Generate Punjabi subtitles for your English videos

From the Latin alphabet to Gurmukhi

English is written in the Latin alphabet and Punjabi in Gurmukhi, so the exported file uses a different writing system from the audio that produced it. The subtitle formats handle that — SRT and VTT are plain text and carry any script — but the font in whatever plays the file has to cover it.

This is the most common reason a Punjabi subtitle track looks correct in an editor and shows boxes or blanks on a device. Test on the target platform before you publish a batch.

How English audio becomes Punjabi subtitles

Audio in English (English) is transcribed first, then translated into Punjabi (ਪੰਜਾਬੀ). Because the translation runs on the transcript rather than on the audio, the Punjabi subtitle file keeps the timings of the original English speech — each line appears at the moment it was actually said.

Why translate English video into Punjabi

English is spoken principally in worldwide; Punjabi in Indian Punjab, and in Pakistan where it is written in Shahmukhi. A Punjabi subtitle track is what lets one recording reach both audiences without re-recording, re-editing or dubbing it.

Because subtitles are a separate file rather than part of the picture, you can attach several language tracks to the same video and let viewers pick.

About the English audio

English has a wider spread of accents than any other language here, and the gap between spelling and pronunciation means recognition leans on context rather than sound alone. Names and technical terms are where errors concentrate, because those are exactly the words context cannot predict.

About the Punjabi subtitles

Transcription here produces Gurmukhi, the script used in Indian Punjab. Punjabi spoken in Pakistan is conventionally written in the Perso-Arabic Shahmukhi script instead — the speech is largely mutually intelligible, but the two scripts are not interchangeable in a subtitle file.

What an English to Punjabi subtitle file looks like

Four lines of English speech, transcribed and translated, as they come out of the exported SRT. The timings are the English speaker's — translation does not move them, which is why the file drops onto the original video unchanged.

1
00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:03,240
ਸਾਰਿਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਸ਼ੁਭ ਸਵੇਰ।

2
00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:06,120
ਆਉਣ ਲਈ ਸਾਰਿਆਂ ਦਾ ਧੰਨਵਾਦ।

3
00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,300
ਕੀ ਤੁਹਾਨੂੰ ਮੈਂ ਸਾਫ਼ ਸੁਣਾਈ ਦੇ ਰਿਹਾ ਹਾਂ?

4
00:00:09,700 --> 00:00:12,040
ਅਗਲੀ ਵਾਰ ਮਿਲਾਂਗੇ।

What to check before publishing

• Names and places, which translation handles less reliably than ordinary prose.
• Idiom — a phrase that is natural in English may need loosening to read well in Punjabi.
• That Gurmukhi renders in your player, not just in the editor you exported from.
• Timing on fast exchanges, where two speakers overlap.