This article containsSindhi text, written from right to left with some letters joined. Without properrendering support, you may see unjoined letters or other symbols instead ofSindhi script.
Sindhi (/ˈsɪndi/SIN-dee;[3] Sindhi:سِنڌِي(Perso-Arabic) orसिन्धी(Devanagari),pronounced[sɪndʱiː])[a] is anIndo-Aryan language spoken by more than 30 million people in the Pakistani province ofSindh, where it has official status, as well as by 1.7 million people in India, where it is ascheduled language without state-level official status. Sindhi is primarily written in thePerso-Arabic script in Pakistan, while in India, both the Perso-Arabic script andDevanagari are used.
The earliest written evidence of modern Sindhi as a language can be found in a translation of the Qur’an into Sindhi dating back to 883 AD.[4] Sindhi was one of the first Indo-Aryan languages to encounter influence fromPersian andArabic following theUmayyad conquest in 712 AD. A substantial body of Sindhi literature developed during the Medieval period, the most famous of which is the religious and mystic poetry ofShah 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.
The name "Sindhi" is derived from theSanskritsíndhu, the original name of theIndus 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, andApabhramsha). 20th century Western scholars such asGeorge Abraham Grierson believed that Sindhi descended specifically from the Vrācaḍa dialect of Apabhramsha (described byMarkandeya as being spoken inSindhu-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. 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 andGujarati. Much of this work is in the form ofginans (a kind of devotional hymn).[7][8]
Medieval Sindhi literature is of a primarily religious genre, comprising a syncreticSufi andAdvaita Vedanta poetry, the latter in the devotionalbhakti tradition. The earliest known Sindhi poet of the Sufi tradition isQazi Qadan (1493–1551). Other early poets wereShah Inat Rizvi (c. 1613–1701) andShah 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 asSassui Punnhun,Sohni Mahiwal,Momal Rano,Noori Jam Tamachi,Lilan Chanesar, and others.[9]
The greatest poet of Sindhi wasShah Abdul Latif Bhittai (1689/1690–1752), whose verses were compiled into theShah 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 byAkhund Azaz Allah Muttalawi (1747–1824) and published inGujarat in 1870. The first to appear in print was by Muhammad Siddiq in 1867.[10]
Modern Sindhi (1843–present)
In 1843, theBritish conquest of Sindh led the region to become part of theBombay Presidency. Soon after, in 1848, Governor George Clerk established Sindhi as the official language in the province, removing the literary dominance ofPersian. 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, theBombay Presidency assignedNarayan Jagannath Vaidya to replace theAbjad used in Sindhi with theKhudabadi script. The script was decreed a standard script by the Bombay Presidency thus inciting anarchy in theMuslim majority region. A powerful unrest followed, after which TwelveMartial 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 inBombay beginning in 1867. These included Islamic stories set in verse byMuhammad Hashim Thattvi, one of the renowned religious scholars of Sindh.[9]
ThePartition of India in 1947 resulted in most Sindhi speakers ending up in the new state ofPakistan, commencing a push to establish a strong sub-national linguistic identity for Sindhi. This manifested in resistance to the imposition ofUrdu and eventuallySindhi 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]
Geographical distribution
Sindhi is the official language of the Pakistani province ofSindh[14][2] and one of the scheduled languages of India, where it does not have any state-level status.[15] Prior to the inception of Pakistan, Sindhi was the national language of Sindh.[16][17][18][19]
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 inSindh, where they account for 62% of the total population of the province. There are 0.56 million speakers in the province ofBalochistan,[20] especially in theKacchi Plain that encompasses the districts ofLasbela,Hub,Kachhi,Sibi,Sohbatpur,Jafarabad,Jhal Magsi,Usta Muhammad andNasirabad.
The Pakistan Sindh Assembly has ordered compulsory teaching of the Sindhi language in all private schools in Sindh.[21] 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.[22] 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.[23] Sindhi is taught in all provincial private schools that follow the Matric system and not the ones that follow the Cambridge system.[24]
The Indian Government has legislated Sindhi as a scheduled language inIndia, making it an option for education. Despite lacking any state-level status, Sindhi is still a prominent minority language in the Indian state ofRajasthan.[29] In India, Sindhi mother tongue speakers were distributed in the following states:
2011 Census Statistics(India Total: 2,772,264)[30][b]
Siroli/Siraiki orUbheji: The dialect of northernmost Sindh (Siro, meaning "head").[37] Spoken in smaller number all over Sindh but mainly inJacobabad andKashmore districts, it has little similarity with theSaraiki 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 ofLasbela,Hub andGwadar districts in Balochistan, closely related to Lari and Vicholi, and in contact withBalochi.
