Colloquial Panjabi: The Complete Course for Beginners

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Mangat Rai Bhardwaj

Contents First published 1995 by Routledge 11 New Feller Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously publish.cd in the USA and Canada by Rouliedge

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Acknowledgements A word to the learner Panjabi pronunciation and writing system

C 1995 Mangat Rai Bhardwaj Reprinted 2004

Routledge i.' an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group Typeset in Times by Thomson Press (India) Ltd, New Delhi, India

1 6

Conversation units 1 oft U'K~?

Printed and bound in Great Britain by BiddIes Ltd, King's Lynn, Norfolk All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any fonn or by any electronic, mechanical , or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording. or in any infonnation storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

vii

22

How are you?

2 fHH

Panjabi symbol invisible

,

f 1

, •

,

Nasalisation A vowel sound is said to be nasalised ifit is pronounced through the mouth and the nose at the same time. [n our transcription, we show nasalisation by placing the symbol - above the vowel symbol. as in 0 :, U. etc.

Tones

The ' tail' of the phonetic symbol t for '3' indicates thai this consonant is pronounced by curling the tongue, as fo r the so~nds of the t+g~p· t is simply a quick and rapid 4. pronounced by flappmg the undersl(~ of the tongue against the palate. lf x: is pronounced like 'ch' in the Scottish word jJf

'invisible symbol' and ' no symbol ' will become clear when we deal with the Panjabi letters known as the vowel-bearers.

e

No English equivalents

' loch'. and

15

Length short long short long short long long long long long

Remember. we have said that the symbol for the Panjabi vowel is invisible. We have not said that this vowel has no symbol. The distinction between

Tones are nOI marked in the Panjabi script. But in our phonetic transcription we mark the low lone by the symbol' and the high lone by the symbol ' placed above the vowel symbol , as in a and t .

[kocit ] [kdCi ,[ [k6Ci ,[ lkoco :1 {k6co:] Ik6co'l

link

clock cony whip horse leper

Other symbols To complete the list, we mention the remaining symbols used in the Panjabi script.

•

marker of a long or 'double' consonant marker of a homorganic nasal consonant or nasalisation ofa vowel marker of nasalisation of a vowel r in some positions 6 in some positions v in some positions

Do not worry about these symbols. They will be dealt with later on in the book.

16---------------------------------separately as special consonants. Listen to and repeat the following words. Take care that you do not omit the 'r' sound in these words.

m

Pronunciation practice Lislen to the cassettes if you have them, and repeat.

Vowels ~ The English near-equivalentS of Panjabi vowels given below are those of the standard Southern English unless otherwise specified.

Vowel

Example

Length

English near-equivalent

a

omor

short long

like "a' in 'about' like 'a' in 'ann'

short

long

like 'i' in 'sit' like 'ee' "seed'

o:p

i:

klr bh

u u,

tur ru:s

short long

like '00' in 'OOok' like '00' in 'food'

• •

seb

long long

like Scottish 'a' in 'gate' like 'a' in 'bad', but slightly longer

0

fto

long

3

",k'

long

·r

like Scottish '0' in 'home' like '0' in 'God'. but slightly longer

You need to practise the nasalised varieties of long vowels only.

0:

•

mo:j ni:d bii:d gid

Example

k k'

kor

c c' j

I I' li'

boy

""'" "f
MRS SINGH:

MRS VARMA:

How many brothers tJIId sisters are you ? We are jil'e brothers and sisters. Three brothers and two sisters. And you? We are four. I luJve three older brothers.

MRS VARMA: MRS SINGH:

MRS V A RMA:

Word order tusi : you

kinne how many sisler brothers How many brothers and sisters are you?

flo? are

asi: we five sisler We are five brothers and sisters.

b·aro.:

~

brothers

flO:.

are

Exercises

You have learnt a language well when you aTe able to understand sentences you have never come across before and are able to produce sentences you have never produced before. There is no mystery in this.

1 . An 0O:cial from the local Social Services Depanment comes to Our neighbour ~ house 10 gel some information. BUI your neighbour doe: nOI speak Enghsh. Can you act as an interpreter? Official: You: Neighbour: Official; You: Neighbour: You: OfficiaJ: You: Neighbour: You: Official; You: Neighbour. You; Official: You; Neighbour.

What 's your name? ? anvar aJi:. What 's your job? ? mt kamm n6ffi: karda:. How mony children do you have?

mere co:r bocce ne. ? Boys or girls? ? tinn munete. ikk ku(i:.

Do they go to school? ?

munqe school jCi:de ne. ku(i: chaO: Ih:. tift nur.~ery jii:di: fi t.

You:

When you have the building blocks of the language (words). know how

they are shaped correctly for use in sentences (such as adding number and gender endings). and also know how they are arranged in sentences to express desired meaning in various types of situations. you have learnt the language. In other words, as you progress. you should go on building up your vocabulary and learning grammar. These exercises are meant to help you in both these processes. Read carefully what we have done so far and then attempt these exercises. After each exercise. check your answers with the Key given at the end of the book.. Carefully note down and analyse your mistakes and attempt the exercise again next week. As you progress. keep returning to earlier chapters and exercises again and again until you have mastered them. More and more practice will help you remember more and more. Remember that Correct. intelligent and persistent practice i.f the method used by most successfullangl4age learners.

