fbpx
Wikipedia

Sindhi language

Sindhi (/ˈsɪndi/;[3] Sindhi: سِنڌِي (Perso-Arabic), सिन्धी (Devanagari) [sɪndʱiː]) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where it has official status. It is also spoken by a further 1.7 million people in India, where it is a scheduled language, without any state-level official status. The main writing system is the Perso-Arabic script, which accounts for the majority of the Sindhi literature and is the only one currently used in Pakistan. In India, both the Perso-Arabic script and Devanagari are used.

Sindhi
  • Sindhī
  • سِنڌِي
  • सिन्धी
Sindhi written in Perso-Arabic script and Devanagari
Native to
RegionSindh and near the border in neighbouring regions such as Kutch and Balochistan
EthnicitySindhis
Native speakers
c. 32 million (2011–2017)
Naskh script, Devanagari and others[1]
Official status
Official language in
Regulated by
Language codes
ISO 639-1sd
ISO 639-2snd
ISO 639-3snd
Glottologsind1272  Sindhi
Linguasphere59-AAF-f
The proportion of people with Sindhi as their mother tongue in each Pakistani District as of the 2017 Pakistan Census
Sindhi is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Sindhi is first attested in historical records within the Nātyaśāstra, a text thought to have been composed between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. The earliest written evidence of Sindhi as a language can be found in a translation of the Qur’an into Sindhi dating back to 883 A.D.[4] Sindhi was one of the first Indo-Aryan languages to encounter influence from Persian and Arabic following the Umayyad conquest in 712 CE. A substantial body of Sindhi literature developed during the Medieval period, the most famous of which is the religious and mystic poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai from the 18th century. Modern Sindhi was promoted under British rule beginning in 1843, which led to the current status of the language in independent Pakistan after 1947.

History

 
Cover of a book containing the epic Dodo Chanesar written in Hatvanki Sindhi or Khudabadi script.

Origins

The name "Sindhi" is derived from the Sanskrit síndhu, the original name of the Indus River, along whose delta Sindhi is spoken.[5]

Like other languages of the Indo-Aryan family, Sindhi is descended from Old Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit) via Middle Indo-Aryan (Pali, secondary Prakrits, and Apabhramsha). 20th century Western scholars such as George Abraham Grierson believed that Sindhi descended specifically from the Vrācaḍa dialect of Apabhramsha (described by Markandeya as being spoken in Sindhu-deśa, corresponding to modern Sindh) but later work has shown this to be unlikely.[6]

Early Sindhi (2nd–16th centuries)

Literary attestation of early Sindhi is sparse. Sindhi is first mentioned in historical records within the Nātyaśāstra, a text on dramaturgy thought to have been composed between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. The earliest written evidence of Sindhi as a language can be found in a translation of the Qur’an into Sindhi dating back to 883 A.D.[4] Historically, Isma'ili religious literature and poetry in India, as old as the 11th century CE, used a language that was closely related to Sindhi and Gujarati. Much of this work is in the form of ginans (a kind of devotional hymn).[7][8]

Sindhi was the first Indo-Aryan language to be in close contact with Arabic and Persian following the Umayyad conquest of Sindh in 712 CE.

Medieval Sindhi (16th–19th centuries)

Medieval Sindhi literature is of a primarily religious genre, comprising a syncretic Sufi and Advaita Vedanta poetry, the latter in the devotional bhakti tradition. The earliest known Sindhi poet of the Sufi tradition is Qazi Qadan (1493–1551). Other early poets were Shah Inat Rizvi (c. 1613–1701) and Shah Abdul Karim Bulri (1538–1623). These poets had a mystical bent that profoundly influenced Sindhi poetry for much of this period.[7]

Another famous part of Medieval Sindhi literature is a wealth of folktales, adapted and readapted into verse by many bards at various times and possibly much older than their earliest literary attestations. These include romantic epics such as Sassui Punnhun, Sohni Mahiwal, Momal Rano, Noori Jam Tamachi, Lilan Chanesar, and others.[9]

The greatest poet of Sindhi was Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai (1689/1690–1752), whose verses were compiled into the Shah Jo Risalo by his followers. While primarily Sufi, his verses also recount traditional Sindhi folktales and aspects of the cultural history of Sindh.[7]

The first attested Sindhi translation of the Quran was done by Akhund Azaz Allah Muttalawi (1747–1824) and published in Gujarat in 1870. The first to appear in print was by Muhammad Siddiq in 1867.[10]

Modern Sindhi (1843–present)

In 1843, the British conquest of Sindh led the region to become part of the Bombay Presidency. Soon after, in 1848, Governor George Clerk established Sindhi as the official language in the province, removing the literary dominance of Persian. Sir Bartle Frere, the then commissioner of Sindh, issued orders on August 29, 1857, advising civil servants in Sindh to pass an examination in Sindhi. He also ordered the use of Sindhi in official documents.[11] In 1868, the Bombay Presidency assigned Narayan Jagannath Vaidya to replace the Abjad used in Sindhi with the Khudabadi script. The script was decreed a standard script by the Bombay Presidency thus inciting anarchy in the Muslim majority region. A powerful unrest followed, after which Twelve Martial Laws were imposed by the British authorities. The granting of official status of Sindhi along with script reforms ushered in the development of modern Sindhi literature.

The first printed works in Sindhi were produced at the Muhammadi Press in Bombay beginning in 1867. These included Islamic stories set in verse by Muhammad Hashim Thattvi, one of the renowned religious scholars of Sindh.[9]

The Partition of India in 1947 resulted in most Sindhi speakers ending up in the new state of Pakistan, commencing a push to establish a strong sub-national linguistic identity for Sindhi. This manifested in resistance to the imposition of Urdu and eventually Sindhi nationalism in the 1980s.[12]

The language and literary style of contemporary Sindhi writings in Pakistan and India were noticeably diverging by the late 20th century; authors from the former country were borrowing extensively from Urdu, while those from the latter were highly influenced by Hindi.[13]

Geographic distribution

In Pakistan, Sindhi is the first language of 30.26 million people, or 14.6% of the country's population as of the 2017 census. 29.5 million of these are found in Sindh, where they account for 62% of the total population of the province. There are 0.56 million speakers in the province of Balochistan,[14] especially in the Kacchi Plain that encompasses the districts of Lasbela, Hub, Kachhi, Sibi, Sohbatpur, Jafarabad, Jhal Magsi, Usta Muhammad and Nasirabad.

In India, Sindhi mother tongue speakers were distributed in the following states:

2011 Census Statistics (India Total: 2,772,264)[15][a]
State Population
Gujarat 1,184,024
Maharashtra 723,748
Rajashtan 386,569
Madhya Pradesh 245,161
Chattisgarh 93,424
Delhi (NCT) 31,177
Uttar Pradesh 28,952
Assam 19,646
Karnataka 16,954
Andhra Pradesh 11,299
Tamil Nadu 8,448
West Bengal 7,828
Uttarakhand 2,863
Odisha 2,338
Bihar 2,227
Jharkhand 1,701
Haryana 1,658
Kerala 1,251
Punjab 754
Goa 656
Dadra and Nagar

and Daman and Diu

894
Meghalaya 236
Chandigarh 134
Puducherry 94
Nagaland 82
Himachal Pradesh 62
Tripura 30
Jammu and Kashmir 19
Andaman and Nicobar Islands 14
Arunachal Pradesh 12
Lakshadweep 7
Sikkim 2

Official status

Sindhi is the official language of the Pakistani province of Sindh[16][2] and one of the scheduled languages of India, where it does not have any state-level status.[17]

Prior to the inception of Pakistan, Sindhi was the national language of Sindh.[18][19][20][21] The Pakistan Sindh Assembly has ordered compulsory teaching of the Sindhi language in all private schools in Sindh.[22] According to the Sindh Private Educational Institutions Form B (Regulations and Control) 2005 Rules, "All educational institutions are required to teach children the Sindhi language.[23] Sindh Education and Literacy Minister, Syed Sardar Ali Shah, and Secretary of School Education, Qazi Shahid Pervaiz, have ordered the employment of Sindhi teachers in all private schools in Sindh so that this language can be easily and widely taught.[24] Sindhi is taught in all provincial private schools that follow the Matric system and not the ones that follow the Cambridge system.[25]

At the occasion of 'Mother Language Day' in 2023, the Sindh Assembly under Culture minister Sardar Ali Shah, passed a unanimous resolution to extend the use of language to primary level[26] and increase the status of Sindhi as a national language[27][28][29] of Pakistan.

The Indian Government has legislated Sindhi as a scheduled language in India, making it an option for education. Despite lacking any state-level status, Sindhi is still a prominent minority language in the Indian state of Rajasthan.[30]

There are many Sindhi language television channels broadcasting in Pakistan such as Time News, KTN, Sindh TV, Awaz Television Network, Mehran TV, and Dharti TV.

Dialects

 
The dialects of Sindhi language shown on map.

Sindhi has many dialects, and forms a dialect continuum at some places with neighboring languages such as Saraiki and Gujarati. Some of the documented dialects of Sindhi are:[31][32][33][34][35]

  • Vicholi: The prestige dialect spoken around Hyderabad and central Sindh (the Vicholo region). The literary standard of Sindhi is based on this dialect.
  • Uttaradi: The dialect of northern Sindh (Uttaru, meaning "north"), with minor differences in Larkana, Shikarpur and in parts of Sukkur and Kandiaro.[36]
  • Lari: The dialect of southern Sindh (Lāṛu) spoken around areas like Karachi, Thatta, Sujawal, Tando Muhammad Khan and Badin districts.
  • Siroli/Siraiki or Ubheji: The dialect of northernmost Sindh (Siro, meaning "head").[37] Spoken in smaller number all over Sindh but mainly in Jacobabad and Kashmore districts, it has little similarity with the Saraiki language of South Punjab[38] and has variously been treated either as a dialect of Saraiki or as a dialect of Sindhi.[39]
  • Lasi: The dialect of Lasbela, Hub and Gwadar districts in Balochistan, closely related to Lari and Vicholi, and in contact with Balochi.
  • Firaqi Sindhi: The dialect of the Kachhi plains the north eastern districts of Balochistan, where it is referred to as Firaqi Sindhi or commonly just Sindhi.[40][41]
  • Thareli: also called Tharechi dialect, spoken in north eastern Thar Desert of Sindh, called Nara desert (Achhro thar), but mainly spoken in the western part of Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan, India by many Sindhi Muslims.[42][43]
  • Sindhi Bhili: It is a dialect spoken in Sindh by the Sindhi Meghwars and Bheels.[44] Sindhi Bhil is known to have many old Sindhi words, which were lost after Arabic, Persian, and Chaghatai influence.[45][46]

The variety of Sindhi spoken by Sindhi Hindus who emigrated to India is known as Dukslinu Sindhi. Furthermore, Kutchi and Jadgali are sometimes classified as dialects of Sindhi rather than independent languages.

