Punjabi grammar
Word order
Punjabi has a canonical
Transliteration
In matters of script, Punjabi uses
respectively.
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Morphology
Nouns
Punjabi distinguishes two
The below tables displays the suffix paradigms, as outlined in Shackle (2003:600–601). Regarding the masculine, "the [extended] case-morphemes, very similar to those of the unextended declension, are added to the obl. base -e-, which is shortened to -i- (phonetically [e̯]) before back vowels and is lost before front vowels."[5] The division between feminine unextendeds and extendeds ending in -ī looks to be now merely an etymological consideration, as there is neither a distinct oblique base nor any morphophonemic considerations.
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The next table of noun declensions shows the above suffix paradigms in action. Words, from Shackle (2003:600–601): ghṑṛā "stallion", sakhī "girlfriend", ghàr "house", gall "thing, matter (being talked about)".
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Adjectives
Adjectives may be divided into declinable and indeclinable categories. Declinable adjectives have endings that change by the gender, number, case of the noun that they qualify. Declinable adjective have endings that are similar but much simpler than nouns' endings:[6]
Sing. | Pl. | |||
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Declin. | Masc. | Dir. | -ā
-ਆ -آ |
-ē
-ਏ -ئے |
Obl. | -ē
-ਏ -ئے |
-ē, -iā̃
-ਏ, -ਇਆਂ -ئے، -یاں | ||
Fem. | -ī
-ਈ -ئی |
-īā̃
-ਈਆਂ -ئِیاں | ||
Indeclin. |
Indeclinable adjectives are invariable and can end in either
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All adjectives can be used
Postpositions
The aforementioned
Transliteration | Gurmukhi | Shahmukhi | NotesMay use dē | |
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Used alone | dā | ਦਾ | دا | genitive marker; declines like an adjective. Example: "X dā/dī/etc. Y" means "X's Y", with dā/dī/etc. agreeing with Y.
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nū̃ | ਨੂੰ | نُوں | marks the indirect accusative marker).
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nē | ਨੇ | نے | Hindi-Urdu .
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tō̃ | ਤੋਂ | توں | ablative marker, "from"
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vall | ਵੱਲ | وَلّ | orientative marker; "towards" | |
takk, tāī̃ | ਤੱਕ, ਤਾਈਂ | تَکّ، تائِیں | terminative marker, "until, up to" | |
vikhē | ਵਿਖੇ | وِکھے | locative marker, "at (a specific location)", e.g. Hōshiārpur vikhē, "at Hoshiarpur" (a city). Often colloquially replaced with 'tē | |
May use a secondary preposition | vicc | ਵਿੱਚ | وِچّ | inessive marker, "in." Often contracted to 'c |
nāḷ | ਨਾਲ਼ | نالؕ | comitative marker, "with" | |
uttē | ਉੱਤੇ | اُتّے | superessive marker, "on" or "at." Often contracted to 'tē | |
kōḷ | ਕੋਲ਼ | کولؕ | possessive marker; "with" (as in possession) e.g. kuṛī (dē) kōḷ, "in the girl's possession." | |
bārē | ਬਾਰੇ | بارے | "about" | |
laī | ਲਈ | لَئی | benefactive marker; "for"
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vargā | ਵਰਗਾ | وَرگا | comparative marker; "like" (in resemblance) | |
vāngū, vāng | ਵਾਂਗੂ, ਵਾਂਗ | وان٘گُو، وان٘گ | comparative marker; "like" (in manner) | |
tarh̤ā̃ (tárā̃) | ਤਰ੍ਹਾਂ | طَرْحاں | comparative marker; "like" (non-specific) | |
duāḷē | ਦੁਆਲ਼ੇ | دوالؕے | "around, surrounding" ex. manjē (de) duāḷē, "around the bed." | |
binnā̃, baġer | ਬਿੰਨਾਂ, ਬਗ਼ੈਰ | بِنّاں، بَغَیر | abessive marker; "without"
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nēṛē | ਨੇੜੇ | نیڑے | "near" | |
lāgē | ਲਾਗੇ | لاگے | apudessive marker; "adjacent/next to" | |
vickār, gabbē | ਵਿਚਕਾਰ, ਗੱਬੇ | وِچکار، گَبّے | intrative marker, "between, middle of" | |
mājh (mā́j) | ਮਾਝ | ماجھ | "in the midst of" | |
andar | ਅੰਦਰ | اَن٘در | "inside" | |
bāhar (bā́ir) | ਬਾਹਰ | باہر | "outside" |
Other postpositions are
- vicc "in" → viccȭ "from in, among", for instance, jantē (dē) viccȭ or jantē 'cȭ, "from among the people" and
- nāḷ "with"→ nāḷȭ "compared to", for instance, kṑṛē (dē) nāḷȭ, "compared to the stallion."
Pronouns
Personal
Punjabi has personal pronouns for the first and second persons, while for the third person demonstratives are used, which can be categorized deictically as near and remote. Pronouns do not distinguish gender.
