Gurmukhi Alphabet: the 35 Akhar

The Punjabi varnamala or varnmala (ਪੈਂਤੀ ਅੱਖਰੀ, paintee akhari, often called the penti), with each letter's name, sound and Hindi (Devanagari) partner.

Gurmukhi is the script used to write Punjabi in India and around the world. Its 35 basic letters, the akhar, are traditionally learned in rows of five, starting with ੳ ura and ਅ aira (often written "uda aida", ਊੜਾ ਐੜਾ). You don't need to learn them all at once: a row a day is a comfortable pace.

The 35 akhar chart

How the chart is arranged

The "tonal" letters (ਘ ਝ ਢ ਧ ਭ) are where Punjabi differs from Hindi: instead of a breathy sound, they usually change the tone of the syllable. Sounds written in the chart with a dot under them (ṭ, ḍ, ṇ, ṛ) are said with the tongue curled back; their plain partners (t, d, n) are softer, with the tongue on the teeth.

Learning Gurmukhi from Hindi

If you can read Hindi, much of this chart will feel familiar. Rows 2 to 6 follow the same order as the Hindi consonants, from क to म, and every akhar has a Hindi partner, shown under each letter above: ਕ is क, ਮ is म, ਪ is प. Two things are new: the tonal letters described above, and ੜ, the flapped r written ड़ in Hindi. Learning row by row next to the letters you know is a gentle way in.

After the 35 letters

Once the 35 akhar feel familiar, the next steps are the six letters with a dot at the foot (ਸ਼ ਖ਼ ਗ਼ ਜ਼ ਫ਼ ਲ਼), used mostly for words from Persian, Arabic and English, and the laga matra: the vowel signs that turn single letters into whole words.

Learn them with PunjabiFlow

In the PunjabiFlow app you meet the akhar one at a time: tap a letter to hear it, see it in an example word, then spot it in a real line of poetry with the Akhar Khoj letter game. It's free, needs no account and works offline. Find out more about PunjabiFlow.