Scholars: Punjabi is the Oldest Language? (from Sikh Chic)

Narayanjot Kaur · #1 (**permalink**) 01-Mar-2010, 08:19 AM

Scholars: Punjabi is the Oldest Language?

by C.S. KANWAR

sikhchic.com | The Art and Culture of the Diaspora | Scholars: Punjabi is the Oldest Language?
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/punjab-punjabi-punjabiyat/29396-scholars-punjabi-oldest-language-sikh-chic.html

"People of the Punjab were not mute when the world's oldest civilization - in the Indus Valley, which includes the modern-day Punjabs - flourished in the north-west part of the subcontinent.

"The Punjabis used to speak their own language, which is older even than the Dravadian's".

This was claimed by the eminent Punjabi litterateur Dr. Satinder Singh Noor while delivering his keynote address in the inaugural session of the 2-day national seminar on "New Perspectives of Punjabi Language, Literature and Culture" organised by the Department of Punjabi at Kurukshetra University, India.

About 30 scholars of Punjabi language and literature are participating in this seminar from Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi.

Refuting the ongoing theory that Punjabi was an Indo-Aryan language, the Vice-Chairman of the Bhartiya Sahitya Academi, Professor Satinder Singh said that Punjabi was the oldest language of the world: it existed in one form or the other before the use of Tamil and even Sanskrit because it existed before the emergence and blooming of the most ancient of the world s civilizations.

He cited examples with the help of many prevalent words using phonetics and morphological terms.

About 2000 words were being studied and scrutinised by scholars of Tamil and Telgu languages and they also agreed to the foregoing conclusions to this effect, he disclosed.

Dr. Satinder Singh said Puanjabi is spoken by the Punjabis who now live in 160 countries all over the world. The diaspora is spreading this language abroad but intermingling of words with local languages has led to coining new words like globalikaran (globalization) and glocalikaran (localization of globalization) with the change in their thoughts and practice of this language.

Quoting a report by UNESCO, the Punjabi scholar said that Punjabi has hundreds of thousands of words both spoken and written and therefore it can never die like other languages of the world; not even hybridity of words can harm it.

The Punjabi scholars residing abroad were earlier creating Punjabi literature in prose and verse, but lately they have started writing in other languages as it earned them name and fame both, but it is causing harm to the Punjabi literature abroad.

He said that though Punjabi was spreading all over the world in one way or the other, its sweetness is relished only where it is being practised in its purer form either in agriculture sector or in some parts of Punjab which the modern urbanites term as backwards.

Lt. General (Rtd.) Dr Devender Dayal Singh Sandhu, Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, said that the use of Punjabi language was increasing with the efforts of scholars and the state governments. Speaking as the chief guest, Dr . Devender Dayal Singh said that Haryana has made Punjabi its second language which has opened new vistas for its flourishing in new horizons right from schools to the universities as well as in government offices.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=29396

He assured all financial and other assistance for the promotion of the Punjabi language in the future.

Presiding over the inaugural function, the former Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, Professor Bhim Singh Dahiya emphasised the need for setting up a department of translation so that the best literature could reach the masses and the intelligentsia of the world. He said Rabinder Nath Tagore got the Noble Prize only when his Bengali lworks were translated into English and promoted by a W.B. Yeats. He also advocated setting up city universities to promote original thinking which IPunjabi youth possessed in abundance.

Professor Amarjeet Singh Kang, Director of the Seminar, said there was no threat to the popular Panjabi language from outside but the emerging pollution to our culture by the process of globalization is certainly a cause of worry for all of us to save the purity of the Punjabi language and culture.

We have to search newer ways to protect and promote this language and culture in the changing scenario. He expressed satisfaction that though the Punjabi youths mostly abroad or in the country's meroploitan centres were distracted by western culture, but some of the young scholars were emerging in Punjab these days with novel creations in Punjabi culture and literature.

Forwarded by forum member Tejwant Singh ji Malik

photos are not loading because of temporary server issues. will be corrected soon.

Gyani Jarnail Singh · #2 (**permalink**) 01-Mar-2010, 16:42 PM

so sanskrit is not the oldest/or mother at all....fake claim ??

Narayanjot Kaur · #3 (**permalink**) 01-Mar-2010, 20:55 PM

Gyani ji

Even before reading this article, NO, it is not the oldest.

dalbirk · #4 (**permalink**) 02-Mar-2010, 13:23 PM

Actually I was of the impression that Tamil is the oldest language much older than Sanskrit & that Tamil was the mother of Sanskrit .

Narayanjot Kaur · #5 (**permalink**) 02-Mar-2010, 22:01 PM

dalbirk ji

Tamil speakers have also put considerable resources into web-based resources for teaching Tamil, to their younger generation and also to scholars and others who have a need to learn the language. The critical backbone for the study of Indic languages at the University of Pennsylvania comes from Tamil scholars, where many materials are free online and there are 1 credit courses that reduce the costs of tuition for many people.

