Speaking Punjabi amongst Gursikhs

I have been told that we as Gursikhs should speak Punjabi amongst other Gursikhs and those who are Punjabi.

What could be done to encourage other Gursikhs who are hesitant to speak Punjabi even though they are fluent speakers?
Also, why should we speak Punjabi as opposed to English amongst Gursikhs?

Thanks in advance.

ਬਹੁਤ ਵਦੀਆ ਗਲ ਹੈ ਆਪਾਂ ਸਾਰੇ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਵਿਚ ਬੋਲਿਆ ਕਰੀਏ

ਇਟ ਇਜ਼ ਔਲਵੇਜ਼ ਬੈਟਰ ਟੁ ਸਪੀਕ ਇਨ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਸਿੰਸ ਇਟ ਇਜ਼ ਅਵਰ ਮਦਰ ਟੰਗ

ਮਹਤਾਬ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੂ ਆਰ ਏ ਫੰਨੀ ਗਾਇ

Quote

ਮਹਤਾਬ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੂ ਆਰ ਏ ਫੰਨੀ ਗਾਇ

ਐਵਰੀਵਨ ਸੇਜ਼ ਦੈਟ, ਟੈਲ ਮੀ ਸੁਮਥਿੰਗ ਆਈ ਡੋਂਟ ਨੋ ਔਲਰੈਡੀ

Ones who are from Punjabi background but don't think in Punjabi and converse in a language other than Punjabi, they are very unfortunate. Sikhs who are not from Punjabi background can be excused if they don't speak Punjabi but Sikhs from Punjabi background ought to speak in Punjabi because not knowing Punjabi is detrimental to their Sikhi.

Often it is seen that youngsters brought up on UK, USA and Canada, converse in English when they get together. When they get married, they continue their habit and this results in their children totally becoming Goray. Already the youngsters born here speak in English and can't even speak one sentence of pure Punjabi and imagine who their children will.

Then they complain that their Sikhi is not good and that they can't focus etc. Punjabi is important to learn because our scriptures are in Punjabi. Our Gurbani is in Punjabi. How can we understand the message of Gurbani if we don't speak and understand Punjabi?

The ones who are handicap in Punjabi, have to rely on translations done by someone else, to understand Gurbani. These unfortunate people can never receive message from Gurbani directly. How sad...

Instead of fixing their problem and trying to learn and speak Punjabi, these people pass on their handicap-ness to their children by speaking pure English with them. This results in their children remaining totally devoid of comprehension of Gurbani.

For the sake of their children and for their own sake, the young couples who are brought up in these Western countries, should try their best to only speak in Punjabi with each other. It's not that hard. It is hard in the beginning but later on it becomes natural.

Kulbir Singh

Reading Gurbani and speaking Punjabi are two different things. Personally, I've studied Gurmukhi and language(s) used in Gurbani, so I can understand a lot of what is said in Gurbani (though at a very superficial level), but usually I'm almost clueless when listening to people speak in Punjabi.

Sikhi is universal and it shouldn't be tied to one language. If someone grows up in an English speaking country, then it's just natural that they think and speak in the language that's most familiar to them. It's also good, because when more Sikhs use the language of the country they live in, more resources in that language become available to both Sikhs and non-Sikhs, and more and more people around the world get to know about Sikhi!

Just my thoughts...

Punjabi Sikhs lived in Kashmir (a non Punjabi state) and Afghanistan for hundreds of years and they spoke the native language with fluency but they never lost touch of Punjabi and continued to speak Punjabi as well. God knows what happened when Punjabi Sikhs moved to English speaking countries. Why did they totally abandon Punjabi?

There is nothing wrong in mastering the native language of the country you are living in and as the matter of fact, one must be fluent in the native language but why should that be done at the cost of your mother-tongue?

The problem is not that the youngsters here know English very well but the problem is that they don't know Punjabi at all. In Punjab, from childhood, Punjabi, Hindi and English languages are taught and kids can understand and converse in these languages. Why should the kids in English countries totally become handicap in Punjabi and speak only English. The little Punjabi they speak is horrible since they can't speak most alphabets.

It is good time to realize our folly and make earnest efforts to bring Punjabi back into our lives, so that our Sikhi jeevan and our Gurbani understanding does not suffer.

Kulbir Singh

On the contrary where are our english speaking gianis ?

where are our english speaking kirtanies - to explain the message?

there are some but they're not good enough so that kids can aspire to take and learn the punjabi /gurmukhi language. This job is done brillantly by muslims where they have eloquent/articulate english speaking imams in madraas all over the western world . We fall way way behind at present.

English speaking Gyanis!!!! Reminds me of a Gyani jee who was asked by gorey Singhs/Bibis to translate a Shabad while he was singing.

