Sant Bhasha
Language of Sikh scripture
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Sant Bhasha is notable for its high usage of inherited tadbhava and deshaj vocabulary in comparison to Sanskritic tatsama borrowings.
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In Sikhism
Sant Bhasha is most prominently used in the central Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib. The languages used include Punjabi and its dialects, Lahnda, regional Prakrits, Apabhramsa, Sanskrit, Hindustani languages (Braj Bhasha, Bangru (Haryanvi), Awadhi, Old Hindi, Hindi-Urdu, Deccani), Bhojpuri, Sindhi, Marathi, Gujarati, Marwari, Bengali, Persian, and Arabic. While vocabulary from all of these languages is used, Sant Bhasha here is only written in the Gurmukhi script. Guru Nanak likely adopted the vernacular so his works could be more accessible to a larger audience located in the Hindi zone, with Nanak's version of it bearing influences from Punjabi (specifically the central zone of both western and eastern Punjabi influences) and older Apabhraṁśa. According to Christopher Shackle, the language of the Guru Granth Sahib was not Old Punjabi but had been influenced by it. After Guru Arjan, the scriptural language of the Sikhs became more influenced by Braj and Persian.