Sindhi Language - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Sindhi
---
Native to Sindh, Pakistan and Kutch, India. Also
immigrant communities in India, Hong Kong,
Oman, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore,
UAE, UK, USA, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka
Region South Asia
Native
speakers
25 million (2007)
[1]
Language
family
Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Northwestern Zone
Sindhi languages
Sindhi
Writing
system
Arabic, Devanagari, Khudabadi alphabet,
La, Gurmukhi
[2]
Official status
Official
language in
Pakistan (Sindh)
India
Regulated by Sindhi Language Authority (Pakistan),
National Council For Promotion Of Sindhi
Language (http://www.ncpsl.gov.in/) (India)
Language codes
ISO 639-1 sd
ISO 639-2 snd
ISO 639-3 Variously:
snd (http://www.sil.org/iso639-3
/documentation.asp?id=snd) Sindhi
lss (http://www.sil.org/iso639-3
/documentation.asp?id=lss) Lasi
sbn (http://www.sil.org/iso639-3
/documentation.asp?id=sbn) Sindhi
Bhil
Sindhi language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sindhi /sndi/
[3]
(--- / 7 / ) is an
Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch of
the Indo-European language family. It is the
language of the historical Sindh region, spoken by
the Sindhi people. It is the official language of the
Pakistani province of Sindh.
[4][5][6]
In India,
Sindhi is one of the scheduled languages officially
recognized by the federal government. It has
influences from Balochi spoken in the adjacent
province of Balochistan.
Most Sindhi speakers are concentrated in the Sindh
province and in Kutch, Gujarat, India where the
Kutchi dialect is a local language. The remaining
speakers in India are composed of the Hindu
Sindhis who migrated from Sindh, which became a
part of Pakistan and settled in India after partition
and the Sindhi diaspora worldwide.
Contents
1 Etymology
2 Significance
3 History
4 Classification and related languages
5 Geographical distribution
6 Dialects and varieties
7 Phonology
7.1 Consonants
7.2 Vowels
8 Grammar
9 Vocabulary
9.1 Example extract
10 Writing system
10.1 La scripts
10.2 Khudabadi
10.3 Khojiki
10.4 Gurmukhi
10.5 Arabic script
10.6 Devanagari script
Sindhi language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindhi_language
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10.7 Gujarati script
11 See also
12 References
13 Sources
14 External links
Etymology
Sindhi means 'of the Sindhu'. Sindhu was the proper name of the Indus River.
[7]
In Indo-Iranian languages, 'S'
is observed to transform to 'H' as one moves eastwards through the region. For example the word "haft" and
"sapt" both mean seven, in the Persian and Sanskrit, respectively. Thus, though the modern languages are
distinct, the word Sindhi is simply the eastern variant of the word Hindi, both meaning 'of the Indus', or
'Indian'.
Significance
See also Sindhi literature and Sindhi poetry.
Sindhi has a vast vocabulary and a very old literary tradition. This trend has made it a favourite of many
writers and consequently a vast volume of literature and poetry have been written in Sindhi.
At the time of partition, both Bengali and Sindhi were official languages in their respective provinces. Both
languages had a cherished history and a treasure trove of literature. Both languages were not only lingua
franca of their provinces but were also in vogue for revenue, court, education and other official business.
When Sindh was occupied by British army and was annexed with Bombay, governor of the province Sir
George Clerk ordered to make Sindhi the official language in the province in 1848. Sir Bartle Frere, the then
commissioner of Sindh, issued orders on August 29, 1857 advising civil servants in Sindh to qualify
examination in Sindhi. He also ordered Sindhi to be used in all official communication. Seven-grade
education system commonly known as Sindhi-Final was introduced in Sindh. Sindhi Final was made a
prerequisite for employment in revenue, police and education departments.
[8]
History
The origin of the Sindhi language can be traced to an Old Indo-Aryan dialect, or primary Prakrit, that was
