Antecedents The Gurmukhī script is generally believed to have roots in the
Proto-Sinaitic alphabet by way of the
Brahmi script, which
developed further into the Northwestern group (
Sharada-based), the Central group (
Nagari-based) and the Eastern group (
Siddhaṃ-based), as well as several prominent
writing systems of Southeast Asia, in addition to scripts used historically in Central Asia for extinct languages like
Saka and
Tocharian. Gurmukhi is derived from Sharada in the Northwestern group, of which it is the only major surviving member, with full modern currency. Notable features include: • It is an
abugida in which all consonants have an inherent vowel, . Diacritics, which can appear above, below, before or after the consonant they are applied to, are used to change the inherent vowel. • When they appear at the beginning of a syllable, vowels are written as independent letters. • To form
consonant clusters, Gurmukhi uniquely affixes subscript letters at the bottom of standard characters, rather than using the true conjunct symbols used by other scripts, which merge parts of each letter into a distinct character of its own. • Punjabi is a tonal language with three tones. These are indicated in writing using the formerly voiced aspirated consonants (
gh,
dh,
bh, etc.) and the intervocalic
h. Gurmukhi evolved in cultural and historical circumstances notably different from other regional scripts, for the purpose of recording scriptures of
Sikhism, a far less Sanskritized cultural tradition than others of the subcontinent. This independence from the Sanskritic model allowed it the freedom to evolve unique orthographical features. These include: • Three basic bearer vowels, integrated into the traditional Gurmukhi character set, using the vowel diacritics to write independent vowels, instead of distinctly separate characters for each of these vowels as in other scripts; • a drastic reduction in the number and importance of conjunct characters (similar to Brahmi, the letters of which Gurmukhi letters have remained more similar to than those of
Nagari have, and characteristic of Northwestern abugidas); • a unique standard ordering of characters that somewhat diverges from the traditional
vargiya, or Sanskritic, ordering of characters, including
vowels and
fricatives being placed in front; • the recognition of Indo-Aryan phonological history through the omission of characters representing the sibilants and , retaining only the letters representing sounds of the spoken language of the time; these sibilants were naturally lost in most modern
Indo-Aryan languages, though such characters were often retained in their respective consonant inventories as placeholders and archaisms while being mispronounced. These sibilants were often variously reintroduced through later circumstances, as was to Gurmukhi, necessitating a new glyph; • the development of distinct new letters for sounds better reflecting the vernacular language spoken during the time of its development (e.g. for , and the sound shift that merged Sanskrit and /kʰ/ to Punjabi /kʰ/); • a
gemination diacritic, a unique feature among native subcontinental scripts, which serve to indicate the preserved
Middle Indo-Aryan geminates distinctive of Punjabi; and other features. From the 10th century onwards, regional differences started to appear between the Sharada script used in Punjab, the Hill States (partly
Himachal Pradesh) and
Kashmir. Sharada proper was eventually restricted to very limited ceremonial use in Kashmir, as it grew increasingly unsuitable for writing the
Kashmiri language. Helping to foster a distinct Sikh culture and contributing to the consolidation of the Sikh religion, expanding from its original role as the vehicle of Sikh religious literature, Gurmukhi became particularly important in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the Sikhs established political hegemony over Punjab and Kashmir. Also playing a major role in consolidating and standardizing the Punjabi language, it served as the main medium of literacy in Punjab and adjoining areas for centuries when the earliest schools were attached to
gurdwaras. In
Jammu Division,
Takri, which developed through the
Dēvāśēṣa stage of Sharada from the 14th-18th centuries though not displacing Takri.
class held at the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, Punjab, 1908. Pinned on the tree, there is a poster of the thirty-five glyphs of the Gurmukhi script, known in Punjabi as the painti akhri''. The first natively produced grammars of the Punjabi language were written in the 1860s in Gurmukhi. The
Singh Sabha Movement of the late 19th century, a movement to revitalize Sikh institutions which had declined during
colonial rule after the fall of the Sikh Empire, also advocated for the usage of the Gurmukhi script for
mass media, with print media publications and
Punjabi-language newspapers established in the 1880s.
Modern times Official recognition of Gurmukhī was made a prerequisite by the
Akali Dal for political partnership in the 1940s leading up to the 1947 partition, including in failed talks with the Muslim League. Later in the 1960s, after the struggle of the
Punjabi Suba movement, the script was given the authority as the official state script of the
Punjab, India, With technological advances introduced in the 1970s, including the computer and the
offset press, Gurmukhī usage would flourish in news media. It is one of the
official scripts of the Indian Republic, and is currently the 14th most used script in the world.
Etymology , Punjab. The prevalent view among Punjabi linguists is that as in the early stages the Gurmukhī letters were primarily used by the Guru's followers,
gurmukhs (literally, those who face, or follow, the Guru); the script thus came to be known as
gurmukhī, "the script of those guided by the Guru." Although the word Gurmukhī has been commonly translated as "from the mouth of the Guru", the term used for the Punjabi script has somewhat different connotations. This usage of the term may have gained currency from the use of the script to record the utterances of the Sikh Gurus as scripture, which were often referred to as Gurmukhī, or from the
mukhă (face, or mouth) of the Gurus. Consequently, the script that was used to write the resulting scripture may have also been designated with the same name. The name for the Perso–Arabic alphabet for the Punjabi language,
Shahmukhi, was modeled on the term
Gurmukhī. ==Characters==