Punjabi in two scripts
Punjabi is one language written in two scripts. In India it is written in Gurmukhi (ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ), a script with its own letters that runs left to right. In Pakistan, where most Punjabi speakers live, it is written in Shahmukhi (شاہ مکھی), a form of the Perso-Arabic script close to Urdu that runs right to left. The spoken language is largely shared, but most readers can only read one of the two scripts. A poem by Bulleh Shah or Waris Shah, a newspaper column, a song lyric or a letter from family on the other side of the border can be unreadable simply because of the script.
Converting between them is not a matter of swapping letters one for one:
- One Gurmukhi letter, several Shahmukhi letters. Gurmukhi ਸ can be س, ص or ث; ਤ can be ت or ط; ਹ can be ہ or ح; ਜ਼ can be ز, ذ, ض or ظ; and ਅ at the start of a word is often ع. Only the word tells you which is right: ਸਾਹਿਬ is صاحب, not ساہب.
- Short vowels. Gurmukhi always writes short vowels (ਿ, ੁ). Shahmukhi usually leaves them out, so ਕਿਤਾਬ becomes کتاب. Going back, the vowels have to be restored.
- Nasal sounds and doubled letters. Gurmukhi’s tippi and bindi become ن or ں depending on position, and a tippi before ਮ or ਨ doubles the letter instead: ਕੰਮ is کم.
- Vowel joins. ਗਈ becomes گئی, ਗਏ becomes گئے and ਜਾਓ becomes جاؤ, with hamza where Shahmukhi uses it.
How this converter works
The conversion combines rules with a verified word list.
The rules follow the standard correspondences described in transliteration research, such as M. G. Abbas Malik’s “Punjabi Machine Transliteration” (COLING/ACL 2006) and the work of T. S. Saini and G. S. Lehal on Shahmukhi–Gurmukhi transliteration. For every Gurmukhi letter and vowel sign they list all the possible Shahmukhi spellings.
The word list was built from Punjabi Wikipedia, which exists in both scripts: about 20 million words of Gurmukhi and 40 million words of Shahmukhi. For each of the most common Gurmukhi words, every spelling the rules allow was generated, and the one actually used in Shahmukhi Wikipedia was kept. A pair was accepted only if that Shahmukhi spelling really occurs, so the list never invents a spelling. The 30,000 pairs cover about 92% of the words in typical Gurmukhi text.
When you convert, each word is first looked up in this list. Words that are not in it are spelled by the rules alone and shown with a dotted underline. Names, rare words and new loanwords are the usual cases.
Worked examples
These are real outputs from the tool.
ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਦੁਨੀਆ ਦੀਆਂ ਵੱਡੀਆਂ ਬੋਲੀਆਂ ਵਿੱਚੋਂ ਇੱਕ ਹੈ। ਇਹ ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ ਅਤੇ ਸ਼ਾਹਮੁਖੀ ਦੋਹਾਂ ਲਿਪੀਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਲਿਖੀ ਜਾਂਦੀ ਹੈ।
پنجابی دنیا دیاں وڈیاں بولیاں وچوں اک ہے۔ ایہ گرمکھی اتے شاہمکھی دوہاں لپیاں وچ لکھی جاندی ہے۔
All 18 words come from the word list, and converting the Shahmukhi back gives exactly the Gurmukhi you started with.
Some words show how the list solves the letter choices that rules alone cannot:
| Gurmukhi | Shahmukhi | What had to be decided |
|---|---|---|
| ਸਾਹਿਬ | صاحب | ਸ as ص and ਹ as ح |
| ਤਾਕਤ | طاقت | ਤ as ط and ਕ as ق |
| ਇਸ਼ਕ | عشق | initial ਇ as ع |
| ਇਲਾਕੇ | علاقے | initial ਇ as ع, ਕ as ق |
| ਆਪਣਾ | اپنا | ਆ written as ا, not آ |
| ਕੰਮ | کم | tippi doubling ਮ, not ن |
In the other direction, Shahmukhi written in the everyday Lahore style also converts cleanly:
ایہ گورمکھی تے شاہ مکھی دوہاں لپیاں وچ لکھی جاندی اے۔
ਇਹ ਗੋਰਮਖੀ ਤੇ ਸ਼ਾਹ ਮੁਖੀ ਦੋਹਾਂ ਲਿਪੀਆਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਲਿਖੀ ਜਾਂਦੀ ਏ।
Only one word is underlined: گورمکھی is not in the list in this spelling, so the rules wrote ਗੋਰਮਖੀ, without the short vowels of the correct ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ. That is exactly the kind of word to check.
Common problems and fixes
An underlined word is wrong
Correct it in the result after copying. Underlined words are usually names, rare words or unusual spellings. If a common word is wrong, please report it so the list can be improved.
Shahmukhi text comes out with missing vowels in Gurmukhi
This happens for words outside the list, because Shahmukhi does not write short vowels. If your Shahmukhi text has zer and pesh (aerab), they are used, so كِتاب gives ਕਿਤਾਬ even without the list.
Letters show as boxes
Your device is missing a Gurmukhi or Nastaliq font. Most phones and computers have both; on older Windows versions install a free Gurmukhi font such as Noto Sans Gurmukhi.
Urdu text gives odd Gurmukhi
The word list is built for Punjabi. Urdu words shared with Punjabi convert well, but Urdu grammar words (ہے، کا، کی) follow Punjabi spellings. For Urdu, use Urdu tools such as Roman Urdu to Urdu.
Who uses this tool
- Families and friends across the border reading messages and letters in the other script.
- Readers of Punjabi poetry finding Bulleh Shah, Waris Shah, Shiv Kumar Batalvi or Amrita Pritam in the script they read.
- Students and researchers working with sources in both scripts.
- Writers, editors and publishers preparing one text for readers in India and Pakistan.
- Musicians and translators working from lyrics written in the other script.
To type Shahmukhi or Urdu directly, use the Urdu typing tool with a phonetic keyboard.
If Shahmukhi text copied from a PDF comes out reversed or with odd letter shapes, clean it with Fix Broken Urdu Text before converting it, and use the Urdu word counter to compare the length of both versions. The guide how to type Urdu on any computer or phone also covers keyboards for writing Shahmukhi.
Private by design
The conversion runs entirely in your browser. The word list downloads once when you start typing; your text is never uploaded, stored or logged.