Sindhi dialects Comparison[47]
English Vicholi Lari Uttaradi Lasi Kutchi[48] Dhatki
I Aao(n) Aao(n) Mā(n) Ã Aau(n) Hu(n)
My Muhnjo Mujo Mānjo/Māhjo Mojo/Mājo Mujo Mānjo/Māhyo
You "Sin, plu" (formal) Awha(n)/Awhee(n)

Tawha(n)/Tawhee(n)

Aa(n)/Aei(n) Taha(n)/Taa(n)/

Tahee(n)/Taee(n)

Awa(n)/Ai(n) Aa(n)/Ai(n) Ahee(n)/Aween
To me Mukhe Muke Mānkhe Mukh Muke Mina
What Chha/Kahirō Kujjāro/Kujja Chha/Shha Chho Kuro Kee
Why Chho Ko Chho/Shho Chhela Kolāi/Kurelāe
How Kiya(n) Kei(n) Kiya(n) Kee(n) Kiya(n)
Foot Pair Pair/Pagg/Pagulo Pair Pair Pag Pagg/Pair
Far Pare Ddoor Pare/Parte Ddor Chhete Ddor
Near Vejhō Vejo/Ōdō/Ōdirō/Ore Vejhō/Vejhe/Orte Ōddō Wat/bājūme Nerro
Good/Excellent Sutho Khāso/Sutho/Thāuko Sutho/Bhalo/Chango Khāsho Khāso/Laat Sutho
High Utāho Ucho Mathe Ucho Ucho Uncho
Silver Rupo Chādi/Rupo Chāndi Rupo Rupo
Father Piu Pay/Abo/Aba/Ada Pee/Babo/Pirhe(n) Pe Pe/Bapa/Ada
Wife Joe/Gharwāri Joe/Wani/Kuwār Zaal/Gharwāri Zaal Vahu/Vau Ddosi/Luggai
Man Mardu Māņu/Mārū/Mard

/Murs/Musālu

Mānhu/Musālo/Bhāi

/Kāko/Hamra

Mānhu Māḍū/Mārū Mārū
Woman Aurat Zāla/ōrat/ōlath Māi/Ran Zāla Bāeḍi/Bāyaḍī
Child/Baby Bbār/Ningar/Bbālak Bbār/Ningar/Gabhur/

Bacho/Kako

Bbār/Bacho/Adro/

Phar (animal)

Gabhar Bār/Gabhar
Daughter Dhiu/Niyāni Dia/Niyāni/Kañā Dhee/Adri Dhia Dhi Dikri
Sun Siju Sij/Sūrij Sijhu Siju Sūraj Sūraj
Sunlight Kārro Oosa Tarko
Cat Billi Bili/Pusani Billi Phushini Minni
Rain Barsāt/Mee(n)h

/Bārish

Varsāt/Mee(n)/Mai(n) Barsāt/Mee(n)hu Varsāt Maiwla
And Aēi(n) Ãū(n)/Ãē(n)/Nē Aēi(n)/Aū(n)/Aen Ãē/Or Nē/Anē A'e(n)
Also Pin/Bhi Pin/Bee Bu/Pun Pin/Pan
Is Āhe Āye Aa/Āhe/Hai Āhe/Āye Āye Āhe/Āh/Āye/Hai
Fire Bāhe Bāē/āgg/jjērō Bāhe Jjērō Jirō/lagāņō/āg
Water Pāņī Pāņī/Jal Pāņī Pāņī Pāņī/Jal Pāņī
Slap Thaparr/Chammāt Tārr Chamātu/Chapātu/

Lapātu/Thapu

To Wash Dhoain(u) Dhun(u) Dhoain(u)/Dhuan(u)/

Dhowan(u)

I Went Aao(n) Vius Aao(n) Vēs Ma(n) Vayus (m)/ Vayas (f) Ã viosī Hu Gios

Grammar

Phonology

Sindhi has a relatively large inventory of both consonants and vowels compared to other Indo-Aryan languages.[49] Sindhi has 46 consonant phonemes and 10 vowels.[50][clarification needed] The consonant to vowel ratio is around average for the world's languages at 2.8.[51] All plosives, affricates, nasals, the retroflex flap, and the lateral approximant /l/ have aspirated or breathy voiced counterparts. The language also features four implosives.

Consonants

Sindhi consonants[52]
Labial Dental/
alveolar
Retroflex (Alveolo-)
Palatal
Velar Glottal
Nasal plain m م n ن ɳ ڻ ɲ ڃ ŋ ڱ
breathy مھ نھ ɳʱ ڻھ
Stop/
Affricate
plain p پ b ب ت د ʈ ٽ ɖ ڊ چ ج k ڪ ɡ گ
breathy ڦ ڀ t̪ʰ ٿ d̪ʱ ڌ ʈʰ ٺ ɖʱ ڍ tɕʰ ڇ dʑʱ جھ ک ɡʱ گھ
Implosive ɓ ٻ ɗ ڏ ʄ ڄ ɠ ڳ
Fricative f ف s س z ز ʂ ش x خ ɣ غ h ھ
Approximant plain ʋ و l ل j ي
breathy لھ
Rhotic plain r ر ɽ ڙ
breathy ɽʱ ڙھ

The retroflex consonants are apical postalveolar and do not involve curling back of the tip of the tongue,[53] so they could be transcribed [t̠, t̠ʰ, d̠, d̠ʱ n̠ʱ ɾ̠ ɾ̠ʱ] in phonetic transcription. The affricates /tɕ, tɕʰ, dʑ, dʑʱ/ are laminal post-alveolars with a relatively short release. It is not clear if /ɲ/ is similar, or truly palatal.[54] /ʋ/ is realized as labiovelar [w] or labiodental [ʋ] in free variation, but is not common, except before a stop.

 
The vowel phonemes of Sindhi on a vowel chart

Vowels

The vowels are modal length /i e æ ɑ ɔ o u/ and short ʊ ə/. Consonants following short vowels are lengthened: /pət̪o/ [pət̪ˑoː] 'leaf' vs. /pɑt̪o/ [pɑːt̪oː] 'worn'.

Nouns

Sindhi nouns distinguish two genders (masculine and feminine), two numbers (singular and plural), and five cases (nominative, vocative, oblique, ablative, and locative). This is a similar paradigm to Punjabi. Almost all Sindhi noun stems end in a vowel, except for some recent loanwords. The declension of a noun in Sindhi is largely determined from its grammatical gender and the final vowel (or if there is no final vowel). Generally, -o stems are masculine and -a stems are feminine, but the other final vowels can belong to either gender.

The different paradigms are listed below with examples.[55] The ablative and locative cases are used with only some lexemes in the singular number and hence not listed, but predictably take the suffixes -ā̃ / -aū̃ / -ū̃ (ABL) and -i (LOC).

SG PL Gloss
NOM VOC OBL NOM VOC OBL
M I ڇوڪِرو
chokiro
ڇوڪِرا
chokirā
ڇوڪِري
chokire
ڇوڪِرا
chokirā
ڇوڪِرا / ڇوڪِرَ
chokirā / chokira
ڇوڪِرَنِ
chokirani
boy
II ٻارُ
ɓāru
ٻارَ
ɓāra
ٻارو / ٻارَ
ɓāra / ɓāro
ٻارَنِ
ɓārani
child
III ساٿِي
sāthī
ساٿِيءَ
sāthīa
ساٿِي
sāthī
ساٿيئَرو
sāthīaro
ساٿيَنِ
sāthyani
companion
رَھاڪُو
rahākū
رَھاڪُوءَ
rahākūa
رَھاڪُو
rahākū
رَھاڪُئو
rahākuo
رَھاڪُنِ
rahākuni
inhabitant
IV راجا
rājā
راجا / راجائتو
rājā / rājāito
راجائُنِ
rājāuni
king
سيٺُ
seṭhu
سيٺَ
seṭha
سيٺَنِ
seṭhani
merchant
F I زالَ
zāla
زالُون
zālū̃
زالُنِ
zāluni
woman, wife
سَسُ
sasu
سَسُون
sasū̃
سَسُنِ
sasuni
mother-in-law
II دَوا
davā
دَوائُون
davāū̃
دَوائُنِ
davāuni
medicine
راتِ
rāti
راتيُون
rātyū̃
راتيُنِ
rātyuni
night
هوٽَل
hoṭal
هوٽَلُون
hoṭalū̃
هوٽَلُنِ
hoṭaluni
hotel
III ڳَئُون
ɠaū̃
ڳَئُونَ
ɠaū̃a
ڳَئُون
ɠaū̃
ڳَئُونِ
ɠaūni
cow
IV نَدِي
nadī
نَدِيءَ
nadīa
نَديُون
nadyū̃
نَديُنِ
nadyuni
river

A few nouns representing familial relations take irregular declensions with an extension in -r- in the plural. These are the masculine nouns ڀاءُ bhāu "brother", پِيءُ pīu "father", and the feminine nouns ڌِيءَ dhīa "daughter", نُونھَن nū̃hã "daughter-in-law", ڀيڻَ bheṇa "sister", ماءُ māu "mother", and جوءِ joi "wife".[55]

SG PL Gloss
NOM VOC OBL NOM VOC OBL
M ڀاءُ
bhāu
ڀائُرُ / ڀائُرَ
bhāuru / bhāura
ڀائُرَ / ڀائُرو
bhāura / bhāuro
ڀائُرَنِ / ڀائُنِ
bhāurani / bhāuni
brother
F ڌِيءَ / ڌِيءُ
dhīa / dhīu
ڌِيئَرُ / ڌِيئَرُون / ڌِيئُون
dhīaru / dhīarū̃ / dhīū̃
ڌِيئَرُنِ / ڌِيئُنِ
dhīaruni / dhīuni
daughter

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Sindhi has first and second-person personal pronouns as well as several types of third-person proximal and distal demonstratives. These decline in the nominative and oblique cases. The genitive is a special form for the first and second-person singular, but formed as usual with the oblique and case marker جو jo for the rest. The personal pronouns are listed below.[56]

Personal pronouns
SG PL
1 2 1 2
NOM مَان / آئُون
mā̃ / āū̃
تُون
tū̃
اَسِين
asī̃
تَوِهِين
tavhī̃
OBL مُون
mū̃
تو
to
اَسَان
asā̃
تَوِهَان
tavhā̃
GEN مُنهِنجو
mũhinjo
تُنهِنجو
tũhinjo

The third-person pronouns are listed below. Besides the unmarked demonstratives, there are also "specific" and "present" demonstratives. In the nominative singular, the demonstratives are marked for gender. Some other pronouns which decline identically to ڪو ko "someone" are هَرڪو har-ko "everyone", سَڀڪو sabh-ko "all of them", جيڪو je-ko "whoever" (relative), and تيڪو te-ko "that one" (correlative).[56]

Third-person pronouns
Demonstrative Interrogative Relative Correlative
Unmarked Specific Present Indefinite
PROX DIST PROX DIST PROX DIST
SG NOM M هِي
هُو
اِهو
iho
اُهو
uho
اِجهو
ijho
اوجهو
ojho
ڪو
ko
ڪيرُ
keru
جو
jo
سو
so
F هِيءَ
hīa
هُوءَ
hūa
اِهَا
ihā
اُهَا
uhā
اِجهَا
ijhā
اوجهَا
ojhā
ڪَا
ڪيرَ
kera
جَا
سَا
OBL هِنَ
hina
هُنَ
huna
اِنهين
inhẽ
اُنهين
unhẽ
ڪَنهِن
kãhĩ
جَنهِن
jãhĩ
تَنهِن
tãhĩ
PL NOM هِي
هُو
اِهي
ihe
اُهي
uhe
اِجهي
ijhe
اوجهي
ojhe
ڪي
ke
ڪيرَ
kera
جي
je
سي
se
OBL هِنَنِ
hinani
هُنَنِ
hunani
اِنهَنِ
inhani
اُنهَنِ
unhani
ڪِنِ
kini
جِنِ
jini
تنِ
tini

