Shahmukhi alphabet
Shahmukhi is a modified Perso-Arabic alphabet used by Punjabi Muslims to write the Punjabi language. It is generally written in the Nastaʿlīq calligraphic hand, which is also used for Urdu. Perso-Arabic is one of two scripts used for Punjabi, the other being Gurmukhi, used in Punjab, India.
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 Azad Kashmir and Jammu and Kashmir.
The Shahmukhi alphabet was first used by the Sufi poets of the Punjab; it 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 or the Devanagari scripts to record the Punjabi language.
Alphabet
Vowel Diacritics
Though not normally written and only implied, like Urdu, Shahmukhi also has diacritics, taken from the Arabic language, to express short vowels.| Symbol | Name | Usage | IPA | Notes |
| Khari Zabar | a | Used in certain loanwords such as ‘’ | ||
| Zabar | a | |||
| Zabar Tanwīn | -an | Used for certain loanwords such as ‘’ | ||
| ◌ٓ | Maddah | ā | Used only for Alif Maddah, usually written | |
| Zer | i | Written underneath a letter | ||
| Zer Tanwīn | in | Used for certain loanwords, written underneath a letter | ||
| Pesh | u | |||
| Hamza | - | Used on vowels to indicate a diphthong between two vowels, examples such as: ‘’, ‘’, ‘‘, and usually written | ||
| Tashdīd | Geminite | Doubles a consonant, goes above the letter being doubled - = kk |
Consonants
No Punjabi words begin with,, or.The digraphs of aspirated consonants are as follows.
| No. | Digraph | Transcription | IPA | Example |
| 1 | bh | |||
| 2 | ph | |||
| 3 | th | |||
| 4 | ṭh | |||
| 5 | jh | |||
| 6 | ch | |||
| 7 | dh | |||
| 8 | ḍh | |||
| 9 | rh | No example? | ||
| 10 | ṛh | |||
| 11 | kh | |||
| 12 | gh | |||
| 13 | lh | No example? | ||
| 14 | mh | No example? | ||
| 15 | nh | |||
| 16 | wh | No example? | ||
| 17 | yh | No example? |
- is only found in the final position, when writing the sounds e or æ, and in initial and medial positions, it takes the form of.
- Vowels are expressed as follows:
Difference from Persian">Persian language">Persian and [Urdu]
Loanwords
In Punjabi, there are many Arabic and Persian loanwords. These words contain some sounds which were alien to South Asian languages before the influence of Arabic and Persian, and are therefore represented by introducing dots beneath specific Gurumukhi characters. Since the Gurmukhi alphabet is phonetic, any loanwords which contained pre-existing sounds were more easily transliterated without the need for characters modified with subscript dots.| Shahmukhi Letter | Gurmukhi Letter |
| ਜ਼ | |
| ਸ | |
| ਜ਼ | |
| ਤ | |
| ਜ਼ | |
| ਗ਼ | |
| ਹ | |
| ਸ | |
| ਗ | |
| ਚ | |
| ਪ | |
| ਜ਼ | |
| ਖ਼ | |
| ਜ਼ | |
| ਫ਼ | |
| ਕ਼ | |
| variable |
is pronounced 'j' in French or as vion in English
is often transliterated in many ways due to its changing sound in various Arabic and Persian words.