spoken in the region of Sindh at the time of compilation of the Vedas (15001200 bce) or perhaps some
centuries before that. Glimpses of that dialect can be seen to some extent in the literary language of the
hymns of the Rigveda.
Like other languages of this family, Sindhi has passed through Old Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit) and Middle
Indo-Aryan (Pali, secondary Prakrits, and Apabhramsha) stages of growth, and it entered the New
Indo-Aryan stage around the 10th century ce.
[9]
The immediate predecessor of Sindhi was an Apabhramsha Prakrit named Vrachada. Arab and Persian
travellers, specifically Abu-Rayhan Biruni in his book 'Tahqiq ma lil-Hind', had declared that even before the
advent of Islam in Sindh (711 A.D.), the language was prevalent in the region. It was not only widely spoken
but written in three different scripts Ardhanagari, Saindhu and Malwari. Biruni has described many Sindhi
words leading to the conclusion that the Sindhi language was widely spoken and rich in vocabulary in his
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Cover of a book containing the epic
Dodo Chanesar written in the
Khudabadi script
The earliest Arabic manuscripts written during the
Abbasid Era.
time. Over the course of centuries, Sindhi culture absorbed Arabic
and Persian words.
Sindhi became a popular literary language between the 14th and 18th
centuries. This is when mystics or Sufis such as Shah Abdul Latif,
Sachal Sarmast, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (as well as numerous others)
narrated their theosophical poetry depicting the relationship between
humans and Allah.
In the year 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.
[10]
According to Islamic Sindhi tradition, the first translation of the
Quran into Sindhi was completed in the year 883 CE / 270 AH in
Mansura, Sindh. The first extensive Sindhi translation was done by
Akhund Azaz Allah Muttalawi (17471824 CE / 11601240 AH).
Classification and related languages
Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian
branch of the Indo-European language family. It has
influences from a local version of spoken form of
Sanskrit and from Balochi spoken in the adjacent
province of Balochistan.
Geographical distribution
Sindhi is spoken in Sindh and Balochistan in Pakistan.
Sindhi is taught as a first language in the Pakistani
province of Sindh, including in the provincial capital
Karachi. It is taught as a second language in many
government schools of Karachi and Balochistan in Pakistan. It is also spoken by Sindhi tribes living in
Kutch. Karachi is the largest Sindhi-speaking city with 34 million Sindhis. Hyderabad ranks second with 1
million Sindhi speakers, and Larkana ranks third with almost a half a million Sindhis.
Sindhi is also spoken in India, especially in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. It is also
spoken in Ulhasnagar near Mumbai which is the largest Sindhi enclave in India.
[11]
Dialects and varieties
Sindhi Saraiki, a form of Saraiki language regarded as a dialect of Sindhi; spoken mainly in Upper
Sindh. Shown in orange.
Vicholi, in Vicholo, Central Sindh. Shown in yellow. Vicholi is the basis for standardised Sindhi.
Lari, in Laru (Lower Sindh). Shown in grey.
Lasi, in Lasbelo, a part of Kohistan in Baluchistan and the western part of Sindh. Shown in green.
3 of 10 5/14/2014 1:07 PM
Dialects of Sindhi
Thari or Thareli, also known as Dhatki in Tharu, the desert
region on the southeast border of Sindh and a part of the
Jaisalmer district in Rajasthan. Shown in purple.
Kachhi or Kutchi, in the Kutch region and in a part of
Kathiawar in Gujarat, in southern Sindh. Shown in blue.
Phonology
Sindhi has a relatively large inventory of both consonants and vowels
compared to other languages. Sindhi has 46 consonant phonemes and
16 vowels. The consonant to vowel ratio is around average for
world's languages at 2.8.
[12]
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
Consonants of Sindhi
[13]
Labial
Dental
Alveolar
Retroflex
Post-alveolar
/Palatal
Velar Glottal
Nasal
m
m
n
n