~ If you have the cassctlc recordings. listen to them and Ih Inform t' bo en enter a 100 a ut the second speaker on the following form. Surname First name{s) Home address Occupatio n Work address Mode of travel 10 wad: 3 When the follow ing parag h was infect db ' rap s e y a mystenous and up same grammatical ending. "nd .. ..

be' were mg typed, aUf computer nameless virus. This virus ate , orms of the verb ft t and then

46------------------------------(10 add insult 10 injury!) left a 'Victory sign' where it had done thedarnage. Can you restore what the virus has gobbled up?

osi: ca:r b'oro.: ~. m£ number do ~. mer 8' bat ' bled: s6:Hob do:klor ~. 6ft 1Uf\.
1Ilit»r iIffiJ

God (used by Sikhs) kindness. grace desirable, desired okra defini tely is

else. more something. anything how much carrot aubergine tomato today It doesn't matter green coriander chilli

Colloquial pronunciation Most speakers of Panjabi pronounce co:fti:da: as 1c6:i:da:l, i.e. without the ft sound but with a high tone. You are likely to come across different pronunciations ofltufta:4,o:) such as (t'uo:4,a:l, It'octo:). ltuo:4,o:]. depending upon the dialect o f the

49 speaker. Similarly, tufta:nii: ('to you'), is pronounced as (tuo:ou:), [cio:ou:}, ltl'uo:nii:J, It'anu:) and even (sonu :J by speakers of Panjabi coming from different areas. But you are absolutely safe with the pronunciation used in this book. JUSt be aware of the differences which exist. While listening to the recording of the dialogue you may have nOliced that the l sound in kol is different from the I sound in ako:! . Some dialects of Panjabi (including the one used in this course) have two varieties of l. In addition to the ordinary I sound, they use a stl'ange-sounding (to Western ears) variety of I in words like kol. You pronounce it by curling the tongue backward, as you do for t, 4, and t. Linguists write this sound as land cal l it retron ex l . They would transcribe kol as kol . But we wil l not be using the symbol l in our transcription, and the Panjabi alphabet has no special letter for the l sound either. It uses the letter K for both I and l . But if you find this sound hard, do not use it and stick 10 I. Many speakers of Panjabi do not use it either.

Brothers and sisters Mohan addresses Kulwant as bltq,Jl: ('sister') and Kulwant responds by addressing him as biOTa: ji: ('brothe r'). blo: ji: [po: jl:) is also used and i~ considered less formal. Addressing unrelated people in this way is a part of the culture of the Indian subcontinent.

'What is desirable to you?' In English 'What do }ou want?' is considered less polile than 'What would you like to have'" Similarly in Panjabi

tusi: you

ki : what

c6.:fiiide desiring

fio?

are

would be considered less polite. like the English 'What do you want?' The polite Panjabi expression is tufta:nu: ki: c6:fil:do: you-to what desirable is What is desirable to you? or What is desired by you? Note thai the the 'object of desire' is the grammatical subject in such canst . ructIons. So the verb carries the number-gender affix according to

50

- - - - - - - - - - - - - 51 the desired object. and nOI according to the desiring person. If the person wants two pounds of carrots. she would say

mmii: me-to

do two

p~

ga:joro:

c6fti:dl:a:

pounds

carrots

desirable

Separable or transferable possessions In Conversation unit 2 we came across

ne ac.

mere do my two I have two brothers.

Note the feminine plural affix -1:0: in c6.fli:di:o: because the 'object of

desire' (go:Jorci: - 'carrots') is feminine and plural. m£llii: is clearly me: (' I') plus the postposition nih ('to'). So we glossed it as 'me-to'. tufla:nii: is actually tusi: ('you') plus nu: . But changes

in pronunciation do take place when postpositions are added to pronouns. These changes are discussed in the Grammatical summary. pages 222-224.

tuftoJ(le koI your near Do you have okra?

tuOa:4,e kol b-.nrH

wuwi -.lH

*'

"'" Iii W

the room on a wble. '

opinion. idea window in front of; facing talk. saying near wall along, with that (conj.) to fix

mere xio:1 my opimon In my opinion

c in

the adjective mere appears to have the masculine plural ending -e. But this is not really the case, It is still masculine singular. mere, in this P m.

matter

tabi:ot if) ma:mu:lI:

31ft»I3' >l'lj'II

sir (m)

fI«r

health slight. ordinary head ache. pain Oh God! (Muslim)

tW

why

dard(/) Ho:e 0110: 1 khi job (/) komi:z CfJ pucx" jono:b (m)

g'l>r [kl>r] (m) maza:k (m)

--------------------------------------59

fI!»r

..... k ne'? sangi:t to Ha:va: . Mohal w:flab, songi:t mem: f;:,k n6fii:, kamm 8e. ka:robo:r flc. vcse, mere kai: f::»k 8en. menu: p6['an do: f:>k flc. kavitu: te gilt lik"Cll\.da: f::»k 8e. kho:rtO: pako:UI\ do: f:lk 8c. kha:rtO: pako:urt, do:'!'

Well, Mr Sharma, please tell us what your hobbies are. Besides music.

PREM:

Mr ':'Iahal, music is no/ my hobby. It 's my profession, my bUSiness. But J do have a number of hobbies. I'm fond of reading, writing poetry and songs, and cooking. Cooking? Yes.

AVTAR:

Then your wife is very lucky.

PREM:

That J don't know. She likes my food a lot, bllt my music not at all.

AVTAR:

Do your daughters and sons like your music? Daughters, yes; SOliS, 110.

Dialogues

Dialogue 1 ~

AVTAR:

?REM:

d"l.:il: nu: fic, puuarii: nil: n6ffi:.

Vocabulary f>k (m)

~

songi:t (m) i1o:vo:

1IofB

..

to

"

ka:roba:r (m)

H,.

pot' [pO[J kovito: if) gilt (m) lik" k~a:tt.a: (m) PDka: P~er to; ~UJkismat

POtni: if)

Pata: (m)

1J3liI

hobby, interest music besides, in addition to otherwise business are (emphatic form ) to read poetry. poem song to write food. meal to cook then, in that case fo rtunate. lucky wife

113'

knowledge. information

.. rew.~

~ ~

"'!

at