Sindhi language
Template:Short description Template:Distinguish {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check |unknown=Template:Main other |preview=Page using Template:Infobox language with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| acceptance | agency | aiatsis | aiatsis2 | aiatsis3 | aiatsis4 | aiatsis5 | aiatsis6 | aiatsisname | aiatsisname2 | aiatsisname3 | aiatsisname4 | aiatsisname5 | aiatsisname6 | altname | ancestor | ancestor2 | ancestor3 | ancestor4 | ancestor5 | ancestor6 | ancestor7 | ancestor8 | ancestor9 | ancestor10 | ancestor11 | ancestor12 | ancestor13 | ancestor14 | ancestor15 | boxsize | coordinates | coords | created | creator | date | dateprefix | development_body | dia1 | dia2 | dia3 | dia4 | dia5 | dia6 | dia7 | dia8 | dia9 | dia10 | dia11 | dia12 | dia13 | dia14 | dia15 | dia16 | dia17 | dia18 | dia19 | dia20 | dia21 | dia22 | dia23 | dia24 | dia25 | dia26 | dia27 | dia28 | dia29 | dia30 | dia31 | dia32 | dia33 | dia34 | dia35 | dia36 | dia37 | dia38 | dia39 | dia40 | dialect_label | dialects | ELP | ELP2 | ELP3 | ELP4 | ELP5 | ELP6 | ELPname | ELPname2 | ELPname3 | ELPname4 | ELPname5 | ELPname6 | era | ethnicity | extinct | fam1 | fam2 | fam3 | fam4 | fam5 | fam6 | fam7 | fam8 | fam9 | fam10 | fam11 | fam12 | fam13 | fam14 | fam15 | family | familycolor | fontcolor | glotto | glotto2 | glotto3 | glotto4 | glotto5 | glottoname | glottoname2 | glottoname3 | glottoname4 | glottoname5 | glottopedia | glottorefname | glottorefname2 | glottorefname3 | glottorefname4 | glottorefname5 | guthrie | ietf | image | imagealt | imagecaption | imagescale | iso1 | iso1comment | iso2 | iso2b | iso2comment | iso2t | iso3 | iso3comment | iso6 | isoexception | lc1 | lc2 | lc3 | lc4 | lc5 | lc6 | lc7 | lc8 | lc9 | lc10 | lc11 | lc12 | lc13 | lc14 | lc15 | lc16 | lc17 | lc18 | lc19 | lc20 | lc21 | lc22 | lc23 | lc24 | lc25 | lc26 | lc27 | lc28 | lc29 | lc30 | lc31 | lc32 | lc33 | lc34 | lc35 | lc36 | lc37 | lc38 | lc39 | lc40 | ld1 | ld2 | ld3 | ld4 | ld5 | ld6 | ld7 | ld8 | ld9 | ld10 | ld11 | ld12 | ld13 | ld14 | ld15 | ld16 | ld17 | ld18 | ld19 | ld20 | ld21 | ld22 | ld23 | ld24 | ld25 | ld26 | ld27 | ld28 | ld29 | ld30 | ld31 | ld32 | ld33 | ld34 | ld35 | ld36 | ld37 | ld38 | ld39 | ld40 | linglist | linglist2 | linglist3 | linglist4 | linglist5 | linglist6 | lingname | lingname2 | lingname3 | lingname4 | lingname5 | lingname6 | lingua | lingua2 | lingua3 | lingua4 | lingua5 | lingua6 | lingua7 | lingua8 | lingua9 | lingua10 | linguaname | linguaname2 | linguaname3 | linguaname4 | linguaname5 | linguaname6 | linguaname7 | linguaname8 | linguaname9 | linguaname10 | listclass | liststyle | map | map2 | mapalt | mapalt2 | mapcaption | mapcaption2 | mapscale | minority | module | name | nation | nativename | notice | notice2 | official | posteriori | pronunciation | protoname | pushpin_image | pushpin_label | pushpin_label_position | pushpin_map | pushpin_map_alt | pushpin_map_caption | pushpin_mapsize | qid | ref | refname | region | revived | revived-cat | revived-category | script | setting | sign | signers | speakers | speakers_label | speakers2 | stand1 | stand2 | stand3 | stand4 | stand5 | stand6 | standards | state | states }}<templatestyles src="Template:Infobox/styles-images.css" /> Template:Contains special characters
Sindhi (Template:Lang, Sindhī, Template:IPA)Template:Efn is an Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is primarily spoken by the Sindhi people native to the Pakistani province of Sindh, where the language has official status.<ref name="auto2">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> It constitutes the mother tongue of over 34 million people in Pakistan, primarily concentrated in Sindh; with historic communities in neighbouring Balochistan as well. It is also spoken by 1.7 million people in India, mostly by the descendants of partition-era migrants; with it having the status of a scheduled language in the country without any state-level official status.<ref name="in"/> Sindhi is written in the Sindhi alphabet of the Perso-Arabic script, the sole official script for the language in Pakistan; while in India, both the Perso-Arabic and Devanagari scripts are used.