Numerals

Num. Cardinal
0 ٻُڙِي ɓuṛi
1 هِڪُ hiku
2 ٻَه ɓa
3 ٽِي ṭī
4 چَارِ cāri
5 پَنج pañja
6 ڇَهَه chaha
7 سَتَ sata
8 اَٺَ aṭha
9 نَوَ nava
Num. Cardinal
10 ڏَهَه ɗaha
11 يَارَنهَن yārãhã
12 ٻَارَهَن ɓārahã
13 تيرَهَن terahã
14 چوڏَهَن coɗahã
15 پَندرَهَن pandrahã
16 سورَهَن sorahã
17 سَترَهَن satrahã
18 اَرِڙَهَن / اَٺَارَهَن ariṛahã / aṭhārahã
19 اُڻوِيهَه uṇvīha

Postpositions

Most nominal relations (e.g. the semantic role of a nominal as an argument to a verb) are indicated using postpositions, which follow a noun in the oblique case. The subject of the verb takes the bare oblique case, while the object may be in nominative case or in oblique case and followed by the accusative case marker کي khe.[57]

The postpositions are divided into case markers, which directly follow the noun, and complex postpositions, which combine with a case marker (usually the genitive جو jo).

Case markers

The case markers are listed below.[57]: 399 

The postpositions with the suffix -o decline in gender and number to agree with their governor, e.g. ڇوڪِرو جو پِيءُ chokiro j-o pīu "the boy's father" but ڇوڪِر جِي مَاءُ chokiro j-ī māu "the boy's mother".

Case markers
Case Marker Example English
Nominative ڇوڪِرو
chokiro
the boy
Accusative
Dative
کي
khe
ڇوڪِري کي
chokire khe
the boy
to the boy
Genitive جو
j-o
ڇوڪِري جو
chokire jo
of the boy
سَندو
sand-o
ڇوڪِري سَندو
chokire sando
Sociative سُڌو
sudh-o
ڇوڪِري سُڌو
chokire sudho
along with the boy
Comitative
Instrumental
سَان
sā̃
ڇوڪِري سَان
chokire sā̃
with the boy
سَاڻُ
sāṇu
ڇوڪِري سَاڻُ
chokire sāṇu
Locative ۾
mẽ
ڇوڪِري ۾
chokire mẽ
in the boy
مَنجهِ
manjhi
ڇوڪِري مَنجهِ
chokire manjhi
Adessive تي
te
ڇوڪِري تي
chokire te
on the boy
وَٽِ
vaṭi
ڇوڪِري وَٽِ
chokire vaṭi
near the boy
the boy has...
Orientative ڏَانهَن
ḍā̃hã
ڇوڪِري ڏَانهَن
chokire ḍā̃hã
towards the boy
Terminative تَائيِن
tāī̃
ڇوڪِري تَائيِن
chokire tāī̃
up to the boy
Benefactive لاءِ
lāi
ڇوڪِري لاءِ
chokire lāi
for the boy
Semblative وَانگُرُ
vānguru
ڇوڪِري وَانگُرُ
chokire vānguru
like the boy
جَهڙو
jahṛ-o
ڇوڪِري جَهڙو
chokire jahṛo

There are several ablative case markers formed from the spatial postpositions and the ablative ending -ā̃. These indicate complex motion such as "from inside of".[57]: 400 

Ablative case markers
Marker Example English
کَان
khā̃
ڇوڪِري کَان
chokire khā̃
from the boy
مَان
mā̃
ڇوڪِري مَان
chokire mā̃
from inside the boy
تَان
tā̃
ڇوڪِري تَان
chokire tā̃
from upon the boy
ڏَانهَان
ḍā̃hā̃
ڇوڪِري ڏَانهَان
chokire ḍā̃hā̃
from the direction of the boy

Finally, some case markers are found in medieval Sindhi literature and/or modern poetic Sindhi, and otherwise not used in standard speech.

Obsolete/rare case markers
Case Marker Example English
Accusative
Adessive
ڪَني
kane
ڇوڪِري ڪَني
chokire kane
to/near the boy

Complex postpositions

The complex postpositions are formed with a case marker, usually the genitive but sometimes the ablative. Many are listed below.[57]: 405 

Sindhi Transliteration Explanation
جي اَڳيَان je aɠyā̃ "ahead of, before"; apudessive
جي اَندَرِ je andari "inside of"; inessive
جي بَدِرَان je badirā̃ "instead of, in place of"
جي بَرَابَر je barābar "equal to"
جي ٻَاهَرَان je ɓāharā̃ "outside of"
کَان ٻَاهَرِ khā̃ ɓāhari
جي باري ۾ je bāre mẽ "about, concerning"
جي چَوڌَارِي je caudhārī "around"
جي هيٺَان je heṭhā̃ "below, under"
جي ڪَري je kare "for, on account of"
جي لَاءِ je lāi "for"
جي مَٿَان je mathā̃ "above, on top of, upon"
کَان پَري khā̃ pare "far from"
جي پَارِ je pāri "across, on the other side of"
جي پَاسي je pāse "on the side of, near"
کَان پوءِ khā̃ poi "after"
جي پُٺيَان je puṭhyā̃ "behind"
جي سَامهون je sāmhõ "in front of, facing"
کَان سِوَاءِ khā̃ sivāi "besides, apart from"
جي وَاسطي je vāste "for the sake of, on account of"
جي ويجهو je vejho "near"; adessive
جي وِچِ ۾ je vici mẽ "between, among"
جي خَاطِرِ je xātiri "for the sake of"
جي خِلَافِ je xilāfi "against"
جي ذَرِيعي je zarī'e "via, through"; perlative

Vocabulary

According to historian Nabi Bux Baloch, most Sindhi vocabulary is from ancient Sanskrit. However, owing to the influence of the Persian language over the subcontinent, Sindhi has adapted many words from Persian and Arabic. It has also borrowed from English and Hindustani. Today, Sindhi in Pakistan is slightly influenced by Urdu[citation needed], with more borrowed Perso-Arabic elements, while Sindhi in India is influenced by Hindi[citation needed], with more borrowed tatsam Sanskrit elements.[58]

Writing systems

Sindhis in Pakistan use a version of the Perso-Arabic script with new letters adapted to Sindhi phonology, while in India a greater variety of scripts are in use, including Devanagari, Khudabadi, Khojki, and Gurmukhi.[59] Perso-Arabic for Sindhi was also made digitally accessible relatively earlier.[60]

The earliest attested records in Sindhi are from the 15th century.[13] Before the standardisation of Sindhi orthography, numerous forms of Devanagari and Laṇḍā scripts were used for trading. For literary and religious purposes, a Perso-Arabic script developed by Abul-Hasan as-Sindi and Gurmukhi (a subset of Laṇḍā) were used. Another two scripts, Khudabadi and Shikarpuri, were reforms of the Landa script.[61][62] During British rule in the late 19th century, the Perso-Arabic script was decreed standard over Devanagari.[63]

Laṇḍā scripts

Laṇḍā-based scripts, such as Gurmukhi, Khojki, and the Khudabadi script were used historically to write Sindhi.

Khudabadi

Khudabadi
or Sindhi
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Sind (318), ​Khudawadi, Sindhi
Unicode
Unicode alias
Khudawadi
U+112B0–U+112FF

The Khudabadi alphabet was invented in 1550 CE, and was used alongside other scripts by the Hindu community until the colonial era, where the sole usage of the Arabic script for official purposes was legislated.

The script continued to be used on a smaller scale by the trader community until the Partition of India in 1947.[64]

                   
ə a ɪ i ʊ e ɛ o ɔ
           
k ɡ ɠ ɡʱ ŋ
           
c ɟ ʄ ɟʱ ɲ
             
ʈ ʈʰ ɖ ɗ ɽ ɳ
         
t d n
           
p f b ɓ m
       
j r l ʋ
     
ʂ s h

Khojki

Khojki was employed primarily to record Muslim Shia Ismaili religious literature, as well as literature for a few secret Shia Muslim sects.[65][66]

Gurmukhi

The Gurmukhi script was also used to write Sindhi, mainly in India by Hindus.[64][65]

Perso-Arabic script

During the British raj, a variant of the Persian alphabet was adopted for Sindhi in the 19th century. The script is used in Pakistan and India today. It has a total of 52 letters, augmenting the Persian with digraphs and eighteen new letters (ڄ ٺ ٽ ٿ ڀ ٻ ڙ ڍ ڊ ڏ ڌ ڇ ڃ ڦ ڻ ڱ ڳ ڪ) for sounds particular to Sindhi and other Indo-Aryan languages. Some letters that are distinguished in Arabic or Persian are homophones in Sindhi.

جهہ ڄ ج پ ث ٺ ٽ ٿ ت ڀ ٻ ب ا
ɟʱ ʄ ɟ p s ʈʰ ʈ t ɓ b ɑː ʔ
ڙ ر ذ ڍ ڊ ڏ ڌ د خ ح ڇ چ ڃ
ɽ r z ɖʱ ɖ ɗ d x h c ɲ
ڪ ق ڦ ف غ ع ظ ط ض ص ش س ز
k q f ɣ ɑː ʔ z t z s ʂ s z
ي ء ه و ڻ ن م ل ڱ گهہ ڳ گ ک
j ʔ h ʋ ʊ ɔː ɳ n m l ŋ ɡʱ ɠ ɡ
 
Farsi (perso-Arabic) or Shikarpuri Sindhi.

Devanagari script

In India, the Devanagari script is also used to write Sindhi.[65] A modern version was introduced by the government of India in 1948; however, it did not gain full acceptance, so both the Sindhi-Arabic and Devanagari scripts are used. In India, a person may write a Sindhi language paper for a Civil Services Examination in either script.[67] Devanagari was seen as the most practical option for Sindhi language in India.[1] Diacritical bars below the letter are used to mark implosive consonants, and dots called nukta are used to form other additional consonants.

ə a ɪ i ʊ e ɛ o ɔ
ख़ ग़
k x ɡ ɠ ɣ ɡʱ ŋ
ज़
c ɟ ʄ z ɟʱ ɲ
ड़ ढ़
ʈ ʈʰ ɖ ɗ ɽ ɖʱ ɽʱ ɳ
t d n
फ़ ॿ
p f b ɓ m
j r l ʋ
ʂ ʂ s h

Roman Sindhi

The Sindhi-Roman script or Roman-Sindhi script is the contemporary Sindhi script usually used by the Sindhis when texting messages on their mobile phones.[68][69]

Advocacy

In 1972, an bill was passed by the provincial assembly of Sindh which saw Sindhi, given official status thus becoming the first provincial language in Pakistan to have its own official status.

