Learn Punjabi Punjabi SPN - Vocabulary And More

[Astroboy]

Page 695, Line 18
ਗਊ ਭੈਸ ਮਗਉ ਲਾਵੇਰੀ ॥
गऊ भैस मगउ लावेरी ॥
Ga*ū bẖais maga*o lāvėrī.
A milk cow, and a water buffalo, I beg of You,
[SIZE=-1]
[/SIZE]ਇਕ ਤਾਜਨਿ ਤੁਰੀ ਚੰਗੇਰੀ ॥
इक ताजनि तुरी चंगेरी ॥
Ik ṯājan ṯurī cẖangėrī.
and a fine Turkestani horse.
Devotee Dhana - [SIZE=-1][URL="http://www.srigranth.org/servlet/gurbani.gurbani?Action=KeertanPage&K=695&L=18"]view Shabad/Paurhi/Salok[/SIZE][/URL]

 

[spnadmin]

Jios,

This bit of a shabad by Guru Arjan Dev ji is a vocabulary lesson in the large.

ਸੁਆਨ ਸਿਆਲ ਮਾਇਆ ਮਹਿ ਰਾਤਾ ॥
suaan siaal maaeiaa mehi raathaa ||
Dogs and jackals are imbued with Maya.

ਬੰਤਰ ਚੀਤੇ ਅਰੁ ਸਿੰਘਾਤਾ ॥
banthar cheethae ar singhaathaa ||
Monkeys, leopards and lions,

ਮਾਂਜਾਰ ਗਾਡਰ ਅਰੁ ਲੂਬਰਾ ॥
maanjaar gaaddar ar loobaraa ||
cats, sheep, foxes,

ਬਿਰਖ ਮੂਲ ਮਾਇਆ ਮਹਿ ਪਰਾ ॥੪॥
birakh mool maaeiaa mehi paraa ||4||
trees and roots are planted in Maya. ||4||

Take a look at the word for "leopards!" It is "cheethae." Does that create some curiosity in you? The English word for cheetah, or not?

There may be a well-versed forum member who can explain this finding. None of the online Punjabi dictionaries return a Punjabi equivalent for the English "leopard." However, the srigranth dictionary does include these offerings: cqrw, plMg icqrw, plMg, which in the Romanized transliteration roughly correspond to cqrw, plMg icqrw, plMg. cqrw is pronounced chataraa. Again very close to "cheetah." But a cheetah is not a leopard. Very curious. Dalsingh ji may have more to say about this.

Leopard

T

 

[spnadmin]

The cheetah once roamed all over Asia Minor and India, from the time of the ancient Sumerians. Cheetahs roamed the desert and parched grasslands in India during the time of our Gurus. Now they are extinct in India.

 

[spnadmin]

Monkeys

Modern Punjabi n. bandar. M; bandar. M; hanuman. M; langur. M; zaleel

In Gurbani, bMdr, bn mwhxU, bWdr, bUjo, l`gw lgwieAw

The monkey creates a lot of excitement in life. And in Gurbani, the monkey has been known as an animal of uncontrollable rage (we have seen that ourselves )

ਹੇ ਕਲਿ ਮੂਲ ਕ੍ਰੋਧੰ ਕਦੰਚ ਕਰੁਣਾ ਨ ਉਪਰਜਤੇ ॥
hae kal mool krodhhan kadhanch karunaa n ouparajathae ||
O anger, you are the root of conflict; compassion never rises up in you.


ਬਿਖਯੰਤ ਜੀਵੰ ਵਸ੍ਯ੍ਯੰ ਕਰੋਤਿ ਨਿਰਤ੍ਯ੍ਯੰ ਕਰੋਤਿ ਜਥਾ ਮਰਕਟਹ ॥
bikhayanth jeevan vasyan karoth nirathyan karoth jathhaa marakatteh ||
You take the corrupt, sinful beings in your power, and make them dance like monkeys.


ਅਨਿਕ ਸਾਸਨ ਤਾੜੰਤਿ ਜਮਦੂਤਹ ਤਵ ਸੰਗੇ ਅਧਮੰ ਨਰਹ ॥
anik saasan thaarranth jamadhootheh thav sangae adhhaman nareh ||
Associating with you, mortals are debased and punished by the Messenger of Death in so many ways.

Guru Arjan Dev.

You probably noticed that in Modern Punjabi one word for "monkey" is "bandar" and another word for "monkey" is "hanuman." In this shabad by Guru Nanak Dev ji, both the Gurmukhi equivalent of bandar and the monkey god Hanuman are identified.

ਰਾਮੁ ਝੁਰੈ ਦਲ ਮੇਲਵੈ ਅੰਤਰਿ ਬਲੁ ਅਧਿਕਾਰ ॥
raam jhurai dhal maelavai anthar bal adhhikaar ||
Raam Chand, sad at heart, assembled his army and forces.

ਬੰਤਰ ਕੀ ਸੈਨਾ ਸੇਵੀਐ ਮਨਿ ਤਨਿ ਜੁਝੁ ਅਪਾਰੁ ॥
banthar kee sainaa saeveeai man than jujh apaar ||
The army of monkeys was at his service; his mind and body became eager for war.

