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Should we stop calling Punjabi Script Gurmukhi or Shahmukhi and only use the term when applied to religious use of the Alphabet?


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So should we stop calling Punjabi Script Gurmukhi or Shahmukhi and only use the term when applied to religious use of the Alphabet? The Sri Guru Granth contains many Indian languages, which for ease of reading the Gurus and others wrote and compiled all using the Alphabet Guru Angad constructed.  There are many sections in Punjabi of the 16th and 17th century included along with Baba Farid's Saloks from the 11th Century. However when the alphabet ( its actually an abugida developed from the Laṇḍā scripts of Punjab) is used in the context only of Punjabi, are we not going against the principles of the Gurus and its application to the main language that uses it? Did not the Gurus intend to use the common tongue instead of a fancy academic language which was not accessible to the masses ( eg Sanskrit, much like Latin restricted access to normal Christians allowing for a priestly and upper class Elite?) for communicating their message? If so it was not only intended for Sikhs, but also Hindus , Muslims and any one else interested.

With this in mind then, was it not the British and Mughals that caused the spilt in the people's mind by divide and conquer along the lines of Sikh, Hindu and Muslim, thus highlighting our differences instead of our similarities and also perpetuate a false history which they wrote down and implanted in our brains ever since their Raj and is not fully ingrained with hate?

That latter line is a different subject and one for Sikh Scholars. However from a language perspective it shows we have fallen into a terrible trap re the Punjabi language. Guru Angad like the other Gurus  meant for all the common people to have access to the teachings of the Adi Granth. He adapted an existing Punjabi Alphabet to correctly capture the sounds of the Punjabi language. 

To that point the Arabic / Persian foreign script had been used to write Punjabi and whilst it did its best to adapt to the language, there are many flaws when it comes to sounds ect, as there would be adapting English / Latin alphabet. From that perspective are we not doing a disservice to Punjabi by having two official scripts, named as Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi, which immediately have the impact of splitting it on religious allegiances  and excluding Hindus, Christians and non religious people?  The Gurmukhi script is not only perfect for reading the Adi Granth, but for the general public it appears to be the better script for Punjabi. It may even be adapted to other languages.

Therefore from a Punjabi language perspective to unify the language does it not make sense that outside of a Gurdawara just to call it Punjabi? Now the Bengalis like the Punjabis suffered a lot from Partition.

See Links

https://sikhspirit.com/punjabi-or-gurmukhi/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurmukhi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_language

 

Yet when it came to language, be they Indian Bengali, or Bangladeshi, they use the same script and do not tie it to their respective religions. There is no Arabic or Sanskrit flavour, though to the modern Pakistani it may look like "Hindi", it is not. This means they can communicate and read each others writings. It has also allowed the Bengali language to evolve at the same rate as European languages.

Punjabi is going the other way. People give too much credence to linking it solely to their religion and I guess a country calling itself the Islamic republic feels it has to. But does it? It has already lost touch with its natural language ( Only talking about Punjab Province here) replacing it not only with English, but with Urdu and Arabic. All of them imported languages with Urdu just be an Indian language on which Modern Hindi with the addition of Sanskrit words is based. Day by day Lahnda Punjabi is being arabised and Charda Punjabi is being Hindified. If this goes on for 1 more decade, Punjabi will die and be replaced by two new languages. Already 40% of the words used on both sides ( all introduced post 1947) are not longer mutually intelligible in the written languages though when Punjabis speak to each other so far they fully understand each other.

That may not be the case soon as everyone born post 2000 in Indian Punjab have more Hindi words in their lexicon and in Pakistani Punjab more Arab, Urdu and Persian ones.

 

Surely both sides need the same alphabet to communicate?

I humbly suggest lets start calling Gurmukhi simply Punjabi and help make it secular  

 

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On 9/23/2021 at 4:50 AM, ਰੂਪ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ said:

So should we stop calling Punjabi Script Gurmukhi or Shahmukhi and only use the term when applied to religious use of the Alphabet? The Sri Guru Granth contains many Indian languages, which for ease of reading the Gurus and others wrote and compiled all using the Alphabet Guru Angad constructed.  There are many sections in Punjabi of the 16th and 17th century included along with Baba Farid's Saloks from the 11th Century. However when the alphabet ( its actually an abugida developed from the Laṇḍā scripts of Punjab) is used in the context only of Punjabi, are we not going against the principles of the Gurus and its application to the main language that uses it? Did not the Gurus intend to use the common tongue instead of a fancy academic language which was not accessible to the masses ( eg Sanskrit, much like Latin restricted access to normal Christians allowing for a priestly and upper class Elite?) for communicating their message? If so it was not only intended for Sikhs, but also Hindus , Muslims and any one else interested.

