Sindhi language
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Sindhi سنڌي सिन्धी Sindhī
Spoken in:	Pakistan, India. Also Hong Kong, Oman, Philippines, Singapore, UAE, UK, USA
Region:	South Asia
Total speakers:	54.3 million
Ranking:	23
Language family:	Indo-European  Indo-Iranian   Indo-Aryan    Northwestern Zone     Sindhi
Writing system:	Arabic, Devanagari
Official status
Official language in:	Pakistan India
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	sd
ISO 639-2:	snd
ISO 639-3:	snd
This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Sindhi (Arabic script: سنڌي, Devanagari script: सिन्धी, Sindhī) is the language of the Sindh region of South Asia, which is a province of Pakistan. It is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 41 million people in Pakistan, and 12 million in India; it is the third most spoken language of Pakistan, a recognized official language in Pakistan and also an official language in India. Govt. of Pakistan issues National Identity Cards to its citizens only in two languages, i.e. Sindhi and Urdu. Although the language is predominantly Indo-Aryan, it also shows signs of heavy Dravidian influence. Most Sindhi speakers in Pakistan are concentrated in the Sindh province. The remaining speakers are found in India and amongst the Sindhi diaspora community which are scattered throughout the world. The Sindhi language has spread as the Hindu Sindhis left Sindh during the Independence of Pakistan in 1947. The language is written in Devanagari script by Sindhi Hindus; however, with the conversion of most Sindhis to Islam, a modified Arabic script was produced.^[1] After the independence of both India and Pakistan from British rule, the Government of India introduced Devanagari, alongside the modified Arabic, for writing Sindhi. [2]

Geographical distribution

Sindhi is taught as a first language in the schools of Sindh and second language in Balochistan in Pakistan. In India, especially in the State of Maharashtra, many educational institutions managed by Sindhi community and in the schools of such society Sindhi is taught either as the medium of instruction or as a subject.^[2] Sindhi has a vast vocabulary; this has made it a favourite of many writers and consequently much literature and poetry have been written in Sindhi. Dialects of Sindhi are spoken in southern Punjab, Balochistan, Northwest province of Pakistan (NWFP), and also Gujarat as well as Rajasthan in India.

History

Arab and Persian travellers, specifically Abu-Rayhan Biruni in his book 'Mal al-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 different scripts. Biruni has described many Sindhi words leading to the conclusion that the Sindhi language was widely spoken and rich in vocabulary in his time.

The Qur'an was first translated into Sindhi in rhymatic format. This was the first ever translation of Qur'an in the 12th century or earlier.

Sindhi was a very popular literary language between the 14th and 18th centuries. This is when 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 God.

Sindhi Culture is estimated to be about 4108 years old; When Mohenjo Daro ("Mound of the Dead", an ancient city of the Indus Valley civilization) was dug out, a statue was found covered in Ajrak, which is one of the symbols of Sindhi culture.

Basic Phrases

• Keeyen aahyo?- "how are you?" (general greeting)
• Bilkul theek - "Very well".
• Meherbani - "Thank you"
• Ha - "Yes"
• Nain - "No"
• Kee ahyo - "How are you?"
• Ma teekh ahyaan - "I'm fine"
• Teehk aahay - "Goodbye" (used to end a conversation)
• Tuhnjo naalo cha aahaye - "What's your name?"
• Munhjo naalo ______ aahaye. - "My name is _____."
• Hik - "One"
• Bu - "Two"
• Tay - "Three"
• Aaon Sindh jo aahya/ Maa Sindh maa ahyaa - "I am from Sindh"
• Aaon musulman / hindhu aahya - "I am Muslim / Hindu"
• Maa / Aaon Sindhi aahya / Assin Sindhi aahyoo - "I am Sindhi" / "We are Sindhi"
• Allah Wahi - God bless you"
• thunjo muh karo te - you are wrong / your face is black

Sounds

Sindhi has a large sound inventory. It has 46 distinctive consonant phonemes (more than all the phonemes of English combined) and a further 16 vowels. All plosives, affricates, nasals, the retroflex flap and the lateral approximant /l/ have aspirated or breathy voiced counterparts. The language also features four separate implosives.

Consonants

The phoneme /r/ is usually pronounced as an alveolar tap, [ɾ], though occasionally reminiscent of a trill with two or more contacts. The affricates /c, cʰ, ɟ, ɟʱ/ are pronounced with a relatively short release and corresponding plosives symbols have therefore been used. /ʋ/ can be realized as either [w] or [ʋ] with free variation.

Vowels

Writing system

Arabic

In Pakistan, Sindhi is written in a variant of the Arabic script, which was adopted under the encouragement of the British when Sindh fell to them in the 19th century. It has a total of 52 letters, augmenting the Arabic with five letters for the additional sounds particular to Indo-Aryan languages. Some letters that are distinguished in Arabic are pronounced identically in Sindhi.

Devanagari

In India, the Devanagari script is used. It 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 [3]. Diacritical bars below the letter are used to mark implosive consonants, and dots called nukta are used to form other additional consonants.

See also

• Languages of Pakistan
• Languages of India
• List of national languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers

External links

Sindhi language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Sindhi Tutorial
• Sindhi Tutorial and Keyboard Layout for Windows XP/2000
• SINDH REVIEW(website in sindhi language)
• Sindhi Literature Magazine in Sindhi Language
• Indian institute of Sindhology
• SindhiLanguage.com
• Sindhi Script History and Script
• http://sindhipatrika.blogspot.com Complete Sindhi Tipno, Patrika, Almanac, listing festivities, rituals related to Hindu Sindhi Culture
• Daily Sindh Hyderabad A Newspaper in sindhi Language

References

Sources

• International Phonetic Association (1999) Handbook of the International Phonetic Association ISBN 0-521-63751-1
• Sindhi Alphabet with example words
• Sindhi Alphabet with Devanagari equivalents
• [4]
• M. Qasim Bughio, The Diachronic Sociolinguistic Situation in Sindh in Web Journal on Cultural Patrimony (Fabio Maniscalco ed.), vol. 1, January-June 2006
• Trumpp P., Grammar of the Sindhi Language, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück, Reprinted in 1970 (original edition 1872)

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