The
language of Punjab
Punjabi is a
intercontinental language. Its speakers are spread all over the world.
The natives of Punjab region of India and Pakistan speak this language.
Basically the Punjabi is the language of Punjab. The word Punjab is made up of
two words Panj and Aab. Panj means five and Aab means water, the land of five
rivers. This name was probably given to this land of five rivers possibly in
an era when this region came into close contact with persia. Prior to that
period this region was known by different names at different times. Probably
when at the height of its glory it was known as Sapta Sindhu, the land of
seven rivers. Punjab lies in the North West of India. Being in the way of
invaders from the North, Punjab has had to take a lot of bottle ring from the
invaders.
Punjabi speaking state, come
into being during a period of religious revival in the 15the & 16the
centuries. It was founded as a new religious order by Guru Nanak the Punjab
was constituted a separate province of India in 1937.Punjabi in India is more
open to Sanskrit and traditional sources where as Punjabi in Pakistan is
trying to explore Perso-Arabic Sources. Punjabi is a member of Indo Aryan
language family. It is more closely connected with the other Indo-Aryan
languages.
Indo-Aryan languages
Punjabi is a tonal language.
Tone differentiates Punjabi from the other Indo-Aryan languages. There are
three tones in Punjabi. High tone, mid tone and low tone. It is very important
to piston to the pronunciation of a native speaker for getting an auditory
impression of these tones and to imidate them for acquiring an accurate
pronunciation. While producing these tones, there is neither priction nor
stoppage of air in the mouth. They are pronounced always concurrently with a
syllable.
High tone is higher then the other two tones and the syllable
with this tone is also shorter than those with other two tones. High tone is
marked by [/] above the vowel under tone. Mid tone is considered to be an
intermediate in pitch between the high and the low tones. The syllable is of
an intermediate height in typs case. Mid tone is not marked in the phonetic
transcription low tone has been described as the lowest of the three tones.
The pitch tends to fall. The syllable under this tone is longer in comparison
with the other two. Low tone is marked by [\] above the vowel under tone.
Examples:-
1. Kora (Horse) Kora (Whip) Kora (Leper)
2. Ca
(peep) Ca (enthusiasm) Ca (tea)
The Script of Punjabi
language
There are these basic vowel letters in the Script
of Punjabi language. These are vowel carriers. With the use of matras
ten vowel letters are created from these basic three letters.
u, (e), i are short vowels and u, a, i, e, o, E, (e) are long vowels.
The
long vowels are held longer and pronounced more tensely then the short vowels.
These vowels are shown in the following table :
Front Central Back
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High i u
I U
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Middle
e o
E C
e
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Low a
The stress is an important feature of Punjabi. In
general the number and distribution of long and short syllables determine the
position of the stress in a word.
Gemination is also an important
feature of Punjabi. All consonants except / n, r, r, l, h, y & v / occur
as geminates. Geminates are preceded by short vowels. Gemination of consonants
is phonemic. The table of consonants:
Velar Palatal Retroflex Dental Labial
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voiceless /k/ /c/ /t/ /t/ /p/
stop{ aspirates /kh/ /ch/ /th/ /th/ /ph/
voiced /g/ /j/ /d/ /d/ /b/
nasals /n/ /n/ /n/ /n/ /m/
flaps&trills
/r/ /r/
laterals /l/ /l/
sibilants{
voiceless
/s/ /s/
voiced
/z/
fricatives /x/ /f/
aspirates /n/
semi-vowels/y/ /v/
These are the consonants of Punjabi. Speech sounds life s., x, g., j. & f
are Persian and Arabic sounds. These sounds are retained in the speech of
educated persons. The sounds like x, g., j., f and respectively kh, g, j, ph,
are in free variation.
Nouns in Punjabi are inflected for number, gender
and case. There are two numbers in Punjabi singular and plural. All masculine
nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verbs ending in /a/ are singular in number.
The /a/ changes into /e/ in its plural from. There are two genders in Punjabi
masculine & feminine. Mostly /a/ ending nouns are masculine and /i/ ending
nouns are feminine. But this rule is not fixed. There are some nouns, which
are /i/ ending but are masculine. Similarly a number of /a/ ending nouns are
feminine. A few /a/ ending masculine and /i/ ending nouns are feminine. But
this rule is not fixed. There are some nouns which are /i/ ending but are
masculine. Similarly a number of /a/ ending nouns are feminine. A few /a/
ending masculine nouns do not change in their plural form. The /i/ ending
feminine nouns change into /ia/ in the plural form.