Plosive/
affricate
p
p
b
b
t
t
d
d

t
t
d
d
k
k

Implosive ~ j
Fricative f s z x h
Rhotic r

Approximant
l
l
j
The retroflex consonants are apical postalveolar, as they are throughout northern India, and so could be
transcribed /t, t, d , d n n s /. The dental implosive is sometimes realized as retroflex [ ]~[q] The
affricates /t, t, d , d / are laminal post-alveolars with a relatively short release. It is not clear if // is
similar, or truly palatal.
[14]
// is realized as labiovelar [w] or labiodental [] in free variation occurs, but is
not common, except before a stop.
Vowels
The vowels are modal length /i e o : o u/ and short / o r /. (Note / o r / are imprecisely transcribed as /c a
e/ in the chart.) Consonants following short vowels are lengthened: [pr to] 'leaf' vs. [poto] 'worn'.
Grammar
Ernest Trumpp authored the first Sindhi grammar entitled Sindhi Alphabet and Grammar.
[15]
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The vowel phonemes of Sindhi on a
vowel chart
Vocabulary
Historically, the Sindh region suffered frequent invasions. Arabs
under Mohammad bin Qasim conquered parts of Sindh and the region
was Islamized gradually under the Sultanate of Delhi and later under
the Mughal Empire until the British conquest in 1843. Hence, the
Sindhi language borrowed many Arabic and Persian words. In spite
of this, the basic vocabulary and grammatical structure of Sindhi has
remained mostly unchanged.
[16]
In addition, Sindhi has borrowed from English and Hindustani. Today,
Sindhi in Pakistan is heavily influenced by Urdu, with more borrowed
Perso-Arabic elements, while Sindhi in India is influenced by Hindi, with more borrowed tatsam Sanskrit
elements.
[17][18]
Example extract
The following extract is from the Sindhi Wikipedia about the Sindhi language and is written in the 52-letter
Sindhi-Arabic script, Devanagari and transliterated to Latin.
Sindhi-Arabic script: '' ,'- +== - +-= ' ',, -',' -- '- '- '--'= ,, ,--' ',, ---
.' '- -- ',, -- = --- ',, --- -, .' -,=,-
Devanagari script: 7 | 7 ~ 7 | [ , H[
4
$ g 3[
H H|H [. [ 4 7 | 7 H H 4| 9 9| H4
[ .
Transliteration (IAST): sindh b ol io yrap ||ndna s talluqu rakhandar ry b ol he, jinh te
kujha drvir uhua paa maujda hini. hina vaqtu sindh b ol sindha j mukha b ol i daftar zabn
he.
Writing system
Written Sindhi is mentioned in the 8th century, when references to a Sindhi version of the Mahabharata
appear. However, the earliest attested records in Sindhi are from the 15th century.
[19]
Before the standardisation of Sindhi orthography, numerous forms of the Devanagari and Lunda (La)
scripts were used for trading. For literary and religious purposes, an Arabo-Persian alphabet known as Ab-ul-
Hassan Sindhi and Gurmukhi (a subset of La) were used. Another two scripts, Khudabadi and
Shikarpuri, were reforms of the Landa script.
[20]
During British rule in the late 19th century, a Persian
alphabet was decreed standard over Devanagari.
[21]
Medieval Sindhi devotional literature (15001843) comprises Sufi poetry and Advaita Vedanta poetry. Sindhi
literature flourished during the modern period (since 1843), although 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 Persian and Arabic vocabulary, while
those from the latter were highly influenced by Hindi.
[22]
La scripts
La- based scripts, such as Gurmukhi, Khojki and the Khudabadi script were used historically to write
5 of 10 5/14/2014 1:07 PM
Sindhi.
Khudabadi
The Khudabadi alphabet was invented in 1550 CE, and was used alongside the Arabic script 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 in a smaller scale by the trader community until the Partition of India in
1947.
[23]
Khojiki
Khojiki was employed primarily to record Muslim Shia Ismaili religious literature, as well as literature for a
few secret Shia Muslim sects.
[24]
Gurmukhi
The Gurmukhi script was also used to write Sindhi, mainly in the North of Sindh, and also by Hindu women.
[25][23]
Arabic script
Historically, different versions of the Arabic script were used by the Hindu and Muslim communities.
[26]
During British rule in India, a variant of the Persian alphabet was adopted for Sindhi in the 19th century. The
script is used in Pakistan today. It has a total of 52 letters, augmenting the Persian with digraphs and eighteen
new letters (= = = - _ _ - - - ; _ - - - _) for sounds particular to Sindhi and other
Indo-Aryan languages. Some letters that are distinguished in Arabic or Persian are homophones in Sindhi.

j j p s t t t t b b *

r d d x h c c
! " # $ % & ' ( ) * +
k p f

z J s z
, - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
* h * n m l k k
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Devanagari script
In India, the Devanagari script is also used to write Sindhi. 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 [1] (http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?menu=004&LangID=201).
Diacritical bars below the letter are used to mark implosive consonants, and dots called nukta are used to
form other additional consonants.

e a i o u: e c o :

k k x

c c j z j
!

