used script in the world. The prevalent view among Punjabi linguists is that as in the early stages the Gurmukhī letters were primarily used by the Guru's followers, gurmukhs (literally, those who face, or follow,

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516-629: Is used very occasionally in Gurmukhī. It can represent an abbreviation, as the period is used in English, though the period for abbreviation, like commas, exclamation points, and other Western punctuation, is freely used in modern Gurmukhī. Gurmukhī has its own set of digits, which function exactly as in other versions of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system . These are used extensively in older texts. In modern contexts, they are sometimes replaced by standard Western Arabic numerals . *In some Punjabi dialects,

559-530: The Kashmiri language . With the last known inscription dating to 1204 C.E., the early 13th century marks a milestone in the development of Sharada. The regional variety in Punjab continued to evolve from this stage through the 14th century; during this period it starts to appear in forms closely resembling Gurmukhī and other Landa scripts . By the 15th century, Sharada had evolved so considerably that epigraphists denote

602-616: The mukhă (face, or mouth) of the Gurus. Consequently, the script that was used to write the resulting scripture may have also been designated with the same name. The name for the Perso–Arabic alphabet for the Punjabi language, Shahmukhi , was modeled on the term Gurmukhi . The Gurmukhī alphabet contains thirty-five base letters ( akkhară ), traditionally arranged in seven rows of five letters each. The first three letters, or mātarā vāhakă ("vowel bearer"), are distinct because they form

645-419: The 35 original letters, there are six supplementary consonants in official usage, referred to as the navīnă ṭollī or navīnă vargă , meaning "new group", created by placing a dot ( bindī ) at the foot ( pairă ) of the consonant to create pairĭ bindī consonants. These are not present in the Guru Granth Sahib or old texts. These are used most often for loanwords, though not exclusively, and their usage

688-466: The Gurmukhi script known as ਲੜੀਵਾਰ laṛīvāră , where there were no spacing between words in the texts ( interpuncts in the form of a dot were used by some to differentiate between words, such as by Guru Arjan ). This is opposed to the comparatively more recent method of writing in Gurmukhi known as padă chēdă , which breaks the words by inserting spacing between them. Sikh gurus The Sikh gurus ( Punjabi : ਸਿੱਖ ਗੁਰੂ; Hindi : सिख गुरु) are

731-460: The Guru, as opposed to a manmukh ); the script thus came to be known as gurmukhī , "the script of those guided by the Guru." Guru Angad is credited in the Sikh tradition with the creation and standardization of Gurmukhi script from earlier Śāradā -descended scripts native to the region. It is now the standard writing script for the Punjabi language in India. The original Sikh scriptures and most of

774-683: The Punjabi language is its tone system. The script has no separate symbol for tones, but they correspond to the tonal consonants that once represented voiced aspirates as well as older * h . To differentiate between consonants, the Punjabi tonal consonants of the fourth column, ਘ kà , ਝ cà , ਢ ṭà , ਧ tà , and ਭ pà , are often transliterated in the way of the voiced aspirate consonants gha , jha , ḍha , dha , and bha respectively, although Punjabi lacks these sounds. Tones in Punjabi can be either rising, neutral, or falling: The letters now always represent unaspirated consonants, and are unvoiced in onset positions and voiced elsewhere. In addition to

817-410: The Punjabi language, it served as the main medium of literacy in Punjab and adjoining areas for centuries when the earliest schools were attached to gurdwaras . The first natively produced grammars of the Punjabi language were written in the 1860s in Gurmukhi. The Singh Sabha Movement of the late 19th century, a movement to revitalize Sikh institutions which had declined during colonial rule after

860-636: The Sanskritic model allowed it the freedom to evolve unique orthographical features. These include: and other features. From the 10th century onwards, regional differences started to appear between the Sharada script used in Punjab, the Hill States (partly Himachal Pradesh ) and Kashmir . Sharada proper was eventually restricted to very limited ceremonial use in Kashmir, as it grew increasingly unsuitable for writing

903-711: The Sikhs. The Takri alphabet developed through the Dēvāśēṣa stage of the Sharada script from the 14th-18th centuries and is found mainly in the Hill States such as Chamba, Himachal Pradesh and surrounding areas, where it is called Chambeali . In Jammu Division , it developed into Dogri, which was a "highly imperfect" script later consciously influenced in part by Gurmukhi during the late 19th century, possibly to provide it an air of authority by having it resemble scripts already established in official and literary capacities, though not displacing Takri. The local Takri variants got

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946-403: The basis for independent vowels and are not consonants, or vianjană , like the remaining letters are, and except for the second letter aiṛā are never used on their own; see § Vowel diacritics for further details. The pair of fricatives, or mūlă vargă ("base class"), share the row, which is followed by the next five sets of consonants, with the consonants in each row being homorganic ,

989-422: The beginning of a word or syllable for instance – and so an independent vowel character is used instead. Independent vowels are constructed using the three vowel-bearing characters: ੳ ūṛā , ਅ aiṛā , and ੲ īṛī . With the exception of aiṛā (which in isolation represents the vowel [ ə ] ), the bearer vowels are never used without additional vowel diacritics. Vowels are always pronounced after

