Gurmukhi: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Gurmukhi script, derived from the Landa alphabet and standardised by Guru Angad Dev in the 16th century, was designed to write the Punjabi language. The word Gurmukhi literally means "from the Mouth of the Guru". Gurmukhi is a form of alphabet called an abugida, as each consonant has an inherent vowel (a), that can be changed using vowel signs.

Modern Gurmukhi has 41 consonants (vianjans), 9 vowel symbols (laga or matras), 2 symbols for nasal sounds, 1 symbol which duplicates the sound of any consonant, 3 subjoined forms of the consonants Ra, Ha and Va, and 1 post-base form of Ya.

The whole of the Guru Granth Sahib's 1430 pages are written in this script.

Vowels

Gurmukhi uses dependent vowel signs (matras) to alter the inherent vowel of a consonant. Independent vowels are used when the use of vowel signs is inappropriate - for example, at the beginning of a word.

The Unicode range for Gurmukhi is U+0A00 ... U+0A7F.