ਸੀਤਾ ਲੈ ਗਇਆ ਦਹਸਿਰੋ ਲਛਮਣੁ ਮੂਓ ਸਰਾਪਿ ॥
seethaa lai gaeiaa dhehasiro lashhaman mooou saraap ||
Raawan captured his wife Sita, and Lachhman was cursed to die.

ਨਾਨਕ ਕਰਤਾ ਕਰਣਹਾਰੁ ਕਰਿ ਵੇਖੈ ਥਾਪਿ ਉਥਾਪਿ ॥੨੫॥
naanak karathaa karanehaar kar vaekhai thhaap outhhaap ||25||
O Nanak, the Creator Lord is the Doer of all; He watches over all, and destroys what He has created. ||25||

ਮਨ ਮਹਿ ਝੂਰੈ ਰਾਮਚੰਦੁ ਸੀਤਾ ਲਛਮਣ ਜੋਗੁ ॥
man mehi jhoorai raamachandh seethaa lashhaman jog ||
In his mind, Raam Chand mourned for Sita and Lachhman.

ਹਣਵੰਤਰੁ ਆਰਾਧਿਆ ਆਇਆ ਕਰਿ ਸੰਜੋਗੁ ॥
hanavanthar aaraadhhiaa aaeiaa kar sanjog ||
Then, he remembered Hanuman the monkey-god, who came to him.

ਭੂਲਾ ਦੈਤੁ ਨ ਸਮਝਈ ਤਿਨਿ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਕੀਏ ਕਾਮ ॥
bhoolaa dhaith n samajhee thin prabh keeeae kaam ||
The misguided demon did not understand that God is the Doer of deeds.

 

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

the word CHEETAH is Sanskrit/Hindi origin. Thus no wonder that Guru Arjun ji used it. Seems English has "borrowed" it...

Gyani jarnail Singh

 

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

another interesting fact about Cheetahs...it seems Each and Every Cheetah alive today all over the world..come from the Same Parents (DNA) and are INBRED. Thus one disease can actually wipe them all out...:happy:

 

[dalsingh]

Can't really add to the cheetah mystery. What we can say with some confidence is that the word does have an Indian aetiology (am I using this word right?)

The Asiatic Cheetah ("cheetah" from Hindi चीता cītā, derived from Sanskrit word chitraka meaning "speckled")


We can theorise as follows:

When white people came to India there were most certainly cheetahs (the fast slim variety) around. They seemed to be used for hunting by the aristocracy. Apparently the last one in India was killed about 60 years ago. I know during the Raj large scale hunting took place. Recently I saw some old footage of British hunters in North India, it was shocking to see 30/40 odd dead tigers laid out for the camera. This was just a single hunt! I wonder if cheetahs were hunted in this way?

So it is entirely possible that Gurbani refers to cheetahs and not leopards as these were actually around at the time. (Well done mankind! Another beautiful species wiped off the earth!)

The other possibility posited by Aad is that the term was used as a generic one to describe a spotted feline creature and thus represents both the leopard and the cheetah.

The final alternative is that the term could have been used mistakenly by the British when they visited Africa and came across similar creatures. There are some problems with this theory however. I've always thought that Europeans were in Africa long before India. So how an Indian term (which theoretically they would have come across much later) came to supersede whatever term was used in Africa is a mystery. But it could be that the term cheetah was used in India for the creatures below but we don't use it anymore because they have been wiped out and the African usage is surviving example of correct usage. How does this sound to you? lol

Anyway here's some pics.

 

[dalsingh]

Add to add to the confusion. Old school Panjabis called a Tiger a Cheetah!

 

[spnadmin]

Dal ji, Gyani ji

This kind of discussion is fascinating. Just have to wait until the missing pieces of the puzzle turn up. Cheetahs have a different build than a leopard, different social habits as they live in groups, and they live on different terrain. Quite odd.

Dal ji -- The pics below have to go into the Gurbani Animal albums. They are incredibly dramatic.

 

[futurekaur]

The Oxford English Dictionary will give you the etymology (study of the history of words) of the English use of cheetah. Sorry my 13 heavy vols are packed, when I'm at the library this week I can find out. The English were early in India, late in Africa. The OED will tell all

 

[spnadmin]

But why is Guruj using cheethae for tigers and leopards as well as cheetas?

 

[futurekaur]

I looked in my Dictionary of GGS, chitari: sprinkled, sprayed, splashy is noted as a Panjabi word, so is bagh - tiger but it includes lion. Sher- tiger is Persian. So perhaps that's why... or it may be for poetic reasons of meter and scan. I'd need to know Panjabi to find the answer.

 

[dalsingh]

But why is Guruj using cheethae for tigers and leopards as well as cheetas?

Did they use it for tigers?

I typed in tiger into a SGGS search engine and got 17 returns. Many of them were plainly wrongly as they had variants of the word Singh translated as tiger.

Another commonly used word was ਸੀਹ and its variants.