  • Sindhi language was made the official language of Sindh according to Language Bill.
  • All Educational institutes in Sindh are mandated to teach Sindhi as per the bill.

Software

By 2001, Abdul-Majid Bhurgri[failed verification] had coordinated with Microsoft to develop Unicode-based Software in the form of the Perso-Arabic Sindhi script which afterwards became the basis for the communicated use by Sindhi speakers around the world.[70] In 2016, Google introduced the first automated translator for Sindhi language.[71][72] Later on in 2023 an offline support was introduced by Google Translate.[73][74] Which was followed by Microsoft Translator strengthening support in May of same year.[75][76]

In June 2014, the Khudabadi script of the Sindhi language was added to Unicode, However as of now the script currently has no proper rendering support to view it in unsupported devices.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ This is the number of people who identified their mother-tongue as "Sindhi"; it does not include speakers of related languages, like Kutchi.

References

  1. ^ a b c Iyengar, Arvind; Parchani, Sundri (2021). "Like Community, Like Language: Seventy-Five Years of Sindhi in Post-Partition India". Journal of Sindhi Studies. 1: 1–32. doi:10.1163/26670925-bja10002. S2CID 246551773. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Encyclopædia Britannica". Sindhi Language. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
  3. ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  4. ^ a b Cole, J. (2006). Brown, Keith (ed.). "Sindhi". Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (Second Edition). Elsevier: 384–387. doi:10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/02241-0.
  5. ^ "Sindhi". The Languages Gulper. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
  6. ^ Wadhwani, Y. K. (1981). "The Origin of the Sindhi Language" (PDF). Bulletin of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute. 40: 192–201. JSTOR 42931119. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  7. ^ a b c Christopher Shackle, Sindhi literature at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  8. ^ "Sacred Literature-Ginans". Ismaili.NET. Heritage Society. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  9. ^ a b Schimmel, Annemarie (1971). "Sindhi Literature". Mahfil. 7 (1/2): 71–80. JSTOR 40874414.
  10. ^ . Imamreza.net. Archived from the original on 15 January 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  11. ^ Memon, Naseer (April 13, 2014). . The News on Sunday. Archived from the original on April 13, 2014. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  12. ^ Levesque, Julien (2021). "Beyond Success or Failure: Sindhi Nationalism and the Social Construction of the "Idea of Sindh"". Journal of Sindhi Studies. 1 (1): 1–33. doi:10.1163/26670925-bja10001. S2CID 246560343. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
  13. ^ a b "Sindhi language | Britannica". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 6 October 2022.
  14. ^ "CCI defers approval of census results until elections". Dawn. 28 May 2018. Retrieved 29 October 2022. The numbers have been calculate based on the percentages and the population totals. For example, the figure of 30.26 million is calculated from the reported 14.57% for the speakers of Sindhi and the 207.685 million total population of Pakistan.
  15. ^ Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. "C-16: Population by mother tongue, India - 2011". Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  16. ^ Majeed, Gulshan. "Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict in Pakistan" (PDF). Journal of Political Studies. Retrieved December 27, 2013.
  17. ^ "Languages Included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constution". Department of Official Language, Ministry of Home Affairs. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  18. ^ Language and Politics in Pakistan. "The Sindhi Language Movement". academia.edu. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  19. ^ . NAWAIWAQT GROUP OF NEWSPAPERS. September 10, 2015. Archived from the original on 11 September 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  20. ^ "Microsoft Word - Teaching of Sindhi & Sindhi ethnicity.doc" (PDF). Apnaorg.com. Retrieved 2018-08-13.
  21. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-09-05. Retrieved 2015-09-12.
  22. ^ Samar, Azeem (13 March 2019). "PA resolution calls for teaching Sindhi as compulsory subject in private schools". The News International. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  23. ^ PakistanToday (25 September 2018). "Sindhi to be made compulsory in all private schools across province | Pakistan Today". Pakistan Today. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  24. ^ "Private schools directed to make Sindhi compulsory subject". Dawn. 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  25. ^ "Sindh private schools told to teach Sindhi as compulsory subject". Samaa TV. 2018-09-24. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  26. ^ "Call for using local languages at primary level". The Express Tribune. 2023-02-20. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  27. ^ "Members decry delay in declaring Sindhi a national language". The Express Tribune. 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  28. ^ Siddiqui, Tahir (2023-02-22). "Govt, opposition demand national language status for Sindhi". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  29. ^ "Pakistan: Members of Sindh Assembly demand national language status for Sindhi". ANI News. Retrieved 2023-02-23.
  30. ^ (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-05-13. Retrieved 2018-08-13.
  31. ^ Sindhi language at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)  
  32. ^ Austin, Peter; Austin, Marit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics Peter K. (2008). One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered, and Lost. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520255609.
  33. ^ Paniker, K. Ayyappa (1997). Medieval Indian Literature: Surveys and selections. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 9788126003655.
  34. ^ Grierson, George A. (1919). "Sindhi". Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. VIII North-western group. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India.
  35. ^ Gazetteer of the Province of Sind. Government at the "Mercantile" Steam Press. 1907. pp. 188–519.
  36. ^ "Uttaradi". 1919.
  37. ^ Shackle (2007), p. 114.
  38. ^ Masica, Colin P. (1991). The Indo-Aryan languages. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press. p. 443. ISBN 978-0-521-23420-7.
  39. ^ Rahman, Tariq (1995). "The Siraiki Movement in Pakistan". Language Problems & Language Planning. 19 (1): 3. doi:10.1075/lplp.19.1.01rah.
  40. ^ "Fraki Sindhi". Sindhi spoken at Sibi is known as Fraki.
  41. ^ "Firaqi Sindhi". Indus Asia Online Journal. 2016-11-30.
  42. ^ "Linguistic Survey of India". dsal.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  43. ^ One thousand languages : living, endangered, and lost. Internet Archive. Berkeley : University of California Press. 2008. ISBN 978-0-520-25560-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  44. ^ "Sindhi bhil language". LotsOfEssays.com.
  45. ^ "Sindhi Bhil". Global Recordings Network.
  46. ^ "Sindhi bhil". Ethnologue.
  47. ^ "Linguistic Survey of India". dsal.uchicago.edu. p. 214. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
  48. ^ "The Sweet Language of Kutch". Memeraki Retail and Tech Pvt Ltd. 2022-11-13. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
  49. ^ "Sindhi Language - Structure, Writing & Alphabet - MustGo".
  50. ^ Raza, Sarfraz; Zahid, Agha Furrukh; Raza, Usman. "Phonemic Inventory of Sindhi and Acoustic Analysis of Voiced Implosives" (PDF). uogenglish.files.wordpress.com. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
  51. ^ Nihalani, Paroo. (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association (Sindhi). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  52. ^ Nihalani, Paroo (December 1, 1995). "Illustration of the IPA – Sindhi". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 25 (2): 95–98. doi:10.1017/S0025100300005235. S2CID 249410954.
  53. ^ Nihalani (1974), p. 207.
  54. ^ The IPA Handbook uses the symbols c, cʰ, ɟ, ɟʱ, but makes it clear this is simply tradition and that these are neither palatal nor stops, but "laminal post-alveolars with a relatively short release". Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:83) confirm a transcription of [t̠ɕ, t̠ɕʰ, d̠ʑ, d̠ʑʱ] and further remarks that "/ʄ/ is often a slightly creaky voiced palatal approximant" (caption of table 3.19).
  55. ^ a b Jetley, Murlidhar Kishinchand (1964). Morphology of Sindhi: A descriptive analysis of Vicholi, the standard Sindhi dialect (Thesis). Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute Pune. hdl:10603/145755.
  56. ^ a b Khubchandani (2003).
  57. ^ a b c d Trumpp, Ernest (1872). Grammar of the Sindhi language. London: Trübner and Co.
  58. ^ Cole (2001), pp. 652–653; Khubchandani (2003), pp. 624–625.
  59. ^ Nair, Manoj R. (2018-07-30). "The dispute over script still endures among Sindhis". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
  60. ^ "Sindhi becomes the first language from Pakistan to be selected for digitization". Geo News. Dec 7, 2020.
  61. ^ Khubchandani (2003), p. 633.
  62. ^ . Archived from the original on 2016-03-07. Retrieved 2016-05-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  63. ^ Cole (2001), p. 648.
  64. ^ a b . Sindhilanguage.com. Archived from the original on 19 April 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  65. ^ a b c "Proposal to Encode the Sindhi Script in ISO/IEC 10646" (PDF). Std.dkuug.dk. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  66. ^ "Final Proposal to Encode the Khojki Script in ISO/IEC 10646" (PDF). Std.dkuug.dk. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  67. ^ . Archived from the original on 2014-10-22. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
  68. ^ "Romanized Sindhi is teaching reading speaking writing sindhi language globally under alliance of sindhi association of Americas Inc". Romanizedsindhi.org. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  69. ^ "CHOICE OF SCRIPT FOR OUR SINDHI LANGUAGE". Chandiramani.com. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
  70. ^ Ismaili, Imdad Ali (2011). "Design & Development of the Graphical User Interface for Sindhi Language". Mehran University Research Journal of Engineering and Technology. The idea is to provide a software platform to the people of Sindh as well as Sindhi diasporas living across the globe to make use of computing for basic tasks such as editing, composition, formatting, and printing of documents in Sindhi by using GUISL. The implementation of the GUISL has been done in the Java technology to make the system platform independent.
  71. ^ "Google Translate now speaks Sindhi, Pashto". Official Google India Blog. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  72. ^ ANI (2016-02-18). "Google adds Sindhi to its translate language options". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  73. ^ "Google Translate brings offline support for Oriya, Sindhi and 31 other languages". The Times of India. 2023-01-16. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  74. ^ Ghazi, Zain (2023-01-18). "Google Translate Sindhi Offline". Pakistani Journal. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
  75. ^ Stories, Microsoft (2023-05-19). "Microsoft Translator adds four new languages – Konkani, Maithili, Sindhi, and Sinhala". Microsoft Stories India. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  76. ^ Team, C. R. N. (2023-05-18). "Microsoft Translator adds 4 new languages – Konkani, Maithili, Sindhi, and Sinhala". CRN - India. Retrieved 2023-05-19.

Sources

  • Nihalani, Paroo (1974). "Lingual Articulation of Stops in Sindhi". Phonetica. 30 (4): 197–212. doi:10.1159/000259489. ISSN 1423-0321. PMID 4424983. S2CID 3325314.
  • Addleton and Brown (2010). . South Hadley: Doorlight Publications. Archived from the original on 2010-08-28. Retrieved 2010-03-18.
  • Bughio, M. Qasim (January–June 2006). Maniscalco, Fabio Maniscalco (ed.). "The Diachronic Sociolinguistic Situation in Sindh". Web Journal on Cultural Patrimony. 1.
  • Cole, Jennifer S (2001). "Sindhi". In Garry, Jane; Rubino, Carl (eds.). Facts About the World's Languages. H W Wilson. pp. 647–653. ISBN 0-8242-0970-2.
  • International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. 1999. ISBN 0-521-63751-1.
  • Khubchandani, Lachman M (2003). "Sindhi". In Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. pp. 622–658. ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5.
  • Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
  • Shackle, Christopher (2007). "Pakistan". In Simpson, Andrew (ed.). Language and national identity in Asia. Oxford linguistics Y. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-922648-1.
  • Trumpp, Ernest (1872). Grammar of the Sindhi Language. London: Trübner and Co. ISBN 81-206-0100-9.
  • Chopra, R. M (2013). "Persian in Sindh". The rise, growth, and decline of Indo-Persian literature (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Iran Culture House. OCLC 909254259.