Firaqi Sindhi: The dialect of theKachhi 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 easternThar Desert of Sindh, called Nara desert (Achhro thar), but mainly spoken in the western part ofJaisalmer district ofRajasthan, India by many Sindhi Muslims.[42][43]
Sindhi Bhili: It is a dialect spoken in Sindh by the SindhiMeghwars andBheels.[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 andJadgali are sometimes classified as dialects of Sindhi rather than independent languages.
The retroflex consonants areapicalpostalveolar and do not involve curling back of the tip of the tongue,[53] so they could be transcribed[t̠,t̠ʰ,d̠,d̠ʱn̠n̠ʱɾ̠ɾ̠ʱ] 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 vowels are modal length/ieæɑɔou/ and short/ɪʊə/. Consonants following short vowels are lengthened:/pət̪o/[pət̪ˑoː] 'leaf' vs./pɑt̪o/[pɑːt̪oː] 'worn'.
Grammar
Nouns
Sindhi nouns distinguish twogenders (masculine and feminine), twonumbers (singular and plural), and fivecases (nominative, vocative, oblique, ablative, and locative). This is a similar paradigm toPunjabi. 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).
A few nouns representing familial relations take irregular declensions with an extension in-r- in the plural. These are the masculine nounsڀاءُbhāu "brother",پِيءُpīu "father", and the feminine nounsڌِيءَdhīa "daughter",نُونھَنnū̃hã "daughter-in-law",ڀيڻَbheṇa "sister",ماءُmāu "mother", andجوءِjoi "wife".[55]
Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Sindhi has first and second-personpersonal pronouns as well as several types of third-person proximal and distaldemonstratives. 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 جوjo for the rest. The personal pronouns are listed to the right.[56][57]
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 toڪوko "someone" areھَرڪوhar-ko "everyone",سَڀڪوsabh-ko "all of them",جيڪوje-ko "whoever" (relative), andتيڪوte-ko "that one" (correlative).[56]
Most nominal relations (e.g. thesemantic 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 theaccusative case marker کيkhe.[58]
The postpositions are divided intocase markers, which directly follow the noun, andcomplex postpositions, which combine with a case marker (usually the genitive جوjo).
The postpositions with the suffix-o decline in gender and number to agree with their governor, e.g.ڇوڪِرو جو پِيءُchokiro j-o pīu "the boy's father" butڇوڪِر جِي مَاءُchokiro j-ī māu "the boy's mother".
There are severalablative case markers formed from the spatial postpositions and the ablative ending-ā̃. These indicate complex motion such as "from inside of".[58]: 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
ڏَانھَان ḍā̃hā̃
ڇوڪِري ڏَانھَان 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.
According to historianNabi Bux Baloch, most Sindhi vocabulary is from ancientSanskrit. 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 andHindustani. Today, Sindhi in Pakistan is slightly influenced byUrdu[citation needed], with more borrowed Perso-Arabic elements, while Sindhi in India is influenced by Hindi[citation needed], with more borrowedtatsam Sanskrit elements.[59]
Writing systems
Sindhis in Pakistan use a version of thePerso-Arabic script with new letters adapted to Sindhi phonology, while in India a greater variety of scripts are in use, includingDevanagari,Khudabadi,Khojki, andGurmukhi.[60] Perso-Arabic for Sindhi was also made digitally accessible relatively earlier.[61]
The earliest attested records in Sindhi are from the 15th century.[13] Before the standardisation of Sindhi orthography, numerous forms ofDevanagari andLaṇḍā scripts were used for trading. For literary and religious purposes, aPerso-Arabic script developed byAbul-Hasan as-Sindi andGurmukhi (a subset of Laṇḍā) were used. Another two scripts, Khudabadi and Shikarpuri, were reforms of the Landa script.[62][63] During British rule in the late 19th century, the Perso-Arabic script was decreed standard over Devanagari.[64]
During theBritish Raj, a variant of thePersian 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 withdigraphs 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.
Below table presents Sindhi Perso-Arabic alphabet. Letters shaded in yellow are solely used in writing of loanwords, and the phoneme they represent are also represented by other letters in the alphabet. Letters and digraphs shaded in green aren't usually considered as part of the base alphabet. They are either commonly used digraphs representing aspirated consonants, or areligatures serving a grammatical function. These ligatures include the۽, which is pronounced as [ãĩ̯] and representsand, and the۾, which is pronounced as [mẽ] and it creates a locative relationship between words.
The orthography of the letterhāʾ in Sindhi, especially as it comes to typing as opposed to handwriting, has been a source of confusion for many. Especially because whereas inArabic andPersian, there exists one single letter forhāʾ, inUrdu, the letter has diverged into two distinct variants:gol he ("round he") anddo-cašmi he ("two-eyed he"). The former is written is written round and zigzagged as "ہـ ـہـ ـہ ہ", and can impart the "h" (/ɦ/) sound anywhere in a word, or the long "a" or the "e" vowels (/ɑː/ or/eː/) at the end of a word. The latter is written in Arabic Naskh style (as a loop) (ھ) , in order to be used in digraphs and to create the aspirate consonants.
