Pronouncing Laga Matras?

I have always been under the belief that many of the Laga Matras in Gurbani such as Sihari and Aunkad are placed at the end of words for grammatical reasons. People who belive all Laga Matras should be pronounced claim there is no such thing as Gurbani grammer stating Gurbani grammer was invented by Professor Sahib Singh under the influence of the British. Their main objection is the structure of Gurbani grammar is exactly similar to English Grammar.

I believe such claims are very weak. Every language has grammer and Gurbani/gurmukhi is a language so it must have grammer. But I believe Gurbani Grammer is distinct, and I dont think Gurbani grammer can be compared to any wordly grammer especially English, but if there is resemblance of Gurbani Grammar with any worldy langauge there surely it would be Sanskirt as Punjabi derives from Sanksrit and many of the Laga Matras in Sanskirt have the same symbols as in Gurmukhi such as the Sihari and Aunkad, and Sanskrit Grammar and Gurbani Grammar share many of the same princples. For exapmple , if their is a "case" ( karak) which is locative there will be a sihari placed at the end of the word. The sihari in both Gurmukhi and Sanskrit looks like f. On the other hand the English language there is no distinct sign within a word to indicate the word is locative; instead a person can only understand the word is locative because the word is connected to a preposition. Also there are no words in English Grammar to differentiate between the different cases English words only have an apostrophe to distinguish if a word is singular or plural so its clear Gurbani grammar resembles Sanskrit much more then English.

I have noticed In the " grammar cases" of Sanskrit the laga matras is pronounced according to the case. For example the word " to eat" in Sanskrit is written and pronounced differently according to its case. In Locative the word " to eat" os written as आदति ( ek vachan) and pronounced as adati while in the Dative case ( ek vachan) it is written as आदते and is pronounced as adate ( ending pronounced as there is a lava). Notice under the locative case there is a sihari and the sihari is pronounced, but I have always heard many Gursikhs say in Gurmukhi that Sihari and Aunkad dont get prounced at the end of words as the Laga Matra are only there for Grammatical reasons. So my question is why do Laga Matras such as Sihari get pronounced in Sanskrit to differentiate between the cases , but not in Gurmukhi and how is the listener of Gurbani suppose to understand the meanings of the words if the laga matra is not pronounced?

After further reflection I think the reason we don't pronounce ending laga matras is because Gurbani is written in poetic form and if we were to read every single laga matra there would be an imbalance between the chhands of each word.

Bhai Joginder Singh Talwara has given the following examples as to why ucharan of Aunkar and Sihari is not done and that they are there for grammatical reasons:

As you've suggested, pronunciation of all the laga matras would disturb the flow of Gurbani.

If you read Talwara Jee's works he's very much in favour of pronouncing all lagamatran, although in sookham (very subtle) form. He writes that when we are doing paat with speed its impossible to pronounce every single one but when we do it with sehaj then it is possible.

He writes in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Bodh Part Two: Gurbani Ucharan

Can you post the whole page.

VJKK VJKF,

I'd like to sincerely apologise for my above post - I've got it wrong and mixed up Giani Harbans Singh's thoughts with Bhai Joginder Singh Talwara's. As gsingh has suggested, Bhai Joginder Singh Talwara is in favour of subtle pronunciation of laga matras :

Talwara Jee was in favor of subtle pronouncing of Aukand and Bihari placed with last letter. I think what Navroop Singh jee is posted are cautionary examples so that while pronouncing Aukarrd and Bihari, sound shouldn't be turned into Horra and Lanv. Which is generally done by some people because they put too much stress on Aukand and Bihari uchaaran, results in changed rhyme and meaning.