1032-619: The consonant they are attached to. Thus, siā̀rī is always written to the left, but pronounced after the character on the right. When constructing the independent vowel for [ oː ] , ūṛā takes an irregular form instead of using the usual hōṛā . Gurmukhi orthography prefers vowel sequences over the use of semivowels ("y" or "w") intervocally and in syllable nuclei , as in the words ਦਿਸਾਇਆ disāiā "caused to be visible" rather than disāyā , ਦਿਆਰ diāră "cedar" rather than dyāră , and ਸੁਆਦ suādă "taste" rather than swādă , permitting vowels in hiatus . In terms of tone orthography,

1075-583: The fall of the Sikh Empire, also advocated for the usage of the Gurmukhi script for mass media , with print media publications and Punjabi-language newspapers established in the 1880s. Later in the 20th century, after the struggle of the Punjabi Suba movement , from the founding of modern India in the 1940s to the 1960s, the script was given the authority as the official state script of the Punjab, India , where it

1118-616: The followers of the Sikh faith. The guruship was also passed onto the Guru Panth , consisting of the Khalsa, however this means of guruship went into decline following to rise of Maharaja Ranjit Singh . Guru ( / ˈ ɡ uː r uː / , UK also / ˈ ɡ ʊr uː , ˈ ɡ ʊər -/ ; Sanskrit : गुरु , Punjabi : ਗੁਰੂ, IAST : guru ) is a Sanskrit term for a " teacher , guide , expert , or master" of certain knowledge or field. Bhai Vir Singh , in his dictionary of Guru Granth Sahib describes

1161-409: The following consonant is geminated , and is placed above the consonant preceding the geminated one. Consonant length is distinctive in the Punjabi language and the use of this diacritic can change the meaning of a word, as below: It has not been standardized to be written in all instances of gemination; there is a strong tendency, especially in rural dialects, to also geminate consonants following

1204-479: The following epochs, Gurmukhī became the primary script for the literary writings of the Sikhs. Playing a significant role in Sikh faith and tradition, it expanded from its original use for Sikh scriptures and developed its own orthographical rules, spreading widely under the Sikh Empire and used by Sikh kings and chiefs of Punjab for administrative purposes. Also playing a major role in consolidating and standardizing

1247-519: The historic Sikh literature have been written in the Gurmukhi script. Although the word Gurmukhī has been commonly translated as "from the Mouth of the Guru", the term used for the Punjabi script has somewhat different connotations. This usage of the term may have gained currency from the use of the script to record the utterances of the Sikh Gurus as scripture, which were often referred to as Gurmukhī, or from

1290-911: The invasion of India by Nadir Shah in 1739. The Var has also been used to evoke the mood of devotion or sacrifice, as in Guru Gobind Singh 's Chandi di Var , or to narrate the mystical experience of a Pir , Bhagat or Guru . Gurmukhi The primary scripture of Sikhism , the Guru Granth Sahib , is written in Gurmukhī, in various dialects and languages often subsumed under the generic title Sant Bhasha or "saint language", in addition to other languages like Persian and various phases of Indo-Aryan languages. Modern Gurmukhī has thirty-five original letters, hence its common alternative term paintī or "the thirty-five", plus six additional consonants , nine vowel diacritics , two diacritics for nasal sounds, one diacritic that geminates consonants and three subscript characters. The Gurmukhī script

1333-580: The more recent [ਕ਼] / qə /, are also on rare occasion used unofficially, chiefly for transliterating old writings in Persian and Urdu , the knowledge of which is less relevant in modern times. Three "subscript" letters, called duttă akkhară ("joint letters") or pairī̃ akkhară ("letters at the feet") are utilised in modern Gurmukhī: forms of ਹ ha , ਰ ra , and ਵ va . The subscript ਰ ra and ਵ va are used to make consonant clusters and behave similarly; subjoined ਹ ha introduces tone. For example, ਸ with

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1376-589: The only character not representing a fricative consonant, was only recently officially added to the Gurmukhī alphabet. It was not a part of the traditional orthography, as the distinctive phonological difference between /lə/ and /ɭə/, while both native sounds, was not reflected in the script, and its inclusion is still not currently universal. Previous usage of another glyph to represent this sound, [ਲ੍ਰ], has also been attested. The letters ਲ਼ ḷa , like ਙ ṅ , ਙ ṅ , ਣ ṇ , and ੜ ṛ , do not occur word-initially, except in some cases their names. Other characters, like

1419-806: The rows arranged from the back (velars) to the front (labials) of the mouth, and the letters in the grid arranged by place and manner of articulation . The arrangement, or varṇămāllā , is completed with the antimă ṭollī , literally "ending group." The names of most of the consonants are based on their reduplicative phonetic values, and the varṇămāllā is as follows: The nasal letters ਙ ṅaṅṅā and ਞ ñaññā have become marginal as independent consonants in modern Gurmukhi. The sounds they represent occur most often as allophones of [ n ] in clusters with velars and palatals respectively. The pronunciation of ਵ can vary allophonically between [ [ ʋ ] ~ [ β ] ] preceding front vowels , and [ [ w ] ] elsewhere. The most characteristic feature of