" # $ % &
t t d d n
' ( ) * + , -
p p f b b m
. / 0 1
j r l
2 3 4 5
J s h
Gujarati script
The Gujarati script is used to write the Kutchi dialect in India.
[27]
See also
Institute of Sindhology
Languages of India
Languages of Pakistan
Languages with official status in India
List of Sindhi-language films
Provincial languages of Pakistan
Sindhi literature
Sindhi poetry
7 of 10 5/14/2014 1:07 PM
References
^ Nationalencyklopedin "Vrldens 100 strsta sprk 2007" The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007 1.
^ "Script" (https://www.ethnologue.com/language/snd). Sindhilanguage.com. 2.
^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Students Handbook, Edinburgh 3.
^ Gulshan Majeed. "Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict in Pakistan" (http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal
/pols/Currentissue-pdf/Gulshan3.pdf). Journal of Political Studies. Retrieved December 27, 2013.
4.
^ "Sindhi" (http://www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Sindhi.html). The Languages Gulper. Retrieved December 27,
2013.
5.
^ "Encyclopdia Britannica" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/545670/Sindhi-language). Sindhi
Language. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
6.
^ "Sindhi" (http://www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Sindhi.html). The Languages Gulper. Retrieved January 29,
2013.
7.
^ Naseer Memon (April 13, 2014). "The language link" (http://tns.thenews.com.pk/declaring-major-languages-
as-national-languages/#.U0oQ-VWSygQ). The News on Sunday. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
8.
^ "Encyclopdia Britannica" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/545670/Sindhi-language). Retrieved
May 11, 2013.
9.
^ "Sindhi alphabets, pronunciation and language" (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sindhi.htm). Omniglot.com. 10.
^ The Sindhu World (http://www.thesindhuworld.com) 11.
^ Nihalani, Paroo. (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association (Sindhi). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
12.
^ Paroo Nihalani (December 1, 1995). "Illustration of the IPA - Sindhi" (http://journals.cambridge.org/action
/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1799728). Journal of the International Phonetic Association.
Retrieved April 19, 2014.
13.
^ The IPA Handbook uses the symbols c, c, , , 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 [t , t , d , d ] and further remarks that "// is often a
slightly creaky voiced palatal approximant" (caption of table 3.19).
14.
^ Ernest Trumpp (1872). "Grammar of the Sindhi Language" (http://books.google.co.in
/books?id=-Kp5NQAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:%22Ernest+Trumpp%22&hl=en&
sa=X&ei=VB5KU7iXBYXetAa0g4GoDA&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAQ). Google Books. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
15.
May 11, 2013.
16.
^ Cole (2001:652653) 17.
^ Khubchandani (2003:624625) 18.
May 11, 2013.
19.
^ Khubchandani (2003:633) 20.
^ Cole (2001:648) 21.
May 11, 2013.
22.
^
a

b
"Sindhi Language: Script" (http://sindhilanguage.com/script.html). Retrieved 15 May 2012. 23.
^ http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3978.pdf 24.
^ http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n3871.pdf 25.
8 of 10 5/14/2014 1:07 PM
^ p.14 Proposal to Encode the Sindhi Script in ISO/IEC 10646 (http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs
/n3871.pdf)
26.
^ http://www.omniglot.com/writing/gujarati.htm 27.
Sources
Addleton and Brown (2010). Sindhi: An Introductory Course for English Speakers
(http://doorlightpubs.com/Doorlight/Sindhi.html). South Hadley: Doorlight Publications.
Bughio, M. Qasim (JanuaryJune 2006). "The Diachronic Sociolinguistic Situation in Sindh"
(http://www.webjournal.unior.it). In Maniscalco, Fabio Maniscalco. Web Journal on Cultural
Patrimony 1.
Cole, Jennifer S (2001). "Sindhi". In Garry, Jane; Rubino, Carl. Facts About the World's Languages. H
W Wilson. pp. 647653. ISBN 0-8242-0970-2.
International Phonetic Association. 1999. ISBN 0-521-63751-1.
Khubchandani, Lachman M (2003). "Sindhi" (http://books.google.com/?id=jPR2OlbTbdkC&
pg=PA581&dq=indo-aryan+languages). In Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh. The Indo-Aryan
Languages. Routledge. pp. 622658. ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5.
Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell.
ISBN 0-631-19814-8.
Trumpp, P (1872). Grammar of the Sindhi Language (http://books.google.com
/?id=XKUIAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=sindhi+language&q=). London: Trbner and Co.
ISBN 81-206-0100-9.
For further reading:
Chopra, R. M., The Rise, Growth And Decline of Indo-Persian Literature, 2012, Iran Culture House,
New Delhi, Chapter on"Persian in Sindh".
External links
Sindhi Dictionary (http://www.ijunoon.com/sindhi/)
Type in Sindhi online (http://www.bhurgri.com/bhurgri/sd_editor.php)
Information and pronunciation of Sindhi alphabet (recordings) (http://www.oursindh.com/sindhi-
language/)
All about Sindhi language and culture (http://www.sindhilanguage.com)
Wals.info (http://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_sdh)
Sindhi computing resources at world's first Sindhi website by Majid Bhurgri (Arabic script)
(http://www.bhurgri.com)
Sindhi computing resources at TDIL (Arabic script) (http://www.ildc.in/Sindhip/Siindex.aspx)
Sindhi computing resources at TDIL (Devanagari script) (http://www.ildc.in/Sindhid/Siindex.aspx)
First and only 24 hour international Sindhi radio station online (http://www.RadioSindhi.com)
Sindhi newspapers gasping for breath in India (http://www.anindianmuslim.com/2011/08/sindhi-
9 of 10 5/14/2014 1:07 PM
language-newspapers-gasping-for.html)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sindhi_language&oldid=607737706"
Categories: Languages with ISO 639-2 code Languages with ISO 639-1 code Sindhi language
Languages of Pakistan Languages of Sindh Official languages of India Indo-Aryan languages
Subjectobjectverb languages
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