One Language (Punjabi), two scripts
Punjabi is one language written in two scripts: Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi. Learn35 helps you read both, so that the stories and poems of either Punjab are open to every Punjabi speaker.
Punjab before partition
The map shows the Punjab of 1947, its rivers, and the boundary drawn that year. The colours show which script Punjabi is mainly written in today.
This is a simplified sketch for orientation. Borders, rivers and city positions are approximate, and princely states are shown as part of the province. Lyallpur is today’s Faisalabad.
Learn Gurmukhi
The 35 letters, how each one sounds, the vowel signs, first words and basic grammar.
Learn Shahmukhi
The same sounds in the script used in West Punjab, mapped letter by letter to Gurmukhi.
Convert between them
Type or paste Punjabi in either script and read it in the other.
Read the classics
Well-loved Punjabi poems, a story and proverbs, shown side by side in both scripts.
Why two scripts?
Before 1947 Punjab was a single province. Its people spoke the same language and wrote it in more than one script, and many readers were at home in both. When Punjab was partitioned between India and Pakistan, the language was divided along with the land.
- Before 1947Punjabi poetry, from Baba Farid to Waris Shah, belongs to all of Punjab. Shahmukhi and Gurmukhi are both in everyday use.
- 1947Partition. West Punjab becomes part of Pakistan and East Punjab part of India. Millions of people cross the new border.
- After 1947Gurmukhi becomes the script of Punjabi on the Indian side, and Shahmukhi on the Pakistani side. Schools on each side teach only one.
- TodayAfter more than 75 years, most readers can read only one script. A novel or poem published in Lahore goes unread in Amritsar, and the other way round.
The spoken language is still shared. A speaker from Ludhiana and a speaker from Faisalabad understand each other, but neither can read what the other writes. Each side's literature has grown in isolation, and Punjabi literature as a whole is poorer for it.
Learn35 exists to help close that gap: learn the script you don't know, and convert what you want to read into the script you do.
A language of two scripts
Punjabi is the leading language in the world that is widely written in two different scripts. With approximately 120 million native speakers, it ranks as the 10th or 11th most spoken language in the world.
Linguists call the use of more than one writing system at the same time synchronic digraphia. Among the world’s major languages, Punjabi is one of the most prominent examples, alongside Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu) and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional). Its two scripts are split cleanly along geographical and cultural lines.
| Feature | Gurmukhi ਪੰਜਾਬੀ | Shahmukhi پنجابی |
|---|---|---|
| Primary region | East Punjab (India) | West Punjab (Pakistan) |
| Script basis | Indic, derived from Brahmi | Perso-Arabic (Nastaliq) |
| Cultural association | Mainly used by Sikhs and Hindus | Mainly used by Punjabi Muslims |
| Direction | Left to right | Right to left |
Why Punjabi stands out
Both scripts are fully alive
In some languages with two scripts, one is archaic or rarely used, such as Jawi in Malay. In Punjabi both are in active use. Shahmukhi is used by the majority of speakers, because Pakistan holds the larger share of the world’s Punjabi population. Gurmukhi is the official script for education, government and media in the Indian state of Punjab.
A tonal language
Punjabi is the only major Indo-European language that is tonal. Both scripts have had to adapt to capture its pitch variations, even though they come from entirely different script families.
Technology as a bridge
The two scripts look completely different, so a speaker who knows only Gurmukhi cannot easily read Shahmukhi, and the reverse. This has led to computational tools, such as the Sukhpuria Transliteration Tool, built to convert Punjabi text between the two scripts instantly. The Learn35 converter is one more.
Why “35”?
The Gurmukhi alphabet is traditionally called ਪੈਂਤੀ ਅੱਖਰ (paintī akkhar), “the thirty-five letters”. It is where every learner starts, and where this site starts too.