In Punjabi there are
two ways of expressing relations between nouns in a sentence (1) Synthetic,
which adds case endings to nouns and (2) Analytic which combines nouns in the
oblique case with post positions. Pronouns are inflected for number and case
in Punjabi. There are two types of adjectives are used in Punjabi. These are
known as 'black adjectives or inflected' and 'red adjectives' or uninflected.
The forms of black adjectives change according to the gender and number of
noun. Red adjectives do not change in number & gender.
The
Gurmukhi Script
Punjabi is
written in the Gurmukhi Script which literally means 'from the mouth of Guru'
referring to its use in the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of the
sikhs. Gurmukhi is written from left to right the orthography is called /PEti/
as the number of its letters are thirty five. As indicated Punjabi is tonal
language. Gurmukhi script merges unvoiced consonant followed by falling tone
on to tonal letters, i.e. x, M, Y, X, G To mark high tone, however, there is
separate symbol 'u' which is placed subliminally.
Nasalisation is phonemic in Punjabi. In the Orthography two symbols are used
for it. These symbols are known as /t. I p p i/ [] and /b I d i/ []. The signs
of t. I p p i and b I d i are placed above the vowels. t I p p i is placed
over inherant or clear vowel [a], [I] and with the mantras of [u] and [u]. b I
d i is placed over other vowels e.g. [a], [i], [e], [E], [o], [c] and in the
initial position of [U] and [u].
Germination is phonemic in Punjabi is indicated by the sign [u] called addak
above the letter and before the consonant to be germinated.
Punjabi
language has a number of regional dialects that are spoken in both India as
well as in Pakistan. The main dialects of Punjabi in India are : Majhi, Doabi,
Malwai and Puwadhi. The regional dialects like Pothohari, Lehandi &
Multani and so on are spoken in Pakistan. In India the Punjabi is written in
Gurmukhi script as far as in Pakistan it is written in Perso-Arabic
Script.
It
is commonly believed that, standard Punjabi as written in Gurmukhi Script, is
based on the Majhi dialect.
Punjabi literature has its own significance.
Right from its known roots Punjabi literature starts on a secular note with
the poetry of Sheikh Farid in 12the centaury. This basic character of Punjabi
literature continues all along the Bhagti movement. The Devotional
Compositions of Guru Nanak are in the praise of God. In 1605 the 5th Guru
Arjun Dev compiled all the poems of Guru Nanak, of his successors and various
Bhagatas in Guru Granth Sahib. Muslim Sufi poets made important contribution
to Punjabi literature through an entirely Indian and Punjabi spirit. A number
of romances of love appeared to have existed in Punjab on which popular
ballads were written. Modern Punjabi literature is known to have begun with
works of the famous Sikh poet Bhai Vir Singh. His biographies on Guru Nanak
and Guru Gobind Singh are also some of his pioneering work. He made a notable
contribution to Sikh history and religion.
Punjabi as a second &
foreign language
Learning Punjabi as a second
& foreign language it is important for the learners to be familiar with
the following skills. These are four basic skills :
- Listening,
- Speaking,
- Reading & Writing
Listening as a skill means that a learner is also to listen each meaningful
sound, word, sentence, distinctively and with comprehension. The listener
develops the Auditory perception through concentration or proper attention.
Speaking is a major means of communication. The development of the skill of
speaking means that the student is able to communicate ideas, thoughts and
feelings with precision and clarity. The basic skill of reading is that a
learner must be able to (1) recognize letters, group of letters, words and
sentences along with all the secondary symbols or punctuation markers (2) read
the written materially related to his interest, ability and need and (3)
comprehend whatever he reads. Writing skill involves a wide range from the
acquisition of script to the creative writings. A learner must learn letters
of an alphabet, spelling system, joining of letters, writing of words, phrases
and sentences along with the use of all the appropriate punctuation markers.
A language learner can learn a language more effectively with the
following drills.
- Response drill.
- Repetition drill.
- Substitution drill.
- Transformation
drill.
It depends upon the response of the learner about the sounds, words he has
learned. The learner can develops his ability of learning language with the
help of repeating the sounds, words again and again. After learning a
particular level the learner is able to use the substitute word in the given
sentence. The learner is able to transform the word and sentence from
masculine to feminine and from singular to plural accordingly. So these drills
are more useful for a second and foreign language learner.
Contributor:
Dr. Devinder
Singh
NORTHERN REGIONAL LANGUAGE CENTER
PUNJABI UNIVERSITY,
CAMPUS
Source: The Punjab Heritage
