With the immense blessings of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, I have worked on transliterating the accurate pronunciation of the Jap Ji Sahib through the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in an attempt to facilitate and to overcome the difficulties faced in reading this particular Baani.
I felt the IPA was most fitting for this particular project, as it gave a distinct physical description of every human sound produced and allows one to understand the place of articulation, the manner and voicing of sounds. The transcription of the phonetic symbols used in this piece is of standard British English.
The inspiration to transliterate the exact pronunciation of the Jap Ji Sahib came after attending the European Yoga Festival in France, where I was very fortunate to have sat with groups of individuals from the festival and supported them with the correct reading of the Jap Ji Sahib. Despite using the roman transliteration to guide them, many of the individuals were struggling to articulate and pronounce the various sounds accurately or could not distinguish between how certain consonant and vowel sounds were physically produced.
It was at this point I identified there was a great need for those who were illiterate in Gurmukhi and required more than just the roman transliteration. Having studied Linguistics at university, I was able to analyse the distinctive sounds, phonemes and the separation of words and syllables of various international languages. I decided to put these skills to use and phonetically create the sounds of Gurmukhi through the IPA to allow the reader to recognise and articulate the various consonant and vowel sounds of Gurmukhi as accurately as possible.
A phonetic chart has been created below, which provides examples of each symbol with its correct pronunciation and tips on how to articulate the sound according to its place and manner when reciting the phonetic transliteration of the Jap Ji Sahib.
I humbly ask the Sangat for their forgiveness if there are any errors made in the phonetic transliteration of the Jap Ji Sahib.
Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh
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