ਸਾਰਦੂਲ came up once and ਬਾਘ and its variants came up a few times.


When I tried leopard in a search I got this:
ਬੰਤਰ ਚੀਤੇ ਅਰੁ ਸਿੰਘਾਤਾ ॥
banthar cheethae ar singhaathaa ||
Monkeys, leopards and lions,


If the word does really stem from meaning "speckled" or "spotted" then this makes sense. We have to bear in mind that translators are not immune to confusion and mistakes themselves. But "speckled" could cover both cheetahs and leopards.

 

[spnadmin]

Dalsing ji,

The modern Punjabi words for speckled or spotted are different. Truly I am at a loss. I think it is probably a generic word and we don't have access anymore to the linguistic thinking of that time. Futurekaur ji, thanks for the information from the dictionary, giving the classic understanding. Someone has to know.

 

[futurekaur]

Forgive me, the word 'chitari' is spelled quite differently. with chaccha and taina.
ਿਛਟ਼ਿ਼ਡ਼ and when I typed it into the GGS it pointed to a padi with splashed... , hmm maybe I can dig up a professor at Duke University to ask [apologies in XP I don't have a phonetic keyboard, I'll write on my linux phonetic one..so much easier for Panjabi]

[also please ignore the subscript under the i vowel]

 

[dalsingh]

Dalsing ji,

The modern Punjabi words for speckled or spotted are different. Truly I am at a loss. I think it is probably a generic word and we don't have access anymore to the linguistic thinking of that time. Futurekaur ji, thanks for the information from the dictionary, giving the classic understanding. Someone has to know.

The source for the word cheetah is very old sanskrit so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise if the modern Panjabi equivalent is different. Saying that I found the following translations for "speckled" on punjabonline.com

icq kbrw

icqimqrw



To me the words do resemble cheetah slightly (at least the first syllable)

 

[futurekaur]

Dal ji;
is absolutely correct. I was at the university library today and Websters English Dictionary had this for 'cheetah' : Sanskrit citrakaya: tiger, panther from citra: variegated, bright speckled. kaya: body. Acinonyx jubatus.
The Oxford English Dictionary this: cheetah: from Sanskrit chitraka: speckled, variegated. The hunting leopard, felis jubata, which is tamed and used to hunt deer in India. I also checked an English-Sanskrit dictionary.

Now, filled with the spirit, I wondered why there were 2 different genus for this animal & put ' felis jubata' in Google & received a wonderful surprise.

"The Cyclopaedia of Indian and of Eastern and Southern Asia" by Edward Balfour, 1885, India. You can read it entirely online and on p. 1083 there is a big, big discussion of the Indian cats & differences, which will be so helpful for our ongoing animal discussion.

I also had the fun of reading 'The Vanguard Panjabi-English Dictionary' it's from 1895 which was originally in Shamukhi, but has also been Romanised in the 1972 reprint. it just had Chitta, but was quite interesting as there were lots of animals in the volume.

 

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

languages all have their own "idiosyncracies ( for lack of a better word off hand !!)"

While English has a lot of "biological" variations..based on Greek/Latin roots....for animals...cheetah/leopard/panther/jaguar/american lion/bobcat/bengal tiger/siberian tiger/chinese tiger/malayan tiger/ sumatran rhino/african rhino/indian rhino/ ziraaf...etc etc... of which Punjabi has very few of the above...as English is a scientific language.. while Punajbi is not

Punjabi has words...like Mamma/bhua/fuffaarr/bhanjee/bhatija/chacha/taiya/nana/dada/ etc while ENGLISH ahs GENERIC ones like Uncle/Auntie..becasue Punajbi Society palces much more emphasis on RELATIONSHIPS with extended families and all...while English is not in that league !!
Chinese even has words for different SIBLINGS.... First elder brother/sister/SECOND elder brother//uncle//etc etc...while Punjabi is Generic.... wada bhra/bhen..and chhota bhra..bhen...

Thus Guru ji would also be using generic words....to describe the various animal variations..tiger/cheetah/sher/baagh...babbar sher is LION while sher is tiger...as wella s other words too....Because the aim in GURBANI is SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE..

I am learning so much from this thread..pure enjoyment....\

Gyani jarnail Singh

 

[dalsingh]

I like this:

The sanskrit source word for chitah has been translated as variegated.

variegated Adjective
having patches or streaks of different colours:

This would explain why both spotted felines (i.e. cheetahs, leopards) and striped ones (as in tigers) are referred to using this. Case closed?

 

[spnadmin]

Gyani ji

From what you say, we should not become obsessive about these variations. They are what they are. I am glad you are enjoying the thread as much as you are.

Here is modern Punjabi for spotted, and deliberately I am not using the srigranth.org and punjabionline dictionaries.


Modern Punjabi
The entry for "spotted" follows: daggi ; khaldar ; dabb karabba ; dabba ; chitla. Have some fun, because "chitia" has possibilities. (More in the album section)

Does the English word "dappled" come from the same source? A dappled horse is a white horse with gray spots. Over time a dappled horse turns a darker color and becomes a "roan" or red-coated steed.