Punjabi to English Translation

Punjabi to English translation connects a language with well over 100 million native speakers to the world's most common language of international communication. Punjabi is the most widely spoken first language in Pakistan, and in India it is the official language of the state of Punjab and one of the 22 scheduled languages of the country. Its speakers also form some of the largest South Asian communities abroad, so people regularly need to turn Punjabi text into English for family, study, work and paperwork. Punjabi is written in two different scripts, and this matters for translation. In Indian Punjab it is written left to right in Gurmukhi, a script standardized in the 16th century by the second Sikh Guru, Guru Angad, and used for the Guru Granth Sahib. In Pakistani Punjab it is written right to left in Shahmukhi, a Perso-Arabic script closely related to Urdu. The spoken language is the same, but the two scripts are not interchangeable. This page is built for Gurmukhi input, so Shahmukhi text should be translated through the Urdu to English page or converted to Gurmukhi first. Punjabi is one of the few Indo-Aryan languages that uses lexical tone: a word can carry a high, low or level tone that changes its meaning. Gurmukhi does not mark tone with a separate symbol, so the tone has to be inferred from the spelling and context, which is one reason a good Punjabi to English translator reads whole sentences rather than isolated words. Standard Punjabi also shares much everyday grammar with Hindi and Urdu, but its vocabulary and verb forms differ, so a Hindi translator is not a reliable substitute. Diaspora communities have made Punjabi a global language. It is among the most commonly reported mother tongues in Canada and the United Kingdom, with large communities in places such as Brampton, Surrey (British Columbia), Southall and Birmingham. People use Punjabi to English translation to read letters and messages from relatives, understand school and government forms, follow Punjabi songs and films, and read Sikh religious texts alongside their English renderings.