Languages A Sikh Right Now Should Know:

[guptveer1469]

Languages to know at a native level:

1. Punjabi

eventually 2. English

Languages to know at middle level:

1. Persian

2. Sanskrit

Languages to know at basic level:

1. Arabic

2. Turk

These bhashas, for me atleast, are quite important for decipering or understanding various old Granths/Bani and other old sources of History...

Anybody is welcome to suggest to add/delete any of those languages..

[Revolutionary]

ppl ned to sort out their punjabis 1st before going onto more complex languages :umm:

it's all good in theory...

[dalsingh101]

Now that I've been developing my Panjabi lately, I've noticed quite a bit of of it is from Persian or Farsi.

For those that don't know, that extra last line in the Gurmukhi alphabet (the one with the dots) was incorporated to cover Persian words. If you know a word starting with one of those letters there is a good chance its roots are Farsi.

[guptveer1469]

For those that don't know, that extra last line in the Gurmukhi alphabet (the one with the dots) was incorporated to cover Persian words. If you know a word starting with one of those letters there is a good chance its roots are Farsi.

Indeed.. That is 100% true... Words like Zanjeer, Goara etc are written with bindi under alfabet, and are from persian... Allmost all of the words with bindi under the akhar come from persian...

Also many words in Punjabi come from Turk: Kanoon (law), Watan (Country), Hafta (Week), Sabzi (Sabzi lol), and many more

[xHarinder_singh]

I feel in Khalsa Raj, Punjabi will be the global language instead of English. No point in learning english. Aggg laa daoo angreji nuuuuuu.Yes it will be good if farsi and brij bhasha are taught to young kids.

[saint-soldier]

If you are talking about understanding bani, punjabi is a must. Then the more you learn other languages like sanskrit and persian the better. Generally speaking english is a must.

[japmans]

One would be wise to know mandarin, hindi, arabic, spanish, and russian too, on top of english . These are the major languages in which the world will likely do business over the next 100 years, everyone who knows one ore more of these along with punjabi and english/french (for canadians) would be VERY well off... imagine if the next 100 years was dominated by Sikhs just because of our ability to communicate with all the major markets in the world... then look at what our exposure and media coverage would be like.

[apne]

We need to know the langauge of love, compassion and above all mercy.

[SATORi]

We need to know the langauge of love, compassion and above all mercy.

+1 Now we're thinking outside of this world, too.

[dalsingh101]

What really makes me laugh is when the older generation have been here for like 30/40 years and still haven't grasped the language of their host countries fully. I have many relatives like that. It's like they don't think it's important.

Learning other languages is a very good idea and Japman's contribution is very valid. I personally want to learn Farsi. Other words we use from there include hukum, ardas (with is a corruption of arz dasht which was a petition placed before a ruler), fateh and even the word Khalsa.

You know not long ago people used to think learning multiple languages was bad because you never mastered one. Now psychology research (mainly from Canada) shows that it has many benefits including a raise in IQ and making it easier to learn a third/fourth language. But that is mainly if you have learnt to read AND write both languages to simililar depths.

So people. Brush ip on your Panjabi skills!! Personally I thought I was fluent and then later in life (in my mid twenties) I learnt that my Panjabi was basically pindu Panjabi and that there was a lot more to it. Also studying Gurbani shows that the vocab used in SGGS ji is often very different from modern Panjabi although some things remain the same or similar. Just look at the examples of the various animals referred to in bani compared to what we call them now.

This is all fascinating and Sikhs in the diaspora should deveote some time at least every week to develop their language skills. To kill a cilture, start by destroying their language. It is really sad that at work (in the UK) I meet so many 2nd/3rd generation Pakistani Panjabis who speak Panjabi/Urdu fluently whilst their Sikh counterparts communicate like 6 year olds. I think the situation in Canada is different though and most people their can speak the language well.