ਸਤਿ Or ਸਤ (Truth)

[johnyork]

ਸਤਿ or ਸਤ (truth)

I have seen it spelled both ways (ਸਤਿ ਸਤ). I have heard it pronounced ਸਤ. So, is ਸਤ the spelling to reflect how it is pronounced? Is one spelling correct and one spelling incorrect? Is there some reason that both of these spellings exist.

[Raaj.Karega.Khalsa]

In entire Gurbani ਸਤਿ is only used to refer to the truth, whereas ਸਤ (with or without other 'maatra') can usually refer to the truth, the juice of a lemon for example, the number seven (and I assume there are more too).

In case of Punjabi, there have been many changes in words and their usage. If you read Bhai Randheer Singh ji's books that were written in the duration of 1930-40s, there is a huge range of vocabulary that you won't find in today's language.

Here are some interesting changes that took place in the English language:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_spelling_reform#Arguments_for_reform

For example, music was spelledmusick until the 1880s, and fantasy was spelled phantasy until the 1920s.^[25] For a time, almost all words with the -orending (such as error) were once spelled -our (errour) and almost all words with the -er ending (such as member) were once spelled -re (membre). In American spelling, most of them now use -or and -er, but in British spelling, only some have been reformed.

[dalsingh101]

Gurbani uses a grammar system where siharis and aunkars denote whether words are verbs, nouns and their tenses etc.

It's my personal belief that during the 18th century, with all the persecution of Sikhs, the need for survival emphasised warrior skills over literary ones, so some of the knowledge in this department was attenuated during this period. Also the main bulk of Sikh converts at this time come from working class backgrounds (i..e peasants, artisans and other menial workers), who weren't traditionally occupied with literary pursuits, so a simplification of the language also naturally took place.

Then subsequent 'annexation' led to further European influences on the language (i.e. splitting up separate words, adding question marks, speech marks etc.). So as mentioned in the last post the language has gone through a lot of changes.

However, a great source on Gurbani grammar (for anyone interested) in Professor Sahib Singh's monumental work Gurbani Viakaran, which is available (probabaly free!) on scribd (for any grammarian type interested).

Hope this helps.

[johnyork]

Raaj Ji and Dal Singh Ji, very good replies.