Punjabi/Gurmukhi/Velars

Your knowledge of the first five letters ੳ, ਅ, ੲ, ਸ and ਹ of Gurmukhi alongwith the vowels and the diacritics that you learnt in the last three lessons will come in handy in your further progress in Gurmukhi. In this lesson you will learn the second row of Gurmukhi script. The letters of the second row of Gurmukhi are called Velars because they are articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) touching against the soft palate (the velum).

Second row - the Velars

The second row of Gurmukhi consists of the following five letters. ਕ ਖ ਗ ਘ ਙ These letters are called ਕ - kukka, ਖ - khukha, ਗ - gugga, ਘ - ghugga and ਙ - ngunga. Their pronunciation is ਕ - /k/, ਖ - /kh/, ਗ - /g/, ਘ - /gh/ and ਙ - /ng/. We now consider each of the letters one by one.

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Kukka is equivalent to /k/ in English. This illustration will explain its usage.

ਕੇ + ਕ = ਕੇਕ = cake

See how ਹ that you learnt in first lesson and ਕ are are combined to get hook and hockey.

ਹੁ + ਕ = ਹੁਕ = hook

ਹਾ + ਕੀ = ਹਾਕੀ = hockey

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Khukha is equivalent to /kh/. This sound is rarely used in English but is quite prevalent in Punjabi. Now see this illustration of the use of letters ਕ and ਖ

ਖਾ + ਕੀ = ਖਾਕੀ = khaki

The second letter ਜ਼ in the following example is equivalent to /z/.

ਕ + ਜ਼ਾ + ਖ = ਕਜ਼ਾਖ = Kazakh (a Kazakhstan national)

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Gugga is equivalent to /g/. The words gas and hug when written in Gurmukhi will further ilustrate its use.

ਗੈ + ਸ = ਗੈਸ = gas

ਹੱ + ਗ = ਹੱਗ = hug

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Ghugga. There is no equivalent of ਘ in English. ਘ sound is produced by combining ਕ sound with a high tone. A tone is produced when air passes out of mouth with a rush. The nearest English equivalent of ਘ is /gh/ and nearest examples illustrating the use ਘ will be ghost and Ghana which will be written in Gurmukhi as

ਘੋ + ਸ + ਟ = ਘੋਸਟ = ghost

ਘਾ + ਨਾ = ਘਾਨਾ = Ghana

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Ngunga is equivalent to /ng/ as in sing. The use of this letter is becoming scarce in Punjabi. Any how the words sing and king will be written in Gurmukhi as

ਸਿੰ + ਙ = ਸਿੰਙ = sing

ਕਿੰ + ਙ = ਕਿੰਙ = king

Exercises

1. Read these English words written in Gurmukhi

1. ਕੇਕ
2. ਖਾਕੀ
3. ਹੁਕ
4. ਘਾਨਾ
5. ਹੱਗ
6. ਕਿੰਙ

Solutions

1. Cake
2. Khaki
3. Hook
4. Ghana
5. Hug
6. King

2. Write the above listed words in Gurmukhi and English side by side.

3. Write these English words in Gurmukhi

1. Gas
2. Hockey
3. Case
4. Kiosk
5. Excess
6. Egg
7. Hague

Solutions

1. ਗੈ + ਸ = ਗੈਸ
2. ਹਾ + ਕੀ = ਹਾਕੀ
3. ਕੇ + ਸ = ਕੇਸ
4. ਕਿ + ਔ + ਸ + ਕ = ਕਿਔਸਕ
5. ਇ + ਕ + ਸੈੱ + ਸ = ਇਕਸੈੱਸ
6. ਐੱ + ਗ = ਐੱਗ
7. ਹੇ + ਗ = ਹੇਗ

Summary

In this lesson we have learnt the five letters of the second row of Gurmukhi script. These letter are kukka (ਕ = /k/), khukha (ਖ = /kh/), gugga (ਗ = /g/), ghugga (ਘ = /gh/) and ngunga (ਙ = /ng/). We have seen that ਖ and ਘ sounds are rarely used in English and ਙ in Punjabi.