1462-462: The same way but instead is used under consonants: ਚ ( ca ) followed by ੜ ( ṛa ) yields ਚੜ ( caṛă ), but not until the rising tone is introduced via a subscript ਹ ( ha ) does it properly spell the word ਚੜ੍ਹ ( cáṛĭ , "climb"). This character's function is similar to that of the udātă character (ੑ U+0A51), which occurs in older texts and indicates a rising tone. In addition to the three standard subscript letters, another subscript character representing

1505-479: The script at this point by a special name, Dēvāśēṣa . Tarlochan Singh Bedi (1999) prefers the name prithamă gurmukhī , or Proto-Gurmukhī. It was through its recording in Gurmukhi that knowledge of the pronunciation and grammar of the Old Punjabi language (c. 10th–16th century) was preserved for modern philologists. The Sikh gurus adopted Proto-Gurmukhī to write the Guru Granth Sahib , the religious scriptures of

1548-412: The script did not have vowel symbols. In Punjab, there were at least ten different scripts classified as Laṇḍā, Mahajani being the most popular. The Laṇḍā scripts were used for household and trade purposes. In contrast to Laṇḍā, the use of vowel diacritics was made obligatory in Gurmukhī for increased accuracy and precision, due to the difficulties involved in deciphering words without vowel signs. In

1591-635: The short vowels [ɪ] and [ʊ], when paired with [h] to yield /ɪh/ and /ʊh/, represent [é] and [ó] with high tones respectively, e.g. ਕਿਹੜਾ kihṛā ( IPA: [kéːɽaː] ) 'which?' ਦੁਹਰਾ duhrā ( IPA: [d̪óːɾaː] ) "repeat, reiterate, double." The compounding of [əɦ] with [ɪ] or [ʊ] yield [ɛ́ː] and [ɔ́ː] respectively, e.g. ਮਹਿੰਗਾ mahingā ( IPA: [mɛ́ːŋgaː] ) "expensive", ਵਹੁਟੀ vahuṭṭī ( IPA: [wɔ́ʈːiː] ) "bride." The diacritics for gemination and nasalization are together referred to as ਲਗਾਖਰ lagākkhară ("applied letters"). The diacritic ਅੱਧਕ áddakă ( ੱ ) indicates that

1634-465: The spiritual masters of Sikhism , who established the religion over the course of about two and a half centuries, beginning in 1469. The year 1469 marks the birth of Guru Nanak , the founder of Sikhism. He was succeeded by nine other human gurus until, in 1708, the Guruship was finally passed on by the tenth guru to the holy Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib , which is now considered the living Guru by

1677-564: 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 Laṇḍā scripts were normally not used for literary purposes. Laṇḍā means alphabet "without tail", implying that

1720-419: The subjoined /j/, the yakaśă or pairī̃ yayyā ( ੵ U+0A75), is utilized specifically in archaized sahaskritī -style writings in Sikh scripture, where it is found 268 times for word forms and inflections from older phases of Indo-Aryan, as in the examples ਰਖੵਾ /ɾəkʰːjaː/ "(to be) protected", ਮਿਥੵੰਤ /mɪt̪ʰjən̪t̪ə/ "deceiving", ਸੰਸਾਰਸੵ /sənsaːɾəsjə/ "of the world", ਭਿਖੵਾ /pɪ̀kʰːjaː/ "(act of) begging", etc. There

1763-494: The term Guru as a combination of two separate units: "Gu;(ਗੁ)" meaning darkness and "Rū;(ਰੂ)" which means light. Hence, Guru is who brings light into darkness or in other words, the one who enlightens. Bhai Vir Singh 's definition provides further insight about Sikhi itself and explains why Guru Granth Sahib is considered the living Guru. The word Sikh is derived from the Sanskrit term shishya ( Punjabi : ਸਿੱਖ) which means

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1806-573: The usage of the áddakă is obligatory. It is also sometimes used to indicate second-syllable stress, e.g. ਬਚਾੱ ba'cā , "save". The diacritics ਟਿੱਪੀ ṭippī ( ੰ ) and ਬਿੰਦੀ bindī ( ਂ ) are used for producing a nasal phoneme depending on the following obstruent or a nasal vowel at the end of a word. All short vowels are nasalized using ṭippī and all long vowels are nasalized using bindī except for dulaiṅkaṛă ( ੂ ), which uses ṭippī instead. Older texts may follow other conventions. The ਹਲੰਤ halantă , or ਹਲੰਦ halandă , ( ੍ U+0A4D) character

1849-419: The word for three is ਤ੍ਰੈ trai ( IPA: [t̪ɾɛː] ). The scriptural symbol for the Sikh term ਇੱਕੁ ਓਅੰਕਾਰੁ [[[Ik Ōaṅkār|ikku о̄aṅkāru]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) ( ੴ U+0A74) is formed from ੧ ("1") and ਓ ("о̄"). Before the 1970s, Gurbani and other Sikh scriptures were written in the traditional scriptio continua method of writing

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