Guest Punjabi Nationalist Posted March 18, 2004 Report Share Posted March 18, 2004 Not many people seem to be aware of the history of spoken Punjabi and development of Punjabi in writing. People may also not be aware of Guru Nanak's contribution to the Punjabi language. Many Punjabi poets and writers consider Guru Nanak to have been one of the greatest composers of Punjabi poetry and prose of his time, and perhaps he was the first to have such a big impact on Punjabi language since Baba Farid who lived 3 centuries before. Well, during Guru Nanak's life time there was no Gurmukhi script, as this was developed by Guru Angad Dev who basically modified and updated the Landa script. Gurmukhi was then later completed by adding extra characters for "Z" sound etc. Indians and Hindu fanatics often try to claim that Punjabi is a dialect of Hindi and Gurmukhi a "language invented by Sikhs". They also claim that Guru Nanak wrote in Hindi and not Punjabi. Well, obviously thats BS but what i want to know is what script did Guru Nanak Ji use to write Punjabi? Was it Persian based script (Shahmukhi) or Landa? Or didnt Guru Nanak even write much in Punjabi at all? (If not, then why is he credited with making significant contributions to Punjabi language???) Secondly, if Guru Nanak had written using Persian script then did Guru Angad Dev Ji develop Gurmukhi so that the Guru Granth Sahib would be distinct from the Qur'an or was it just simply that Landa script needed upgrading and Gurmukhi alphabet would be more easy for the masses to learn? Thanks to anyone who can help. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamuka Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 Is the SGGS written in Punjabi or Persian? I've gone through it and it does not sound Punjabi at all. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr §ingh Posted March 19, 2004 Report Share Posted March 19, 2004 The script used is indeed Gurmuhki, might have come from Landa, but was 'invented' by Guru Angad Dev jee, who wrote GUru Nanak Dev je's Bani in Gurmukhi. As for bani being in Panjab - most of it is but a lot of our OWN language has been changed :cry: I.e. UR - heart - isn't being used in panjabi anymore, there are plenty more sa isn't it? most of it is Panjabi, but then there are words from 'BRIJ* a few from 'Sanskrit' *arabic' etc bhull cyhukk maaf GurFAth 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Punjabi Nationalist Posted March 21, 2004 Report Share Posted March 21, 2004 Is the SGGS written in Punjabi or Persian? I've gone through it and it does not sound Punjabi at all. Most of it is in Punjabi but there are other languages present like Persian and Braj. I can only assume because for like 800 years Persian was the language of the courts and the elite in Punjab and Guru Nanak Ji and other Guru's were well versed in Persian. Up until British rule in Punjab educated Punjabis were bi-lingual in Punjabi and Persian. Braj is probably in there because this was the local tongue of many people in what is now Haryana state. And as Mr Singh said, there is also some Sanskrit there too. (Probably to show people that there is nothing divine about a language). The script used is indeed Gurmuhki, might have come from Landa, but was 'invented' by Guru Angad Dev jee, who wrote GUru Nanak Dev je's Bani in Gurmukhi. Exactly. So what did Guru Nanak compose his bani in? If Punjabi, then i would like to know what script he used (If you know). Thanks, 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr §ingh Posted March 21, 2004 Report Share Posted March 21, 2004 If Im not mistaken, I THINK it was written in Devangri, however I need to confirm that. I'll ask a friend of mine if he knows, or we'll wait for someone here to respond 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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