External links

  • Sindhi Language Authority
  • Sindhi Dictionary
  • at the Wayback Machine (archived August 31, 2015)
  • Mewaram's 1910 Sindhi-English dictionary

sindhi, language, confused, with, hindi, sindhi, sindhi, نڌ, perso, arabic, devanagari, sɪndʱiː, indo, aryan, language, spoken, about, million, people, pakistani, province, sindh, where, official, status, also, spoken, further, million, people, india, where, s. Not to be confused with Hindi Sindhi ˈ s ɪ n d i 3 Sindhi س نڌ ي Perso Arabic स न ध Devanagari sɪndʱiː is an Indo Aryan language spoken by about 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh where it has official status It is also spoken by a further 1 7 million people in India where it is a scheduled language without any state level official status The main writing system is the Perso Arabic script which accounts for the majority of the Sindhi literature and is the only one currently used in Pakistan In India both the Perso Arabic script and Devanagari are used SindhiSindhi س نڌ ي स न ध Sindhi written in Perso Arabic script and DevanagariNative toPakistan IndiaRegionSindh and near the border in neighbouring regions such as Kutch and BalochistanEthnicitySindhisNative speakersc 32 million 2011 2017 Language familyIndo European Indo IranianIndo AryanNorthwesternSindhicSindhiWriting systemNaskh script Devanagari and others 1 Official statusOfficial language inPakistan Sindh provincial official 2 India scheduled language 1 Regulated bySindhi Language Authority Pakistan National Council for Promotion of Sindhi Language India Language codesISO 639 1 span class plainlinks sd span ISO 639 2 span class plainlinks snd span ISO 639 3 a href https iso639 3 sil org code snd class extiw title iso639 3 snd snd a Glottologsind1272 SindhiLinguasphere59 AAF fThe proportion of people with Sindhi as their mother tongue in each Pakistani District as of the 2017 Pakistan CensusSindhi is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World s Languages in DangerThis article contains IPA phonetic symbols Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols instead of Unicode characters For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA This article contains Sindhi text written from right to left with some letters joined Without proper rendering support you may see unjoined letters or other symbols instead of Sindhi script Sindhi is first attested in historical records within the Natyasastra a text thought to have been composed between 200 B C and 200 A D The earliest written evidence of Sindhi as a language can be found in a translation of the Qur an into Sindhi dating back to 883 A D 4 Sindhi was one of the first Indo Aryan languages to encounter influence from Persian and Arabic following the Umayyad conquest in 712 CE A substantial body of Sindhi literature developed during the Medieval period the most famous of which is the religious and mystic poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai from the 18th century Modern Sindhi was promoted under British rule beginning in 1843 which led to the current status of the language in independent Pakistan after 1947 Contents 1 History 1 1 Origins 1 2 Early Sindhi 2nd 16th centuries 1 3 Medieval Sindhi 16th 19th centuries 1 4 Modern Sindhi 1843 present 2 Geographic distribution 3 Official status 4 Dialects 5 Grammar 5 1 Phonology 5 1 1 Consonants 5 1 2 Vowels 5 2 Nouns 5 3 Pronouns 5 3 1 Personal pronouns 5 4 Numerals 5 5 Postpositions 5 5 1 Case markers 5 5 2 Complex postpositions 5 6 Vocabulary 6 Writing systems 6 1 Laṇḍa scripts 6 1 1 Khudabadi 6 1 2 Khojki 6 1 3 Gurmukhi 6 2 Perso Arabic script 6 3 Devanagari script 6 4 Roman Sindhi 7 Advocacy 7 1 Software 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Sources 12 External linksHistory nbsp Cover of a book containing the epic Dodo Chanesar written in Hatvanki Sindhi or Khudabadi script Origins The name Sindhi is derived from the Sanskrit sindhu the original name of the Indus River along whose delta Sindhi is spoken 5 Like other languages of the Indo Aryan family Sindhi is descended from Old Indo Aryan Sanskrit via Middle Indo Aryan Pali secondary Prakrits and Apabhramsha 20th century Western scholars such as George Abraham Grierson believed that Sindhi descended specifically from the Vracaḍa dialect of Apabhramsha described by Markandeya as being spoken in Sindhu desa corresponding to modern Sindh but later work has shown this to be unlikely 6 Early Sindhi 2nd 16th centuries Literary attestation of early Sindhi is sparse Sindhi is first mentioned in historical records within the Natyasastra a text on dramaturgy thought to have been composed between 200 B C and 200 A D The earliest written evidence of Sindhi as a language can be found in a translation of the Qur an into Sindhi dating back to 883 A D 4 Historically Isma ili religious literature and poetry in India as old as the 11th century CE used a language that was closely related to Sindhi and Gujarati Much of this work is in the form of ginans a kind of devotional hymn 7 8 Sindhi was the first Indo Aryan language to be in close contact with Arabic and Persian following the Umayyad conquest of Sindh in 712 CE Medieval Sindhi 16th 19th centuries Medieval Sindhi literature is of a primarily religious genre comprising a syncretic Sufi and Advaita Vedanta poetry the latter in the devotional bhakti tradition The earliest known Sindhi poet of the Sufi tradition is Qazi Qadan 1493 1551 Other early poets were Shah Inat Rizvi c 1613 1701 and Shah Abdul Karim Bulri 1538 1623 These poets had a mystical bent that profoundly influenced Sindhi poetry for much of this period 7 Another famous part of Medieval Sindhi literature is a wealth of folktales adapted and readapted into verse by many bards at various times and possibly much older than their earliest literary attestations These include romantic epics such as Sassui Punnhun Sohni Mahiwal Momal Rano Noori Jam Tamachi Lilan Chanesar and others 9 The greatest poet of Sindhi was Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai 1689 1690 1752 whose verses were compiled into the Shah Jo Risalo by his followers While primarily Sufi his verses also recount traditional Sindhi folktales and aspects of the cultural history of Sindh 7 The first attested Sindhi translation of the Quran was done by Akhund Azaz Allah Muttalawi 1747 1824 and published in Gujarat in 1870 The first to appear in print was by Muhammad Siddiq in 1867 10 Modern Sindhi 1843 present In 1843 the British conquest of Sindh led the region to become part of the Bombay Presidency Soon after in 1848 Governor George Clerk established Sindhi as the official language in the province removing the literary dominance of Persian Sir Bartle Frere the then commissioner of Sindh issued orders on August 29 1857 advising civil servants in Sindh to pass an examination in Sindhi He also ordered the use of Sindhi in official documents 11 In 1868 the Bombay Presidency assigned Narayan Jagannath Vaidya to replace the Abjad used in Sindhi with the Khudabadi script The script was decreed a standard script by the Bombay Presidency thus inciting anarchy in the Muslim majority region A powerful unrest followed after which Twelve Martial Laws were imposed by the British authorities The granting of official status of Sindhi along with script reforms ushered in the development of modern Sindhi literature The first printed works in Sindhi were produced at the Muhammadi Press in Bombay beginning in 1867 These included Islamic stories set in verse by Muhammad Hashim Thattvi one of the renowned religious scholars of Sindh 9 The Partition of India in 1947 resulted in most Sindhi speakers ending up in the new state of Pakistan commencing a push to establish a strong sub national linguistic identity for Sindhi This manifested in resistance to the imposition of Urdu and eventually Sindhi nationalism in the 1980s 12 The language and literary style of contemporary Sindhi writings in Pakistan and India were noticeably diverging by the late 20th century authors from the former country were borrowing extensively from Urdu while those from the latter were highly influenced by Hindi 13 Geographic distributionIn Pakistan Sindhi is the first language of 30 26 million people or 14 6 of the country s population as of the 2017 census 29 5 million of these are found in Sindh where they account for 62 of the total population of the province There are 0 56 million speakers in the province of Balochistan 14 especially in the Kacchi Plain that encompasses the districts of Lasbela Hub Kachhi Sibi Sohbatpur Jafarabad Jhal Magsi Usta Muhammad and Nasirabad In India Sindhi mother tongue speakers were distributed in the following states 2011 Census Statistics India Total 2 772 264 15 a State Population Gujarat 1 184 024 Maharashtra 723 748 Rajashtan 386 569 Madhya Pradesh 245 161 Chattisgarh 93 424 Delhi NCT 31 177 Uttar Pradesh 28 952 Assam 19 646 Karnataka 16 954 Andhra Pradesh 11 299 Tamil Nadu 8 448 West Bengal 7 828 Uttarakhand 2 863 Odisha 2 338 Bihar 2 227 Jharkhand 1 701 Haryana 1 658 Kerala 1 251 Punjab 754 Goa 656 Dadra and Nagar and Daman and Diu 894 Meghalaya 236 Chandigarh 134 Puducherry 94 Nagaland 82 Himachal Pradesh 62 Tripura 30 Jammu and Kashmir 19 Andaman and Nicobar Islands 14 Arunachal Pradesh 12 Lakshadweep 7 Sikkim 2Official statusSindhi is the official language of the Pakistani province of Sindh 16 2 and one of the scheduled languages of India where it does not have any state level status 17 Prior to the inception of Pakistan Sindhi was the national language of Sindh 18 19 20 21 The Pakistan Sindh Assembly has ordered compulsory teaching of the Sindhi language in all private schools in Sindh 22 According to the Sindh Private Educational Institutions Form B Regulations and Control 2005 Rules All educational institutions are required to teach children the Sindhi language 23 Sindh Education and Literacy Minister Syed Sardar Ali Shah and Secretary of School Education Qazi Shahid Pervaiz have ordered the employment of Sindhi teachers in all private schools in Sindh so that this language can be easily