The God Name very good Name. When man say God Name, the God happy.

but ns44 jee, no one is saying any thing against doing parchar in another language. In fact we should. The issue is why handicap yourself from Punjabi? if your parents can speak Punjabi and you yourself are a Punjabi, your Gurus spoke in Punjabi alot of our scriptures are in Punjabi, then one should make the effort to not abandon their mother tongue. As much as we can we should only speak Punjabi with our children to insure that the language is passed on to the next generation. Arab Muslims take great pride in Arabic so much so that it is non Arabic Muslims who tend to make an effort to learn Arabic since it is the language of their prophet and their scripture.

Why do Punjabi Sikhs feel embarrassed to speak Punjabi? So much of our literature is in this language. So much of Gurbani and Bhai Gurdas Diaan vana can be understood if one is fluent in Punjabi. Punjabi in my opinion is such a sweet language full of pyaar and shardha.

RSINGH jeeo i totally agree - without the punjabi/gurmuki kids are million miles away from their mother/father =- Guru Jee.

why they handicap ? i ask this to my own generation not just kids there are load of them who are qualified in their professions to the hilt but when it comes to punjabi their response is no need for it., no insipraton or desire to learn it.
The youngster of today has inferiorty complex problem which is the real issue.

This is not only a problem in english speaking western countries. Now a days in India also majority of Sikh families have taken to speaking Hindi not only outside Punjab but also in main cities in Punjab. The culture of convent schools or public schools where the teachers take proud in speaking in Hindi and also the mindset of parents who are engaged in watching hindi tv serials encourages them to speak hindi. Daas gets very surprised talking to some of the cousins in India who don't know how to speak punjabi or english but are fluent in hindi.

Daas remembers when we were young we were helped by out mother to start writing the gurmukhi akhars. We used to have a patti (wooden plank) which was covered with wet clay and dried to start writing on it. Also the Kalam (pen) and Syahi (ink) were prepared at home. This felt like using the calligraphy pens. Those who learned gurmukhi at very early age can engage more in reading punjabi literature and it helps in increasing the vocabulary.

Now both parents are working in most of the families. No one has time to devout an hour every day to help kids learn this. The possible way out of this trend is a more community support to families. Regular classes for teaching gurmukhi can help a lot. No matter how good you are at speaking punjabi, if you can not read or write it is no good. Effort has to be all forms of the language.

Akaal74 jeo, I just wanted to ask: do you live in India?
From all the trips I've taken to the Punjab, I have not noticed any Punjabi who lives there who chooses Hindi over Punjabi.
Whatever the khel maybe, I don't see a reason how this will be a conflict, or wrong?
Hindi and Punjabi are very close. A person fluent in Hindi too would not have much trouble apprehending the meaning and zeal expressed in Gurbani. Those whose mother tongues are the off-shoots of Punjabi, how do you expect them to speak this language? There are very good Sikhs living outside of Punjab in India, but according to the environment they live in, they are naturally geared towards Hindi or other Indian languages. Are they a less of a Sikh than Punjabi speaking Sikhs? How many Punjabis do you really see these days who are actually into Gurmat? The Gurmukhi script itself is an off-shoot of Southern Indian languages, that come under the umbrella of "Brahmi Languages". They are: Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu. These languages further form other Indian languages such as Bengali, Gujrati, Oriya, Devnagri, Tibetan and Punjabi(Gurmukhi). Many of the vowels commonly pronounced in Punjabi and written in the Gurmukhi script, actually come from the Brahmi Languages.
Furthermore, within Gurbani, there are numerous languages used. For example, this Shabad, which appears on Ang 721 is totally written in Farsi by Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji Sahib Maharaj:

ਯਕ ਅਰਜ ਗੁਫਤਮ ਪੇਸਿ ਤੋ ਦਰ ਗੋਸ ਕੁਨ ਕਰਤਾਰ ॥

ਹਕਾ ਕਬੀਰ ਕਰੀਮ ਤੂ ਬੇਐਬ ਪਰਵਦਗਾਰ ॥੧॥

ਦੁਨੀਆ ਮੁਕਾਮੇ ਫਾਨੀ ਤਹਕੀਕ ਦਿਲ ਦਾਨੀ ॥

ਮਮ ਸਰ ਮੂਇ ਅਜਰਾਈਲ ਗਿਰਫਤਹ ਦਿਲ ਹੇਚਿ ਨ ਦਾਨੀ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥

