Language composed of vocabulary common to northern Indian languages, used in Sikh scripture
Sant Bhasha
ਸੰਤ-ਭਾਸ਼ਾ
Painting of Guru Arjan being fanned with a book before him. The Sikh gurus employed the Sant Bhasha language for their poetic compositions in the Sikh scriptures
Sant Bhasha (Gurmukhi: ਸੰਤ-ਭਾਸ਼ਾ; romanized:Sant Bhāṣā; lit.'language of saints') is a liturgical and scriptural language composed of vocabulary common to northern Indian languages, which was extensively used by saints and poets to compose religious verses.[13][14] It can be understood by readers with a background in either Punjabi, Hindi-Urdu and its dialects.[citation needed]
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^Haldar, Gopal (2000). Languages of India. New Delhi: National Book Trust, India. p. 149. ISBN9788123729367. The age of Old Punjabi: up to 1600 A.D. […] It is said that evidence of Old Punjabi can be found in the Granth Sahib.
^Bhatia, Tej K. (2013). Punjabi: A Cognitive-Descriptive Grammar (Reprint ed.). London: Routledge. p. XXV. ISBN9781136894602. As an independent language Punjabi has gone through the following three stages of development: Old Punjabi (10th to 16th century). Medieval Punjabi (16th to 19th century), and Modern Punjabi (19th century to Present).
^Christopher Shackle; Arvind Mandair (2013). "0.2.1 – Form". Teachings of the Sikh Gurus : selections from the Scriptures (First ed.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN9781136451089. Surpassing them all in the frequent subtlety of his linguistic choices, including the use of dialect forms as well as of frequent loanwords from Sanskrit and Persian, Guru Nanak combined this poetic language of the Sants with his native Old Punjabi. It is this mixture of Old Punjabi and old Hindi which constitutes the core idiom of all the earlier Gurus.
^Frawley, William (2003). International encyclopedia of linguistics (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 423. ISBN9780195139778.
^Austin, Peter (2008). One thousand languages : living, endangered, and lost. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 115. ISBN9780520255609.
^Braj B. Kachru; Yamuna Kachru; S. N. Sridhar (2008). Language in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 411. ISBN9781139465502.
^Mansukhani, Gobind Singh (1998). Introduction to Sikhism : 125 basic questions and answers on Sikh religion and history. New Delhi: Hemkunt Press. p. 12. ISBN9788170101819.
^Dhillon, Dalbir Singh (1988). Sikhism, Origin and Development. Atlantic Publishers & Distri. pp. 307–308.
^Kohli, Surindar Singh (1993). History of Punjabi literature. Delhi: National Book Shop. pp. 24, 48. ISBN9788171161416.
^Johar, Surinder Singh (1999). Guru Gobind Singh : a multi-faceted personality. New Delhi: M.D. Publications. p. 56. ISBN9788175330931.
^Sukhbir Singh Kapoor; Mohinder Kaur Kapoor. Dasam Granth: An Introductory Study. Hemkunt Press. p. 39. ISBN9788170103257.