and widely taught 24 Sindhi is taught in all provincial private schools that follow the Matric system and not the ones that follow the Cambridge system 25 At the occasion of Mother Language Day in 2023 the Sindh Assembly under Culture minister Sardar Ali Shah passed a unanimous resolution to extend the use of language to primary level 26 and increase the status of Sindhi as a national language 27 28 29 of Pakistan The Indian Government has legislated Sindhi as a scheduled language in India making it an option for education Despite lacking any state level status Sindhi is still a prominent minority language in the Indian state of Rajasthan 30 There are many Sindhi language television channels broadcasting in Pakistan such as Time News KTN Sindh TV Awaz Television Network Mehran TV and Dharti TV Dialects nbsp The dialects of Sindhi language shown on map Sindhi has many dialects and forms a dialect continuum at some places with neighboring languages such as Saraiki and Gujarati Some of the documented dialects of Sindhi are 31 32 33 34 35 Vicholi The prestige dialect spoken around Hyderabad and central Sindh the Vicholo region The literary standard of Sindhi is based on this dialect Uttaradi The dialect of northern Sindh Uttaru meaning north with minor differences in Larkana Shikarpur and in parts of Sukkur and Kandiaro 36 Lari The dialect of southern Sindh Laṛu spoken around areas like Karachi Thatta Sujawal Tando Muhammad Khan and Badin districts Siroli Siraiki or Ubheji The dialect of northernmost Sindh Siro meaning head 37 Spoken in smaller number all over Sindh but mainly in Jacobabad and Kashmore districts it has little similarity with the Saraiki language of South Punjab 38 and has variously been treated either as a dialect of Saraiki or as a dialect of Sindhi 39 Lasi The dialect of Lasbela Hub and Gwadar districts in Balochistan closely related to Lari and Vicholi and in contact with Balochi Firaqi Sindhi The dialect of the Kachhi plains the north eastern districts of Balochistan where it is referred to as Firaqi Sindhi or commonly just Sindhi 40 41 Thareli also called Tharechi dialect spoken in north eastern Thar Desert of Sindh called Nara desert Achhro thar but mainly spoken in the western part of Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan India by many Sindhi Muslims 42 43 Sindhi Bhili It is a dialect spoken in Sindh by the Sindhi Meghwars and Bheels 44 Sindhi Bhil is known to have many old Sindhi words which were lost after Arabic Persian and Chaghatai influence 45 46 The variety of Sindhi spoken by Sindhi Hindus who emigrated to India is known as Dukslinu Sindhi Furthermore Kutchi and Jadgali are sometimes classified as dialects of Sindhi rather than independent languages Sindhi dialects Comparison 47 English Vicholi Lari Uttaradi Lasi Kutchi 48 Dhatki I Aao n Aao n Ma n A Aau n Hu n My Muhnjo Mujo Manjo Mahjo Mojo Majo Mujo Manjo Mahyo You Sin plu formal Awha n Awhee n Tawha n Tawhee n Aa n Aei n Taha n Taa n Tahee n Taee n Awa n Ai n Aa n Ai n Ahee n Aween To me Mukhe Muke Mankhe Mukh Muke Mina What Chha Kahirō Kujjaro Kujja Chha Shha Chho Kuro Kee Why Chho Ko Chho Shho Chhela Kolai Kurelae How Kiya n Kei n Kiya n Kee n Kiya n Foot Pair Pair Pagg Pagulo Pair Pair Pag Pagg Pair Far Pare Ddoor Pare Parte Ddor Chhete Ddor Near Vejhō Vejo Ōdō Ōdirō Ore Vejhō Vejhe Orte Ōddō Wat bajume Nerro Good Excellent Sutho Khaso Sutho Thauko Sutho Bhalo Chango Khasho Khaso Laat Sutho High Utaho Ucho Mathe Ucho Ucho Uncho Silver Rupo Chadi Rupo Chandi Rupo Rupo Father Piu Pay Abo Aba Ada Pee Babo Pirhe n Pe Pe Bapa Ada Wife Joe Gharwari Joe Wani Kuwar Zaal Gharwari Zaal Vahu Vau Ddosi Luggai Man Mardu Manu Maru Mard Murs Musalu Manhu Musalo Bhai Kako Hamra Manhu Maḍu Maru Maru Woman Aurat Zala ōrat ōlath Mai Ran Zala Baeḍi Bayaḍi Child Baby Bbar Ningar Bbalak Bbar Ningar Gabhur Bacho Kako Bbar Bacho Adro Phar animal Gabhar Bar Gabhar Daughter Dhiu Niyani Dia Niyani Kana Dhee Adri Dhia Dhi Dikri Sun Siju Sij Surij Sijhu Siju Suraj Suraj Sunlight Karro Oosa Tarko Cat Billi Bili Pusani Billi Phushini Minni Rain Barsat Mee n h Barish Varsat Mee n Mai n Barsat Mee n hu Varsat Maiwla And Aei n Au n Ae n Ne Aei n Au n Aen Ae Or Ne Ane A e n Also Pin Bhi Pin Bee Bu Pun Pin Pan Is Ahe Aye Aa Ahe Hai Ahe Aye Aye Ahe Ah Aye Hai Fire Bahe Bae agg jjerō Bahe Jjerō Jirō laganō ag Water Pani Pani Jal Pani Pani Pani Jal Pani Slap Thaparr Chammat Tarr Chamatu Chapatu Lapatu Thapu To Wash Dhoain u Dhun u Dhoain u Dhuan u Dhowan u I Went Aao n Vius Aao n Ves Ma n Vayus m Vayas f A viosi Hu GiosGrammarPhonology Sindhi has a relatively large inventory of both consonants and vowels compared to other Indo Aryan languages 49 Sindhi has 46 consonant phonemes and 10 vowels 50 clarification needed The consonant to vowel ratio is around average for the world s languages at 2 8 51 All plosives affricates nasals the retroflex flap and the lateral approximant l have aspirated or breathy voiced counterparts The language also features four implosives Consonants Sindhi consonants 52 Labial Dental alveolar Retroflex Alveolo Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal plain m م n ن ɳ ڻ ɲ ڃ ŋ ڱ breathy mʱ مھ nʱ نھ ɳʱ ڻھ Stop Affricate plain p پ b ب t ت d د ʈ ٽ ɖ ڊ tɕ چ dʑ ج k ڪ ɡ گ breathy pʰ ڦ bʱ ڀ t ʰ ٿ d ʱ ڌ ʈʰ ٺ ɖʱ ڍ tɕʰ ڇ dʑʱ جھ kʰ ک ɡʱ گھ Implosive ɓ ٻ ɗ ڏ ʄ ڄ ɠ ڳ Fricative f ف s س z ز ʂ ش x خ ɣ غ h ھ Approximant plain ʋ و l ل j ي breathy lʱ لھ Rhotic plain r ر ɽ ڙ breathy ɽʱ ڙھ The retroflex consonants are apical postalveolar and do not involve curling back of the tip of the tongue 53 so they could be transcribed t t ʰ d d ʱ n n ʱ ɾ ɾ ʱ in phonetic transcription The affricates tɕ tɕʰ dʑ dʑʱ are laminal post alveolars with a relatively short release It is not clear if ɲ is similar or truly palatal 54 ʋ is realized as labiovelar w or labiodental ʋ in free variation but is not common except before a stop nbsp The vowel phonemes of Sindhi on a vowel chart Vowels Front Central Back Close i u Near close ɪ ʊ Close mid e o Mid e Open mid ae ɔ Open ɑThe vowels are modal length i e ae ɑ ɔ o u and short ɪ ʊ e Consonants following short vowels are lengthened pet o pet ˑoː leaf vs pɑt o pɑːt oː worn Nouns Sindhi nouns distinguish two genders masculine and feminine two numbers singular and plural and five cases nominative vocative oblique ablative and locative This is a similar paradigm to Punjabi Almost all Sindhi noun stems end in a vowel except for some recent loanwords The declension of a noun in Sindhi is largely determined from its grammatical gender and the final vowel or if there is no final vowel Generally o stems are masculine and a stems are feminine but the other final vowels can belong to either gender The different paradigms are listed below with examples 55 The ablative and locative cases are used with only some lexemes in the singular number and hence not listed but predictably take the suffixes a au u ABL and i LOC SG PL Gloss NOM VOC OBL NOM VOC OBL M I ڇوڪ روchokiro ڇوڪ راchokira ڇوڪ ريchokire ڇوڪ راchokira ڇوڪ را ڇوڪ ر chokira chokira ڇوڪ ر ن chokirani boy II ٻار ɓaru ٻار ɓara ٻارو ٻار ɓara ɓaro ٻار ن ɓarani child III ساٿ يsathi ساٿ يء sathia ساٿ يsathi ساٿيئ روsathiaro ساٿي ن sathyani companion ر ھاڪ وrahaku ر ھاڪ وء rahakua ر ھاڪ وrahaku ر ھاڪ ئوrahakuo ر ھاڪ ن rahakuni inhabitant IV راجاraja راجا راجائتو raja rajaito راجائ ن rajauni king سيٺ seṭhu سيٺ seṭha سيٺ ن seṭhani merchant F I زال zala زال ونzalu زال ن zaluni woman wife س س sasu س س ونsasu س س ن sasuni mother in law II د واdava د وائ ونdavau د وائ ن davauni medicine رات rati راتي ونratyu راتي ن ratyuni night هوٽ لhoṭal هوٽ ل ونhoṭalu هوٽ ل ن hoṭaluni hotel III ڳ ئ ونɠau ڳ ئ ون ɠau a ڳ ئ ونɠau ڳ ئ ون ɠauni cow IV ن د يnadi ن د يء nadia ن دي ونnadyu ن دي ن nadyuni river A few nouns representing familial relations take irregular declensions with an extension in r in the plural These are the masculine nouns ڀاء bhau brother پ يء piu father and the feminine nouns ڌ يء dhia daughter ن ونھ ن nu ha daughter in law ڀيڻ bheṇa sister ماء mau mother and جوء joi wife 55 SG PL Gloss NOM VOC OBL NOM VOC OBL M ڀاء bhau ڀائ ر ڀائ ر bhauru bhaura ڀائ ر ڀائ روbhaura bhauro ڀائ ر ن ڀائ ن bhaurani bhauni brother F ڌ يء ڌ يء dhia dhiu ڌ يئ ر ڌ يئ ر ون ڌ يئ ونdhiaru dhiaru dhiu ڌ يئ ر ن ڌ يئ ن dhiaruni dhiuni daughter Pronouns Personal pronouns Like other Indo Aryan languages Sindhi has first and second person personal pronouns as well as several types of third person proximal and distal demonstratives These decline in the nominative and oblique cases The genitive is a special form for the first and second person singular but formed as usual with the oblique and case marker جو jo for the rest The personal pronouns are listed below 56 Personal pronouns SG PL 1 2 1 2 NOM م ان آئ ونma au ت ونtu ا س ينasi ت و ه ينtavhi OBL م ونmu توto ا س انasa ت و ه انtavha GEN م نه نجوmũhinjo ت نه نجوtũhinjo The third person pronouns are listed below Besides the unmarked demonstratives there are also specific and present demonstratives In the nominative singular the demonstratives are marked for gender Some other pronouns which decline identically to ڪو ko someone are ه رڪو har ko everyone س ڀڪو sabh ko all of them جيڪو je ko whoever relative and تيڪو te ko that one correlative 56 Third person pronouns Demonstrative Interrogative Relative Correlative Unmarked Specific Present Indefinite PROX DIST PROX DIST PROX DIST SG NOM M ه يhi ه وhu ا هوiho ا هوuho ا جهوijho اوجهوojho ڪوko ڪير keru جوjo سوso F ه يء hia ه وء hua ا ه اiha ا ه اuha ا جه اijha اوجه اojha ڪ اka ڪير kera ج اja س اsa OBL ه ن hina ه ن huna ا نهينinhẽ ا نهينunhẽ ڪ نه نkahĩ ج نه نjahĩ ت نه نtahĩ PL NOM ه يhi ه وhu ا هيihe ا هيuhe ا جهيijhe اوجهيojhe ڪيke ڪير kera جيje سيse OBL ه ن ن hinani ه ن ن hunani ا نه ن inhani ا نه ن unhani ڪ ن kini ج ن jini تن tini Numerals Num Cardinal 0 ٻ ڙ ي ɓuṛi 1 ه ڪ hiku 2 ٻ ه ɓa 3 ٽ ي ṭi 4 چ ار cari 5 پ نج panja 6 ڇ ه ه chaha 7 س ت sata 8 ا ٺ aṭha 9 ن و nava Num Cardinal 10 ڏ ه ه ɗaha 11 ي ار نه ن yaraha 12 ٻ ار ه ن ɓaraha 13 تير ه ن teraha 14 چوڏ ه ن coɗaha 15 پ ندر ه ن pandraha 16 سور ه ن soraha 17 س تر ه ن satraha 18 ا ر ڙ ه ن ا ٺ ار ه ن ariṛaha