Which Script Should I Learn?

Gurmukhi is the script of Indian Punjab. This does fit the sounds of Punjabi a bit better than the other script as the vowels are easier to read and sound out within the script. The consonants also fully match the characters so there are not combinations like there are in shahmukhi. There are 35 core letters and a handful of characters for borrowed sounds.

Choose this one if your family is from Indian Punjab and/or if you want to read Punjabi published in India. Gurmukhi is recommended if you have no preference between the two and are intending to develop your fluency further as language learning resources are a bit more abundant in Gurmukhi than Shahmukhi.

Shahmukhi is the script of Pakistani Punjab. It is a Perso-Arabic alphabet, closely related to the one used for Urdu. It is harder to sound out words, as the short vowels are often not written in this script.

Choose this one if your family is from Pakistani Punjab or if you want to read Punjabi published in Pakistan. If you want to be able to read Urdu as well, this is probably a better option as it will be extremely easy to learn that script after Shahmukhi.

Of course! We offer both at a discounted price of $30 AUD instead of $40 AUD. Just be aware, unless you can identify a time when you would use both, there are diminishing returns to being able to read either. Try one first, give it a week or two after you finish the course, then decide. The discount is applied at any time so no pressure!