by Yuktanand Singh » Tue Nov 17, 2015 11:43 am
In my opinion, we must not worry about making mistakes, but we should always strive to achieve perfect pronunciation.
Gurbani should be read free of variations resulting from someone's accent. So, to those who want to achieve perfection, there is only one correct pronunciation of each word of gurbani.
It is extremely difficult to find someone who is perfect. Even when we know the correct pronunciation, we often make mistakes while reading the gurbani aloud.
All these recording are commendable. They require monumental effort. I want to nitpick and point at a few glaring errors, just to help the serious students get further. It is easier to find errors in others' work.
1. The gursevak.com site accentuates each vowel. This is good for learning how a word was written without seeing it, and it also indicates each sound, but this is not how we do the paath (recital) of bani.
2. I noticed that the Baru Sahib videos mispronounce the word 'mehla' as 'mahalla' - and some readers add an accent 'e' at the end of a line. For example: In 'ਗਾਵੈ ਕੋ ਗੁਣ ਵਡਿਆਈ ਆਚਾਰ' the sentence does not end with 'e'. The last word is 'aachaar' not 'aachaar-e'.
(Most sites write it as 'ਵਡਿਆਈਆ ਚਾਰ'- but that is a separate issue).
3. The ektuhi.com has best pronunciation but this reader has trouble pronouncing the 'h' properly at termination of a word, with or without a vowel.
Examples:
ਨਹ = should be pronounced as néh - not nah - because ਨਾਹ = is pronounced as nah or naah
Similarly ਜਹ ਜਹ ਪੇਖਉ = should be pronounced as jéh jéh - not jah jah
ਰਾਹੁ = should be pronounced as raa-h(o) - not raah
Additionally, 'ਅਮੁਲ ਗੁਣ ਅਮੁਲ ਵਾਪਾਰ' is read differently than 'ਅਮੁਲੁ ਕਰਮੁ ਅਮੁਲੁ ਫੁਰਮਾਣੁ'. The vowel 'u' indicates that there is an accent at the end of each word, but you are not supposed to produce a sound of 'u' (as the gursevak.com does).
Yuktanand Singh