aṭharaha 19 ا ڻو يه ه uṇviha Postpositions Most nominal relations e g the semantic role of a nominal as an argument to a verb are indicated using postpositions which follow a noun in the oblique case The subject of the verb takes the bare oblique case while the object may be in nominative case or in oblique case and followed by the accusative case marker کي khe 57 The postpositions are divided into case markers which directly follow the noun and complex postpositions which combine with a case marker usually the genitive جو jo Case markers The case markers are listed below 57 399 The postpositions with the suffix o decline in gender and number to agree with their governor e g ڇوڪ رو جو پ يء chokiro j o piu the boy s father but ڇوڪ ر ج ي م اء chokiro j i mau the boy s mother Case markers Case Marker Example English Nominative ڇوڪ روchokiro the boy AccusativeDative کيkhe ڇوڪ ري کيchokire khe the boyto the boy Genitive جوj o ڇوڪ ري جوchokire jo of the boy س ندوsand o ڇوڪ ري س ندوchokire sando Sociative س ڌوsudh o ڇوڪ ري س ڌوchokire sudho along with the boy ComitativeInstrumental س انsa ڇوڪ ري س انchokire sa with the boy س اڻ saṇu ڇوڪ ري س اڻ chokire saṇu Locative mẽ ڇوڪ ري chokire mẽ in the boy م نجه manjhi ڇوڪ ري م نجه chokire manjhi Adessive تيte ڇوڪ ري تيchokire te on the boy و ٽ vaṭi ڇوڪ ري و ٽ chokire vaṭi near the boythe boy has Orientative ڏ انه نḍa ha ڇوڪ ري ڏ انه نchokire ḍa ha towards the boy Terminative ت ائي نtai ڇوڪ ري ت ائي نchokire tai up to the boy Benefactive لاء lai ڇوڪ ري لاء chokire lai for the boy Semblative و انگ ر vanguru ڇوڪ ري و انگ ر chokire vanguru like the boy ج هڙوjahṛ o ڇوڪ ري ج هڙوchokire jahṛo There are several ablative case markers formed from the spatial postpositions and the ablative ending a These indicate complex motion such as from inside of 57 400 Ablative case markers Marker Example English ک انkha ڇوڪ ري ک انchokire kha from the boy م انma ڇوڪ ري م انchokire ma from inside the boy ت انta ڇوڪ ري ت انchokire ta from upon the boy ڏ انه انḍa ha ڇوڪ ري ڏ انه انchokire ḍa ha from the direction of the boy Finally some case markers are found in medieval Sindhi literature and or modern poetic Sindhi and otherwise not used in standard speech Obsolete rare case markers Case Marker Example English AccusativeAdessive ڪ نيkane ڇوڪ ري ڪ نيchokire kane to near the boy Complex postpositions The complex postpositions are formed with a case marker usually the genitive but sometimes the ablative Many are listed below 57 405 Sindhi Transliteration Explanation جي ا ڳي ان je aɠya ahead of before apudessive جي ا ند ر je andari inside of inessive جي ب د ر ان je badira instead of in place of جي ب ر اب ر je barabar equal to جي ٻ اه ر ان je ɓahara outside of ک ان ٻ اه ر kha ɓahari جي باري je bare mẽ about concerning جي چ وڌ ار ي je caudhari around جي هيٺ ان je heṭha below under جي ڪ ري je kare for on account of جي ل اء je lai for جي م ٿ ان je matha above on top of upon ک ان پ ري kha pare far from جي پ ار je pari across on the other side of جي پ اسي je pase on the side of near ک ان پوء kha poi after جي پ ٺي ان je puṭhya behind جي س امهون je samho in front of facing ک ان س و اء kha sivai besides apart from جي و اسطي je vaste for the sake of on account of جي ويجهو je vejho near adessive جي و چ je vici mẽ between among جي خ اط ر je xatiri for the sake of جي خ ل اف je xilafi against جي ذ ر يعي je zari e via through perlative Vocabulary According to historian Nabi Bux Baloch most Sindhi vocabulary is from ancient Sanskrit However owing to the influence of the Persian language over the subcontinent Sindhi has adapted many words from Persian and Arabic It has also borrowed from English and Hindustani Today Sindhi in Pakistan is slightly influenced by Urdu citation needed with more borrowed Perso Arabic elements while Sindhi in India is influenced by Hindi citation needed with more borrowed tatsam Sanskrit elements 58 Writing systemsSindhis in Pakistan use a version of the Perso Arabic script with new letters adapted to Sindhi phonology while in India a greater variety of scripts are in use including Devanagari Khudabadi Khojki and Gurmukhi 59 Perso Arabic for Sindhi was also made digitally accessible relatively earlier 60 The earliest attested records in Sindhi are from the 15th century 13 Before the standardisation of Sindhi orthography numerous forms of Devanagari and Laṇḍa scripts were used for trading For literary and religious purposes a Perso Arabic script developed by Abul Hasan as Sindi and Gurmukhi a subset of Laṇḍa were used Another two scripts Khudabadi and Shikarpuri were reforms of the Landa script 61 62 During British rule in the late 19th century the Perso Arabic script was decreed standard over Devanagari 63 Laṇḍa scripts Laṇḍa based scripts such as Gurmukhi Khojki and the Khudabadi script were used historically to write Sindhi Khudabadi Khudabadior SindhiISO 15924ISO 15924Sind 318 Khudawadi SindhiUnicodeUnicode aliasKhudawadiUnicode rangeU 112B0 U 112FF The Khudabadi alphabet was invented in 1550 CE and was used alongside other scripts by the Hindu community until the colonial era where the sole usage of the Arabic script for official purposes was legislated The script continued to be used on a smaller scale by the trader community until the Partition of India in 1947 64 nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp e a ɪ i ʊ uː e ɛ o ɔ nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp k kʰ ɡ ɠ ɡʱ ŋ nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp c cʰ ɟ ʄ ɟʱ ɲ nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp ʈ ʈʰ ɖ ɗ ɽ ṛ ɳ nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp t tʰ d dʱ n nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp p pʰ f b ɓ bʱ m nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp j r l ʋ nbsp nbsp nbsp ʂ s h Khojki Khojki was employed primarily to record Muslim Shia Ismaili religious literature as well as literature for a few secret Shia Muslim sects 65 66 Gurmukhi The Gurmukhi script was also used to write Sindhi mainly in India by Hindus 64 65 Perso Arabic script During the British raj a variant of the Persian alphabet was adopted for Sindhi in the 19th century The script is used in Pakistan and India today It has a total of 52 letters augmenting the Persian with digraphs and eighteen new letters ڄ ٺ ٽ ٿ ڀ ٻ ڙ ڍ ڊ ڏ ڌ ڇ ڃ ڦ ڻ ڱ ڳ ڪ for sounds particular to Sindhi and other Indo Aryan languages Some letters that are distinguished in Arabic or Persian are homophones in Sindhi جهہ ڄ ج پ ث ٺ ٽ ٿ ت ڀ ٻ ب ا ɟʱ ʄ ɟ p s ʈʰ ʈ tʰ t bʱ ɓ b ɑː ʔ ڙ ر ذ ڍ ڊ ڏ ڌ د خ ح ڇ چ ڃ ɽ r z ɖʱ ɖ ɗ dʱ d x h cʰ c ɲ ڪ ق ڦ ف غ ع ظ ط ض ص ش س ز k q pʰ f ɣ ɑː oː eː ʔ z t z s ʂ s z ي ء ه و ڻ ن م ل ڱ گهہ ڳ گ ک j iː ʔ h ʋ ʊ oː ɔː uː ɳ n m l ŋ ɡʱ ɠ ɡ kʰ nbsp Farsi perso Arabic or Shikarpuri Sindhi Devanagari script In India the Devanagari script is also used to write Sindhi 65 A modern version was introduced by the government of India in 1948 however it did not gain full acceptance so both the Sindhi Arabic and Devanagari scripts are used In India a person may write a Sindhi language paper for a Civil Services Examination in either script 67 Devanagari was seen as the most practical option for Sindhi language in India 1 Diacritical bars below the letter are used to mark implosive consonants and dots called nukta are used to form other additional consonants अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ए ऐ ओ औ e a ɪ i ʊ uː e ɛ o ɔ क ख ख ग ॻ ग घ ङ k kʰ x ɡ ɠ ɣ ɡʱ ŋ च छ ज ॼ ज झ ञ c cʰ ɟ ʄ z ɟʱ ɲ ट ठ ड ॾ ड ढ ढ ण ʈ ʈʰ ɖ ɗ ɽ ɖʱ ɽʱ ɳ त थ द ध न t tʰ d dʱ n प फ फ ब ॿ भ म p pʰ f b ɓ bʱ m य र ल व j r l ʋ श ष स ह ʂ ʂ s h Roman Sindhi See also Romanisation of Sindhi The Sindhi Roman script or Roman Sindhi script is the contemporary Sindhi script usually used by the Sindhis when texting messages on their mobile phones 68 69 AdvocacySee also 1972 Sindhi Language BillIn 1972 an bill was passed by the provincial assembly of Sindh which saw Sindhi given official status thus becoming the first provincial language in Pakistan to have its own official status Sindhi language was made the official language of Sindh according to Language Bill All Educational institutes in Sindh are mandated to teach Sindhi as per the bill Software By 2001 Abdul Majid Bhurgri failed verification had coordinated with Microsoft to develop Unicode based Software in the form of the Perso Arabic Sindhi script which afterwards became the basis for the communicated use by Sindhi speakers around the world 70 In 2016 Google introduced the first automated translator for Sindhi language 71 72 Later on in 2023 an offline support was introduced by Google Translate 73 74 Which was followed by Microsoft Translator strengthening support in May of same year 75 76 In June 2014 the Khudabadi script of the Sindhi language was added to Unicode However as of now the script currently has no proper rendering support to view it in unsupported devices See also nbsp Languages portal 1972 Sindhi Language Bill Institute of Sindhology Sindhi Transliteration Languages of India Languages of Pakistan Languages with official status in India List of Sindhi language films Provincial languages of Pakistan Sindhi literature Sindhi poetryNotes This is the number of people who identified their mother tongue as Sindhi it does not include speakers of related languages like Kutchi References a b c Iyengar Arvind Parchani Sundri 2021 Like Community Like Language Seventy Five Years of Sindhi in Post Partition India Journal of Sindhi Studies 1 1 32 doi 10 1163 26670925 bja10002 S2CID 246551773 Retrieved 12 November 2021 a b Encyclopaedia Britannica Sindhi Language Retrieved December 29 2013 Laurie Bauer 2007 The Linguistics Student s Handbook Edinburgh a b Cole J 2006 Brown Keith ed Sindhi Encyclopedia of Language amp Linguistics Second Edition Elsevier 384 387 doi 10 1016 B0 08 044854 2 02241 0 Sindhi The Languages Gulper Retrieved January 29 2013 Wadhwani Y K 1981 The Origin of the Sindhi Language PDF Bulletin of the Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute 40 192 201 JSTOR 42931119 Retrieved 9 April 2021 a b c Christopher Shackle Sindhi literature at the