Language Tasting: Punjabi

I enjoyed my experience with Bengla so much that I decided to keep it in the Indian subcontinent and look into the Punjabi language. I found the basic phrases I wanted to learn here and some more here.
My initial pass with the language showed that Punjabi used two different scripts. I then learned that this deference, in modern terms, represent a geographic division between Pakistan and the Punjab region of India. This made me wonder how much unity or division people who spoke Punjabi felt with those on the other side of the border. I knew I wasn’t going to definitely answer that question in the short amount of time I would be spending with the language, but at least some clues showed up in the YouTube comments to a video. It started with someone writing
Love from Pakistani punjab
Someone wrote something in another language, however it was romanized. It lead to this response:
but you urdustani people wont understand the fact that indeed punjab is one, no matter if someone is muslim or sikh or hindu or what ever
the only thing that matters is that he is punjabi
punjab rocks
f### pakistan f### india
punjab zindabad
Then someone else entirely wrote:
Or kya haal tumhara terrorists ka
All I needed to see was the word “terrorists,” and his reaction to see that something not nice had been said there. Google translate reveals it to have been “Or what are you doing to terrorists?” which is probably on the more tame end of what that could have been. I’ll spare you the response from the person who wanted to point out stereotypes involving Hindus to make his point. Overall, it was interesting document. Also, here is a quora article on the question.
It seems that though the Pakistan provides the numbers that allow Punjabi to be one of the top-’10 most spoken languages on earth, the Punjab region of India is where most of the musicians (at least those with music videos that come up on my cursory search) come from. Let’s jam.
Here, let me put that on an infinite loop for you . . .
Of course, if music and music videos start to have too similar of a style:
But there are many songs that are different enough, and easy to find on YouTube.
The most interesting thing I learned from this quest was that the Sikh religion is based in the Punjab region of India. After India was partitioned in 1947, the Sikh’s in Pakistan moved to India, making for a pretty complete segregation. I became fascinated with Sikhism and my journey became much more about learning about this religion than the language.
If I met a Sikh, my strategy to be an interesting conversation partner would hinge more on my knowledge of the Gurus. For example, the second guru, Guru Angad was chosen by the first Guru over his own children, perhaps akin to how well the system of adoption worked for Rome in the time of the five good emperors, and it is Angad who formalized the writing system — Gurmukhi (meaning something like “from the Guru’s mouth”) — used by Eastern Punjabis. The culture, religion, and language all intertwined in the Punjabi region.
I don’t want to bore those who aren’t as fascinated with comparative religion as I am, so if you are interested, you can read the tenants of Sikh faith for yourself. Also, here is an English translation of the Sikh sacred text, Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
Next up will be Arabic, though I might take a break before starting it.
