Many cultural and ethnic regions are specific to only one country, but the Punjab region is a notable exception. Despite having an ethnic population of around 120 million, Punjab is split between the northwestern part of India and the eastern side of Pakistan. This results in the region having distinct—but very similar—cultures on either side of the border. Punjabis in both countries speak a single language—Punjabi. However, written Punjabi has been heavily influenced by the national culture in the two countries, resulting in two different scripts for Punjabi. Indian Punjabis use the Gurmukhi script, while Punjab in Pakistan is written in the Shahmukhi script.
Since the two scripts are vastly different, it’s important to make sure your Punjabi translator is well versed in the variant of Punjabi that you’re targeting. If you’re aiming for Pakistani Punjabi translation services, you can turn to us at TranslationServices.com, since we have a dedicated Pakistani Punjabi translation team with expertise in the Shahmukhi script. We handle translation both from Pakistani Punjabi and into Pakistani Punjabi, covering material from a wide range of domains, allowing you to bridge whatever communication gap you’re confronted with.
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Discover Pakistan’s Shahmukhi script
Most people wouldn’t be able to tell apart Shahmukhi and the Arabic script. Indeed, Shahmukhi is a variant of the Arabic script modified to fit the needs of the Punjabi language. It’s an abjad, not an alphabet, which means short vowels are usually omitted, left to be inferred by the reader. The script features a large inventory of consonant characters and a smaller collection of vowels, as well as a collection of vowel diacritics that can modify consonant characters to indicate short vowels. Written right-to-left, like Arabic, Shahmukhi strings characters together in a flowy, cursive manner, meaning the appearance of a given character can change whether it’s at the beginning, middle, or end of a word or an isolated glyph.
Regarding the idiosyncrasies of the Punjabi language itself, it’s an Indo–European language from the Indo–Aryan branch, meaning it’s entirely unrelated to Arabic (although it does feature many Arabic loanwords). Verbs come at the end of the sentence, and instead of prepositions, like in English, Punjabi uses postpositions, which means they come after the respective noun. There’s also a great deal of inflectional complexity in Punjabi, since it has two genders and five cases, as well as a complicated verbal system with aspectual forms. It’s no wonder non-native speakers struggle with the language—and that’s why a professional Pakistani Punjabi translator is so valuable.
Translations to and from Pakistani Punjabi in the Shahmukhi script for any type of content
Our Pakistani Punjabi translators come from all over the Pakistani part of the Punjab region, speaking Punjabi as a native language. They’re deeply familiar with the Shahmukhi script, so they can translate materials both to and from Pakistani Punjabi. Whether you have business materials to boost your corporate presence in Pakistani’s Punjab region, an academic paper in Pakistani Punjabi that you’d like to publish internationally, or valuable literature that you’d like to spread—either to the rest of the world or with Pakistani Punjabis—we’re your translation team.
Reach out today to tell us about your Pakistani Punjabi translation needs.