Encyclopaedia Britannica Sacred Literature Ginans Ismaili NET Heritage Society Retrieved 2 August 2022 a b Schimmel Annemarie 1971 Sindhi Literature Mahfil 7 1 2 71 80 JSTOR 40874414 The Holy Qur an and its Translators Imam Reza A S Network Imamreza net Archived from the original on 15 January 2016 Retrieved 29 March 2015 Memon Naseer April 13 2014 The language link The News on Sunday Archived from the original on April 13 2014 Retrieved April 13 2014 Levesque Julien 2021 Beyond Success or Failure Sindhi Nationalism and the Social Construction of the Idea of Sindh Journal of Sindhi Studies 1 1 1 33 doi 10 1163 26670925 bja10001 S2CID 246560343 Retrieved 2 August 2022 a b Sindhi language Britannica Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved 6 October 2022 CCI defers approval of census results until elections Dawn 28 May 2018 Retrieved 29 October 2022 The numbers have been calculate based on the percentages and the population totals For example the figure of 30 26 million is calculated from the reported 14 57 for the speakers of Sindhi and the 207 685 million total population of Pakistan Office of the Registrar General amp Census Commissioner India C 16 Population by mother tongue India 2011 Retrieved 29 October 2022 Majeed Gulshan Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict in Pakistan PDF Journal of Political Studies Retrieved December 27 2013 Languages Included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constution Department of Official Language Ministry of Home Affairs Retrieved 2018 04 09 Language and Politics in Pakistan The Sindhi Language Movement academia edu Retrieved 12 September 2015 The Imposition Of Urdu NAWAIWAQT GROUP OF NEWSPAPERS September 10 2015 Archived from the original on 11 September 2015 Retrieved 12 September 2015 Microsoft Word Teaching of Sindhi amp Sindhi ethnicity doc PDF Apnaorg com Retrieved 2018 08 13 The Sindhi Language Movement PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2014 09 05 Retrieved 2015 09 12 Samar Azeem 13 March 2019 PA resolution calls for teaching Sindhi as compulsory subject in private schools The News International Retrieved 2022 10 06 PakistanToday 25 September 2018 Sindhi to be made compulsory in all private schools across province Pakistan Today Pakistan Today Retrieved 2022 10 06 Private schools directed to make Sindhi compulsory subject Dawn 2018 09 25 Retrieved 2022 10 06 Sindh private schools told to teach Sindhi as compulsory subject Samaa TV 2018 09 24 Retrieved 2022 10 06 Call for using local languages at primary level The Express Tribune 2023 02 20 Retrieved 2023 02 28 Members decry delay in declaring Sindhi a national language The Express Tribune 2023 02 21 Retrieved 2023 02 23 Siddiqui Tahir 2023 02 22 Govt opposition demand national language status for Sindhi DAWN COM Retrieved 2023 02 23 Pakistan Members of Sindh Assembly demand national language status for Sindhi ANI News Retrieved 2023 02 23 National Committee for Linguistic Minorities PDF Archived from the original PDF on 2012 05 13 Retrieved 2018 08 13 Sindhi language at Ethnologue 19th ed 2016 nbsp Austin Peter Austin Marit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics Peter K 2008 One Thousand Languages Living Endangered and Lost University of California Press ISBN 9780520255609 Paniker K Ayyappa 1997 Medieval Indian Literature Surveys and selections Sahitya Akademi ISBN 9788126003655 Grierson George A 1919 Sindhi Linguistic Survey of India Vol VIII North western group Calcutta Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing India Gazetteer of the Province of Sind Government at the Mercantile Steam Press 1907 pp 188 519 Uttaradi 1919 Shackle 2007 p 114 Masica Colin P 1991 The Indo Aryan languages Cambridge language surveys Cambridge University Press p 443 ISBN 978 0 521 23420 7 Rahman Tariq 1995 The Siraiki Movement in Pakistan Language Problems amp Language Planning 19 1 3 doi 10 1075 lplp 19 1 01rah Fraki Sindhi Sindhi spoken at Sibi is known as Fraki Firaqi Sindhi Indus Asia Online Journal 2016 11 30 Linguistic Survey of India dsal uchicago edu Retrieved 2024 01 24 One thousand languages living endangered and lost Internet Archive Berkeley University of California Press 2008 ISBN 978 0 520 25560 9 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint others link Sindhi bhil language LotsOfEssays com Sindhi Bhil Global Recordings Network Sindhi bhil Ethnologue Linguistic Survey of India dsal uchicago edu p 214 Retrieved 2024 02 11 The Sweet Language of Kutch Memeraki Retail and Tech Pvt Ltd 2022 11 13 Retrieved 2024 02 11 Sindhi Language Structure Writing amp Alphabet MustGo Raza Sarfraz Zahid Agha Furrukh Raza Usman Phonemic Inventory of Sindhi and Acoustic Analysis of Voiced Implosives PDF uogenglish files wordpress com Retrieved 29 October 2023 Nihalani Paroo 1999 Handbook of the International Phonetic Association Sindhi Cambridge Cambridge University Press Nihalani Paroo December 1 1995 Illustration of the IPA Sindhi Journal of the International Phonetic Association 25 2 95 98 doi 10 1017 S0025100300005235 S2CID 249410954 Nihalani 1974 p 207 The IPA Handbook uses the symbols c cʰ ɟ ɟʱ but makes it clear this is simply tradition and that these are neither palatal nor stops but laminal post alveolars with a relatively short release Ladefoged amp Maddieson 1996 83 confirm a transcription of t ɕ t ɕʰ d ʑ d ʑʱ and further remarks that ʄ is often a slightly creaky voiced palatal approximant caption of table 3 19 a b Jetley Murlidhar Kishinchand 1964 Morphology of Sindhi A descriptive analysis of Vicholi the standard Sindhi dialect Thesis Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute Pune hdl 10603 145755 a b Khubchandani 2003 a b c d Trumpp Ernest 1872 Grammar of the Sindhi language London Trubner and Co Cole 2001 pp 652 653 Khubchandani 2003 pp 624 625 Nair Manoj R 2018 07 30 The dispute over script still endures among Sindhis Hindustan Times Retrieved 2022 10 06 Sindhi becomes the first language from Pakistan to be selected for digitization Geo News Dec 7 2020 Khubchandani 2003 p 633 Archived copy Archived from the original on 2016 03 07 Retrieved 2016 05 07 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link Cole 2001 p 648 a b Sindhi Language Script Sindhilanguage com Archived from the original on 19 April 2012 Retrieved 15 May 2012 a b c Proposal to Encode the Sindhi Script in ISO IEC 10646 PDF Std dkuug dk Retrieved 1 March 2022 Final Proposal to Encode the Khojki Script in ISO IEC 10646 PDF Std dkuug dk Retrieved 1 March 2022 UCLA Language Materials Project Language Profile Archived from the original on 2014 10 22 Retrieved 2007 10 06 Romanized Sindhi is teaching reading speaking writing sindhi language globally under alliance of sindhi association of Americas Inc Romanizedsindhi org Retrieved 1 March 2022 CHOICE OF SCRIPT FOR OUR SINDHI LANGUAGE Chandiramani com Retrieved 7 May 2016 Ismaili Imdad Ali 2011 Design amp Development of the Graphical User Interface for Sindhi Language Mehran University Research Journal of Engineering and Technology The idea is to provide a software platform to the people of Sindh as well as Sindhi diasporas living across the globe to make use of computing for basic tasks such as editing composition formatting and printing of documents in Sindhi by using GUISL The implementation of the GUISL has been done in the Java technology to make the system platform independent Google Translate now speaks Sindhi Pashto Official Google India Blog Retrieved 2023 03 19 ANI 2016 02 18 Google adds Sindhi to its translate language options Business Standard India Retrieved 2023 03 19 Google Translate brings offline support for Oriya Sindhi and 31 other languages The Times of India 2023 01 16 ISSN 0971 8257 Retrieved 2023 03 23 Ghazi Zain 2023 01 18 Google Translate Sindhi Offline Pakistani Journal Retrieved 2023 03 23 Stories Microsoft 2023 05 19 Microsoft Translator adds four new languages Konkani Maithili Sindhi and Sinhala Microsoft Stories India Retrieved 2023 05 19 Team C R N 2023 05 18 Microsoft Translator adds 4 new languages Konkani Maithili Sindhi and Sinhala CRN India Retrieved 2023 05 19 SourcesNihalani Paroo 1974 Lingual Articulation of Stops in Sindhi Phonetica 30 4 197 212 doi 10 1159 000259489 ISSN 1423 0321 PMID 4424983 S2CID 3325314 Addleton and Brown 2010 Sindhi An Introductory Course for English Speakers South Hadley Doorlight Publications Archived from the original on 2010 08 28 Retrieved 2010 03 18 Bughio M Qasim January June 2006 Maniscalco Fabio Maniscalco ed The Diachronic Sociolinguistic Situation in Sindh Web Journal on Cultural Patrimony 1 Cole Jennifer S 2001 Sindhi In Garry Jane Rubino Carl eds Facts About the World s Languages H W Wilson pp 647 653 ISBN 0 8242 0970 2 International Phonetic Association Cambridge University Press 1999 ISBN 0 521 63751 1 Khubchandani Lachman M 2003 Sindhi In Cardona George Jain Dhanesh eds The Indo Aryan Languages Routledge pp 622 658 ISBN 978 0 415 77294 5 Ladefoged Peter Maddieson Ian 1996 The Sounds of the World s Languages Oxford Blackwell ISBN 0 631 19815 6 Shackle Christopher 2007 Pakistan In Simpson Andrew ed Language and national identity in Asia Oxford linguistics Y Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 922648 1 Trumpp Ernest 1872 Grammar of the Sindhi Language London Trubner and Co ISBN 81 206 0100 9 Chopra R M 2013 Persian in Sindh The rise growth and decline of Indo Persian literature 2nd ed New Delhi Iran Culture House OCLC 909254259 External links nbsp Sindhi edition of Wikipedia the free encyclopedia nbsp Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Sindhi phrasebook nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sindhi language nbsp Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article about Sindhi language Sindhi Language Authority Sindhi Dictionary All about Sindhi language and culture at the Wayback Machine archived August 31 2015 Mewaram s 1910 Sindhi English dictionary Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sindhi language amp oldid 1224772872 Perso Arabic script, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.