The language has a
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The dative & ablative personal pronouns are analyzed as the oblique forms merging with suffixes, e.g. tusā̃ + nū̃ > tuhānū̃.[citation needed]
Unlike other pronouns, genitive pronouns essentially function in a manner similar to regular adjectives, declining in agreement with their direct objects. Moreover, koṇ and jō are colloquially replaced by kḗṛā "which?" jḗṛā "which". Indefinites include kōī (obl. kisē) "some(one)" and kújj "some(thing)". The reflexive pronoun is āp, with a genitive of āpṇā. The pronominal obl. -nā̃ also occurs in ik, iknā̃ "some", hōr, hōrnā̃ "others", sáb, sábnā̃ "all".[9]
Derivates
Based on table in Shackle (2003:604). Indefinites are extended forms of the interrogative set; e.g. kitē "somewhere", kadē "sometimes". The multiple versions under "Manner" are dialectal variations.
Interrogative | Relative | Demonstrative | |||
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Near | Remote | ||||
Date | kiddaṇ | jiddaṇ | huṇ | oddaṇ | |
Time | Regular | kad | jad | tad | |
Emphatic | kadē | jadē | huṇē | tadē | |
Ablative[a] | kadō̃ | jadō̃ | oddō̃ | ||
tadō̃ | |||||
Place | Regular | kitthē | jitthē | etthē | otthē |
Ablative | kitthō̃ | jitthō̃ | etthō̃ | ōtthō̃ | |
Direction | Regular | kíddar | jíddar | éddar | óddar |
Ablative | kíddᵃrō̃ | jíddᵃrō̃ | éddᵃrō̃ | óddᵃrō̃ | |
Manner[b] | kiddā̃ | jiddā̃ | eddā̃ | oddā̃ | |
kiñj | jiñj | eñj | oñj | ||
kiwē̃ | jiwē̃ | ewē̃ | owē̃ | ||
Reason | kiũ | jiũ | eũ | oũ | |
Quality | kío jíā | (jío) jíā | éo jíā | óo jíā | |
Quantity[c] | kinnā | jinnā | ennā | onnā | |
Size | kiḍḍā | jiḍḍā | eḍḍā | oḍḍā |
The second row in Manner are often still spelt in their archaic forms (kiññ, jiññ, eññ, and oññ) in Gurmukhi.
The demonstrative prefixes e and o vary from [ɪ~e~ɛ] and [ʊ~o~ɔ] respectively (resulting in varied spellings) depending on dialect.[citation needed]
Pronominal suffixes
Some varieties of the Majhi dialect of Punjabi (documented thus far in
Person | Singular | Plural |
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2 | -ī | -jē |
3 | -s(ū) | -ne |
Verbs
Overview
The Punjabi verbal system is can be described largely in terms of aspect and mood. Most Punjabi verbs do not inflect for tense—the only verb which does is the copular verb ਹੈ / ہے. Some linguists have described aspectual forms of Punjabi verbs as being inflections for tense; however, this assessment is flawed as these verb forms can be used the same way in sentences which refer to any time with respect to the situation of the speaker or writer.[11]
The copular verb has two tense forms which can be described as "remote" and "non-remote," as they indicate a metaphorical distance or closeness to the situation. "Past" and "present" can be understood as default assumptions for the times which the remote and non-remote tenses refer to respectively, however, these temporal references are not required of these tenses. Rather, time can largely be understood to exist extralinguistically in Punjabi. The remote forms of the copula, ਸੀ / سی, do not resemble the non-remote forms ਹੈ / ہے phonetically.[12] The copula does not behave like a full lexical verb in Punjabi and does not form part of serial verb constructions; rather than taking on the meaning of the existential verb 'to be' or 'to become' ਹੋਣਾ / ہوݨا, it means 'being' without any aspectual component. The copula is also not obligatory in a Punjabi clause. A full lexical verb in Punjabi on the other hand, does exhibit grammatical aspect. Due the close meaning of ਹੋਣਾ / ہوݨا and the copula, they are sometimes described as forms of the same lexeme; however, because they are directly derived from two distinct Sanskrit words and do not function alike grammatically, they are better described as two different but complementary words.[13]
Tabled below on the left are the paradigms for the major Gender and Number termination (GN), along the line of that introduced in the adjectives section. To the right are the paradigms for the Person and Number termination (PN), used by the subjunctive (which has 1st pl. -īe) and future (which has 1st pl. -ā̃).
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Copula
The Punjabi copula functions as a class of its own and does not share the properties of full lexical verbs in the language, nor does it take on the role of an auxiliary verb. Unlike these other word classes, the copula does not form a part of verb phrases, and where it is present alongside a full verb construction it generally makes a semantic distinction related to the notion of existence, rather than predicating for the act of being. For this reason, it can be said that the Punjabi copula is not wholly verbal in function.[13]
Number | Singular | Plural | ||||
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Person | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
Pronoun | mẽ | tū̃ | ḗ/ṓ | asī̃ | tusī̃ | ḗ/ṓ |
Present-tense copula | hā̃ | hẽ | he | hā̃ | hō | han |
Past-tense copula | sā̃ | sẽ | sī | sā̃ | sō | san |
Subjunctive copula | hōvā̃ | hōvẽ | hōvē | hōvā̃ | hōvō | hōṇ |
- Two infrequent inflected forms of the present-tense copula he are haō (plural second person),
- In the spoken language, the past tense copula sī can remain completely uninflected, and remain applicable for all three persons and both numbers.T-V distinctionusage.