ਆਖਿਰ ਬਿਅਫਤਮ ਕਸ ਨ ਦਾਰਦ ਚੂੰ ਸਵਦ ਤਕਬੀਰ ॥੨॥

ਸਬ ਰੋਜ ਗਸਤਮ ਦਰ ਹਵਾ ਕਰਦੇਮ ਬਦੀ ਖਿਆਲ ॥

ਗਾਹੇ ਨ ਨੇਕੀ ਕਾਰ ਕਰਦਮ ਮਮ ਈ ਚਿਨੀ ਅਹਵਾਲ ॥੩॥

ਬਦਬਖਤ ਹਮ ਚੁ ਬਖੀਲ ਗਾਫਿਲ ਬੇਨਜਰ ਬੇਬਾਕ ॥

ਬਦਬਖਤ ਹਮ ਚੁ ਬਖੀਲ ਗਾਫਿਲ ਬੇਨਜਰ ਬੇਬਾਕ ॥

ਨਾਨਕ ਬੁਗੋਯਦ ਜਨੁ ਤੁਰਾ ਤੇਰੇ ਚਾਕਰਾਂ ਪਾ ਖਾਕ ॥੪॥੧॥

Whereas this Shabad is totally in Punjabi:
ਮਿਤ੍ਰ ਪਿਆਰੇ ਨੂੰ ਹਾਲ ਮੁਰੀਦਾਂ ਦਾ ਕਹਿਣਾ ॥

ਤੁਧੁ ਬਿਨੁ ਰੋਗੁ ਰਜਾਈਆਂ ਦਾ ਓਢਣ ਨਾਗ ਨਿਵਾਸਾਂ ਦੇ ਰਹਿਣਾ ॥

ਸੂਲ ਸੁਰਾਹੀ ਖੰਜਰੁ ਪਿਆਲਾ ਬਿੰਗ ਕਸਾਈਆਂ ਦਾ ਸਹਿਣਾ ॥

ਯਾਰੜੇ ਦਾ ਸਾਨੂੰ ਸੱਥਰੁ ਚੰਗਾ ਭੱਠ ਖੇੜਿਆਂ ਦਾ ਰਹਿਣਾ ॥੧॥੧॥੬॥

Why one Shabad is in Arabic, another in Persian, while others are in Northern and Southern Languages, is known only to Guru Sahib ji. No language is supreme or above another. For example; the people of Hindustan would commonly refer to Western languages (Arabic, Persian, Turkish, etc) as "Malechh". But then why would Guru Nanak Dev ji write a Shabad totally in Farsi?
Why has Punjabi not become the official language of either India or Pakistan? The masses are not Punjabi, mind you, but the Punjabi people are actually a minority within the greather Indian hemisphere. The Marathas, Rajisthanis and primarily the Hindi speakers actually outnumber the Punjabi people. Where there is a will, there is a way. If the people who consider Punjabi to be their official mother tongue had their own nation, where Punjabi would be taught as the official language, maybe the "problem" would not have evolved? But then again, the Punjabi language isn't the only language to have become extinct. In history, numerous languages have become extinct, when they have been overpowered by those who spoke a separate language or a dialect and took control of the land. Aren't there more important issues to be discussed, such as reducing the drug use within today's "Punjabi" youth? Preaching to today's "Punjabis" about the importance and significance of growing Kes?

Daas doesn't lives in India. But over last few years has seen this trend of speaking hindi increasing in Punjab especially in cities like Jalandhar, Chandigarh .... purpose of my post was to suggest that learning gurmukhi will help in bringing us closer to gurbani. So focus should not be just on spoken punjabi language but on reading and writing of gurmukhi script as well.

The Brahmi script came into being before 500 BC, and was used around the Indus valley until about 2000 BC. From this Brahmi script, developed 40 or so other languages, who share the same consonents and vowels as Brahmi. Some of these languages were:Bengali, Devanāgarī, Gujarāti, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Khmer, Malayalam, Oriya, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu and Tibetan. All these languages share the same consonents and vowels, since the ancestor of these languages is Brahmi. Here are the diagrams of consonents and vowels from the Brahmi language alphabet:

Brahmi Consonents:



Brahmi Vowels:


The points I am trying to get across is, if the vowels and the consonents are primarily the same within the national languages of India, then why would a non-Punjabi have difficulty understaning Gurbani? It's not like Gurbani only contains the Punjabi language, it is a diverse Granth.

Baask jeeo you make some interesting points which are positive in nature and very details - many thanks for sharig such views.

It goes to show that if Guru Sahiban went deep into other languages and explained the love of almighty then so should Sikhs embrace other languages as a must and explain/ perpetuate in the world of what SGGS is about. If we don;t embrace other languages for this vital introduction to the joe public in their host country - how else will anyone learn more about Gursikhe and it's beauties? This i believe is the first stepping stone which will leave the heart pierced ones to learn punjabi Gurmuki- the exact way the American sikhs have done - first they learned the basics through the english language then they embraced Gurmuki - panjabi- now some of them as we know have their own Gurdwaras in California. The successful transistional example is right in front of us . I feel instead of asking why Punjabi sikhs in the western hemisphere don't speak or get in the habit of English - we're at a loss becasue we haven't articluated even the english enough to persuade them to learn more and to also to embrace other modern day languages as a big big MUST.