With this in mind then, was it not the British and Mughals that caused the spilt in the people's mind by divide and conquer along the lines of Sikh, Hindu and Muslim, thus highlighting our differences instead of our similarities and also perpetuate a false history which they wrote down and implanted in our brains ever since their Raj and is not fully ingrained with hate?

That latter line is a different subject and one for Sikh Scholars. However from a language perspective it shows we have fallen into a terrible trap re the Punjabi language. Guru Angad like the other Gurus  meant for all the common people to have access to the teachings of the Adi Granth. He adapted an existing Punjabi Alphabet to correctly capture the sounds of the Punjabi language. 

To that point the Arabic / Persian foreign script had been used to write Punjabi and whilst it did its best to adapt to the language, there are many flaws when it comes to sounds ect, as there would be adapting English / Latin alphabet. From that perspective are we not doing a disservice to Punjabi by having two official scripts, named as Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi, which immediately have the impact of splitting it on religious allegiances  and excluding Hindus, Christians and non religious people?  The Gurmukhi script is not only perfect for reading the Adi Granth, but for the general public it appears to be the better script for Punjabi. It may even be adapted to other languages.

Therefore from a Punjabi language perspective to unify the language does it not make sense that outside of a Gurdawara just to call it Punjabi? Now the Bengalis like the Punjabis suffered a lot from Partition.

See Links

https://sikhspirit.com/punjabi-or-gurmukhi/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurmukhi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjabi_language

 

Yet when it came to language, be they Indian Bengali, or Bangladeshi, they use the same script and do not tie it to their respective religions. There is no Arabic or Sanskrit flavour, though to the modern Pakistani it may look like "Hindi", it is not. This means they can communicate and read each others writings. It has also allowed the Bengali language to evolve at the same rate as European languages.

Punjabi is going the other way. People give too much credence to linking it solely to their religion and I guess a country calling itself the Islamic republic feels it has to. But does it? It has already lost touch with its natural language ( Only talking about Punjab Province here) replacing it not only with English, but with Urdu and Arabic. All of them imported languages with Urdu just be an Indian language on which Modern Hindi with the addition of Sanskrit words is based. Day by day Lahnda Punjabi is being arabised and Charda Punjabi is being Hindified. If this goes on for 1 more decade, Punjabi will die and be replaced by two new languages. Already 40% of the words used on both sides ( all introduced post 1947) are not longer mutually intelligible in the written languages though when Punjabis speak to each other so far they fully understand each other.

That may not be the case soon as everyone born post 2000 in Indian Punjab have more Hindi words in their lexicon and in Pakistani Punjab more Arab, Urdu and Persian ones.

 

Surely both sides need the same alphabet to communicate?

I humbly suggest lets start calling Gurmukhi simply Punjabi and help make it secular  

 

From my foreign perspective, I actually consider Guri and Punjabi different languages. I know that Guri is heavily Punjabi, and I will learn much Punjabi learning Guri. My main interest is first in Guri however. 

The Paanth does need a living language to do everyday things in, and a robust and living Punjabi, like you contribute to, is perfect for that. 

I think its great to use Gurmukhi for all sorts of languages but still call it Gurmukhi, and keep focus on the Guru Sahiban. 

Other languages that used religous alphabets were stymied because those alphabets were not supposed to be used for certain things, as it was considered sacreligous, but I don't think that hangup exists with Gurmukhi. 

 

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I think this is a good idea, and what we can do is add another line to the existing 40, to create this 'Panjabi' alphabet and call the other one the Gurmukhi alphabet. The new line should be phonemes that correspond to common english words that currently don't exist. I'd say the 'T' in 'The'; specifically differentiating between Vs and Ws (maybe a vavaa pair bindhi?), the short vowel at the end of 'The' are serious contenders for the new line.       

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