Astroboy · #6 (**permalink**) 04-Mar-2010, 01:20 AM

India has its share of prehistoric creatures which predate the Indus Valley civilizations.
See Giants of India to understand. Did they speak Tamil, Punjabi or Sanskrit?

YouTube- giant humans. they were real !

Narayanjot Kaur · #7 (**permalink**) 04-Mar-2010, 01:37 AM

namjap ji

Forgive me but I am extremely skeptical. Remains from earth burials taken so many thousands of years ago would not be as well-preserved as seen in this video. And I don't get why the relief of Pharoah Akhnaten, his wife and child, was included. What is the connection? The frames also look kind of tampered with????????
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=29396
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=29396

I am always the wet rag.

Narayanjot Kaur · #8 (**permalink**) 04-Mar-2010, 02:10 AM

They spoke English?

"Skeleton of Giant" Is Internet Photo Hoax

In fact they came from New York City...

"Giant Skeletons" Fuel Web Hoax

Narayanjot Kaur · #9 (**permalink**) 04-Mar-2010, 02:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Narayanjot Kaur

dalbirk ji

Tamil speakers have also put considerable resources into web-based resources for teaching Tamil, to their younger generation and also to scholars and others who have a need to learn the language. The critical backbone for the study of Indic languages at the University of Pennsylvania comes from Tamil scholars, where many materials are free online and there are 1 credit courses that reduce the costs of tuition for many people.

Here are some links and some information for those interested in University of Pennsylvania sponsored programs in the Tamil language

Tamil

Penn Language Center // Tamil

Description
Tamil, a language with a long and ancient literary tradition, has been spoken in southern India for several millennia. Ninety-two percent of its speakers live in India's southern Tamil Nadu State, where it is spoken by 48 million first language speakers. By some accounts, second-language speakers also number in the millions in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent.

In northern Sri Lanka between three and four million people, about 20 percent of the population of that island state, speak Tamil. Elsewhere there are several hundreds of thousands of speakers in each of South Africa, Malaysia, and Singapore; some 6,000 live in Fiji. There are significant minorities in Mauritius, Great Britain, the US, and Canada. Total speakers, including second-language speakers, number about 66 million (Grimes 1992).

Tamil is a member of the Dravidian family, whose members are nearly all spoken in southern India.

Tamil is written in a syllabic system like that of other South Asian languages. It derives from the Ashokan Brahmi script. Vowels have two forms, once used at the beginning of a word, another used following consonant symbols.

Besides loans from Sanskrit, and some borrowing from Persian and Arabic, English in modern times has supplied a lot of loan words, but because of the emphasis on linguistic purism in Tamil grammatical tradition loans are assimilated to the phonological system.

All Tamil speakers, including the uneducated, use two varieties of the language which only roughly correspond to the difference between literary and spoken Tamil. A high status variety is used in most writing, the media--including radio and television broadcasts--political speeches and other similar occasions. In contrast, a low status variety is used in every day discourse and conversations. It is also used in film and some authors of fiction use the variety as do some politicians and lecturers to create solidarity, or enhance intimacy, with their audiences.

In both India and Sri Lanka, Tamil has the status of an official language. In India it is one of fourteen official languages, and in Sri Lanka it shares that status with Sinhalese. It is the first official language of India's Tamil Nadu state. Among the four ancient literary languages of southern India (Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Telugu) Tamil has the longest tradition. The earliest records date from inscriptions from 200 BC.

(Source: UCLA Language Materials Project Language Profile)

Courses
230. (SARS530) Beginning Tamil. (E) Renganathan.
This course introduces students to colloquial Tamil and formal written Tamil. A balance between production skills, viz. writing and speaking, and comprehension skills, viz. reading and listening, will be maintained throughoutthe course. Reading materials will introduce students to customs and habits of the Tamil speakers in Tamil Nadu, Sri-Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore. Lessons in the class will be based on a set of Tamil learning software made available at the MMETS Server. This software will be customized to the needs of students.

232 SARS532) Intermediate Tamil. (E) Renganathan.
This course develops the skills obtained either from the Beginning Tamil course or from students' prior exposure to Tamil. The emphasis will be on using the language in actual environments both in spoken medium and in written medium. Multimedia materials such as audio and video facilities will be used extensively to provide students an exposure to the Tamil culture and customs. Besides improving their speech and writing, students will also be introduced gradually to Tamil literature, which has two thousand years of literary history. The learning process in this course will be facilitated by appropriate software equipped with multimedia facilities.

234. (SARS534) Advanced Tamil. (C) Renganathan.
This course is intended for learners with a high degree of proficiency in most of the skills. The course is designated to meet the specific needs of the learners. Reading materials for this course can be either classical Tamil texts or the modern Tamil prose texts.

Instructor

Dr. Vasu Renganathan

Email

vasur@ccat.sas.upenn.edu