Some non-standard major dialects decline the past-tense and present-tense copulas more along number and gender[14] than for number and person:
Gender Masculine Feminine Number Singular Plural Singular Plural Present-tense copula hegā hegē hegī hegīā̃ Past-tense copula sīgā sīgē sīgī sīgīā̃
Conjugations
mood | tense | singular | plural | ||||||||||
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1P – mẽ | 2P – tū̃ | 3P – é, ó | 1P – asī̃ | 2P – tusī̃ | 3P – é, ó | ||||||||
m. | f. | m. | f. | m. | f. | m. | f. | m. | f. | m. | f. | ||
indicative | present | hā̃ | hẽ | he | hā̃ | hō | han | ||||||
imperfect | sā̃ | sẽ | sī | sā̃ | sō | san | |||||||
perfect | hōiā | hōī | hōiā | hōī | hōiā | hōī | hōē | hōīā̃ | hōē | hōīā̃ | hōē | hōīā̃ | |
future | hōvā̃gā | hōvā̃gī | hōvē̃gā | hōvē̃gī | hōvēgā | hōvēgī | hōvā̃gē | hōvā̃gīā̃ | hōvōgē | hōvōgīā̃ | hōṇgē | hōṇgīā̃ | |
presumptive | all | hā̃gā | hā̃gī | hōgā | hōgī | hā̃gē | hā̃gīā̃ | hōvō̃ge | hōvō̃gīā̃ | hōgē | hōgīā̃ | ||
subjunctive | present | hā̃ | hẽ | hō | hā̃ | hōvō̃ | hō | ||||||
future | hōvā̃ | hovē̃ | hōvē | hōvā̃ | hōvō | hōṇ | |||||||
contrafactual | past | hundā | hundī | hundā | hundī | hundā | hundī | hundē | hundīā̃ | hundē | hundīā̃ | hundē | hundīā̃ |
imperative | present | — | hō | — | — | hōō | — | ||||||
future | — | hōī̃ | — | — | hōiō | — |
Forms
The sample verb is intransitive naccṇā "to dance", and the sample inflection is 3rd. masc. sing. (PN = e, GN = ā) where applicable.
Non-aspectual | Aspectual | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Non-finite
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Finite |
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Notes
- ^ In some dialects, these ablative forms for time replace the regular ones.
- ^ The third row of Manner may have been derived from the emphatic forms of Reason.
- ^ Only Quantity is declinable.
References
- ^ Gill, Harjeet Singh and Gleason Jr, Henry A. (1969). A Reference Grammar of Panjabi. Patiala: Department of Linguistics, Punjabi University
- ^ Wals.info
- ^ ArLaam (similar to ArNoon) has been added to Unicode since Unicode 13.0.0, which can be found in Unicode Arabic Extended-A 08C7, PDF Pg 73 under "Arabic Letter for Punjabi” 08C7 : ࣇ ARABIC LETTER LAM WITH SMALL ARABIC LETTER TAH ABOVE
- ^ Shackle (2003:599)
- ^ Shackle (2003:600)
- ^ a b Shackle (2003:601)
- ^ Shackle (2003:602)
- ^ Shackle (2003:603)
- ^ Shackle (2003:604)
- ^ Butt, Miriam (2007). "The role of pronominal suffixes in Punjabi" (PDF). Architecture, rules, and preferences: 341–368.
- Wikidata Q112671425.
- Wikidata Q112671425.
- ^ Wikidata Q112671425.
- ^ a b c d e f "Let's Learn Punjabi: Research Centre for Punjabi Language Technology, Punjabi University, Patiala". learnpunjabi.org. Punjabi University, Patiala. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
- ^ Shackle (2003:607–608)
- Bhatia, Tej K. (1993). Punjabi: A Cognitive-Descriptive Grammar. London: Routledge.
Works cited
- ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2.
- Shackle, Christopher (2003), "Panjabi", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, pp. 581–621, ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5.
Further reading
- Duni Chandra (1964), ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ ਦਾ ਵਿਆਕਰਣ (in Punjabi), Chandigarh: Publication Bureau, Punjabi University, Wikidata Q112679423
- Sumeer Mittal; Navdeep Singh Sethi; Sanjeev Kumar Sharma (20 August 2014). "Part of Speech Tagging of Punjabi Language using N Gram Model". International Journal of Computer Applications. 100 (19): 19–23. Wikidata Q113385537.
- Mangat Rai Bhardwaj (2016). Panjabi: A Comprehensive Grammar. Abingdon-on-Thames: Wikidata Q112671425.
- Wikidata Q112671008.
- Buta Singh Brar (2012), ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ: ਸਰੋਤ ਤੇ ਸਰੂਪ (in Punjabi and Western Punjabi), India: Waris Shah Foundation, Wikidata Q113384298
- Harjeet Singh Gill (1973), Linguistic Atlas of the Punjab, Patiala: Publication Bureau, Punjabi University, Wikidata Q112690863