For most aspirated consonants, Sindhi relies on unique letters as opposed to the Urdu practice of digraphs. However, this doesn't apply to all aspirated consonants. Some are still written as digraphs. The letterhāʾ is also used in Sindhi to represent the sound [h] in native Sindhi words, in Arabic and Persian loanwords, and to represent vowels (/ə/ or/əʰ/) at the end of the word. The notations and conventions in Sindhi are different from either Persian or Arabic and from Urdu. Given the variety of the types ofhāʾ across these languages for whichUnicode characters have been designed, in order for the letters to be displayed correctly when typing, a correct and consistent convention needs to be followed. The following table will present these in detail.[65][66]
Forming part of digraph for representation of other aspirated consonants ([ɽʰ], [lʱ], [mʰ], [nʰ], [ɳʰ]). Inisolated andfinal positions, an extrahāʾـہ (U+06C1) is added
The punctuation of Sindhi Perso-Arabic script differs slightly from that ofUrdu,Persian, andArabic. Namely, instead of using the typicalinverted comma (، [U+060C]) common in these mentioned alphabet, areversed comma (⹁ [U+2E41]) is used. Although many documents do indeed incorrectly use Urdu punctuations.[67]
In India, the Devanagari script is also used to write Sindhi.[68] 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.[69] 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, anddots callednukta are used to form other additional consonants.
अ
आ
इ
ई
उ
ऊ
ए
ऐ
ओ
औ
ə
a
ɪ
i
ʊ
uː
e
ɛ
o
ɔ
क
ख
ख़
ग
ॻ
ग़
घ
ङ
k
kʰ
x
ɡ
ɠ
ɣ
ɡʱ
ŋ
च
छ
ज
ॼ
ज़
झ
ञ
t͡ɕ
t͡ɕʰ
d͡ʑʰ
ʄ
z
d͡ʑ
ɲ
ट
ठ
ड
ॾ
ड़
ढ
ढ़
ण
ʈ
ʈʰ
ɖ
ɗ
ɽ
ɖʱ
ɽʱ
ɳ
त
थ
द
ध
न
t
tʰ
d
dʱ
n
प
फ
फ़
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
Laṇḍā scripts
Laṇḍā-based scripts, such asGurmukhi,Khojki, and the Khudabadi script were used historically to write Sindhi.
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 thePartition of India in 1947.[70]
ə
a
ɪ
i
ʊ
uː
e
ɛ
o
ɔ
k
kʰ
ɡ
ɠ
ɡʱ
ŋ
c
cʰ
ɟ
ʄ
ɟʱ
ɲ
ʈ
ʈʰ
ɖ
ɗ
ɽ
ṛ
ɳ
t
tʰ
d
dʱ
n
p
pʰ
f
b
ɓ
bʱ
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.[68][71]
Gurmukhi
The Gurmukhi script was also used to write Sindhi, mainly in India by Hindus.[70][68]
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.[72][73]
In 1972, an bill was passed by the provincial assembly of Sindh which saw Sindhi, given official status thus becoming the firstprovincial language inPakistan to have its own official status.
Sindhi language was made the official language ofSindh according toLanguage 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 thePerso-Arabic Sindhi script which afterwards became the basis for the communicated use by Sindhi speakers around the world.[74] In 2016, Google introduced the first automated translator for Sindhi language.[75][76] Later on in 2023 an offline support was introduced byGoogle Translate.[77][78] Which was followed byMicrosoft Translator strengthening support in May of same year.[79][80]
In June 2014, theKhudabadi script of the Sindhi language was added toUnicode, However as of now the script currently has no proper rendering support to view it in unsupported devices.
^"The Imposition Of Urdu". NAWAIWAQT GROUP OF NEWSPAPERS. September 10, 2015. Archived fromthe original on 11 September 2015. Retrieved12 September 2015.
^"CCI defers approval of census results until elections".Dawn. 28 May 2018. Retrieved29 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.
^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.S2CID249410954.
^The IPAHandbook uses the symbolsc,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).
^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.
Cole, Jennifer S (2001). "Sindhi". In Garry, Jane; Rubino, Carl (eds.).Facts About the World's Languages. H W Wilson. pp. 647–653.ISBN0-8242-0970-2.
International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press. 1999.ISBN0-521-63751-1.
Khubchandani, Lachman M (2003)."Sindhi". In Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.).The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. pp. 622–658.ISBN978-0-415-77294-5.
Shackle, Christopher (2007). "Pakistan". In Simpson, Andrew (ed.).Language and national identity in Asia. Oxford linguistics Y. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-922648-1.
Chopra, R. M (2013). "Persian in Sindh".The rise, growth, and decline of Indo-Persian literature (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Iran Culture House.OCLC909254259.