With over 37 million native speakers, Sindhi is a major South Asian language, being the most-widely spoken language in southern PakistanTemplate:Efn and third most-widely spoken in the entirety of Pakistan (after Punjabi and Pashto). The language is also geographically spread out of South Asia as it is spoken by the Sindhi diaspora, present around the world, primarily in the Gulf states, the Western world and the Far East.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Being classified under the Northwestern branch of the Indo-Aryan languages, Sindhi, apart from other Sindhic languages, is most closely related to Punjabi. It is descended from Shauraseni Prakrit, which gradually developed into Apabhraṃśa and then into Early Sindhi. Sindhi further developed during the Islamic Golden Age and the Islamic period in South Asia, expanding its vocabulary under the influence of Arabic and Persian; with the earliest written evidence of Sindhi as a language being a translation of the Quran, dated back to 883 AD.<ref name="ELL" /> Middle Sindhi produced the language's greatest pieces of literature, including recorded forms of orally-transmitted folk tales; as well as Sufi literature, including Shah Jo Risalo, the single greatest piece of Sindhi literature, by Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. Modern Sindhi developed and was officially standardised and promoted during the British colonial era, replacing Persian as the primary official language of Sindh in 1848.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Sindhi is an inflected language, with five cases for noun, three for personal pronoun, four for third-person pronoun; eleven case markers; two genders (masculine, feminine); and two numbers (singular, plural). The base of its vocabulary is derived from Sanskrit in the form of Prakrit and Apabhraṃśa, while a significant portion of its high-register speech is derived from Persian and Arabic, along with a number of recent loanwords borrowed from English; and to a lesser extent from Portuguese and French. It has also had minor influence from and on neighbouring languages such as Punjabi, Balochi, Brahui, Gujarati, and Marwari.<ref name="lsi">Template:Linguistic Survey of India</ref>
Sindhi has a number of dialects and an established standard form, referred to as Standard Sindhi, which is based on the dialect of Hyderabad and surrounding areas of central Sindh. The primary regulatory agency for the development and promotion of the language is the Sindhi Language Authority, an autonomous institution of the government of Sindh.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
History
Origins
The name "Sindhi" is derived from the Sanskrit síndhu, the original name of the Indus River, along whose delta Sindhi is spoken.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the Bronze Age (Template:Circa), the primary language of this region was likely the Harappan language, but no records exist indicating when or how that language was replaced by the Indo-Aryan languages.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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)<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> but later work has shown this to be unclear.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The sound changes that characterise the development of Sindhi from Middle Indo-Aryan are:
- Development of implosives from geminate and initial stops (e.g. g-, -gg > ɠ); this is a highly distinctive sound change in NIATemplate:Sfnp
- Shortening of geminates (e.g. MIA akkhi > Sindhi akhi "eye")Template:Sfnp
- Voicing of post-nasal consonants (e.g. MIA danta > Sindhi ɗ̣andu "tooth")Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp
- Debuccalization of intervocalic -s- > -h- (shared with some Punjabi varieties, primarily Saraiki)Template:Sfnp
- Intervocalic -l- > -r- (likely via intermediate retroflex -ḷ-), -ll- > -l-,Template:Sfnp -ḍ- > -ṛ-
- Fronting of r from medial clusters to initial (e.g. OIA dīrgha > Sindhi ḍrigho "long")Template:Sfnp
Additionally, the following retentions distinguish Sindhi from other New Indo-Aryan languages:
- Retention of MIA -ṇ-Template:Sfnp
- Retention of final short vowels -a, -i, -u,Template:Sfnp but also insertion of these into loanwordsTemplate:Sfnp
- Retention of long vowels before geminates (more archaic than e.g. Prakrit)Template:Sfnp
- Retention of stop + r clusters but with retroflexion, e.g. tr- > ṭr-Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp
- Retention of v-Template:Sfnp
Early Sindhi (–16th century)
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.<ref name="ELL">Template:Cite book</ref> 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; at this point in time, Sindhi was not clearly established as an independent literary language. Much of this work is in the form of ginans (a kind of devotional hymn).<ref name="shackle">Template:Britannica</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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. Arabic sources thus do mention the language of Sindh in various instances. The following excerpts are translated from The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians by Henry Miers Elliot.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Additionally, the Korean Buddhist monk Hyech'o mentions the unique language of Sindh in his travelogue:
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 format of this poetry is the bayt, indicating significant influence from Arabic and Persian. The earliest known Sindhi poet of the Sufi tradition is Qazi Qadan (1493–1551). Other early poets were Shah Inat Rizvi (Template:Circa 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.<ref name="shackle"/>
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.<ref name="mahfil">Template:Cite journal</ref>
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.<ref name="shackle"/>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
British India (1843–1947)
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="mahfil"/>
Independent Pakistan and India (1947–)
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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
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.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica">Template:Cite web</ref>
Geographical distribution
Sindhi is the official language of the Pakistani province of Sindh<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="auto2"/> and one of the scheduled languages of India, where it does not have any state-level status.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Prior to the inception of Pakistan, Sindhi was the national language of Sindh.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Sindhi is additionally spoken by many members of the Sindhi diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Oman, Singapore, UAE, USA and UK.
Pakistan
In Pakistan, Sindhi is the first language of 34.40 million people, or Template:Sigfig% of the country's population as of the 2023 census. 33.46 million of these are found in Sindh, where they account for Template:Sigfig% of the total population of the province.<ref name="2023 census">Template:Cite web</ref> There are 0.55 million speakers in the province of Balochistan, especially in the Kacchi Plain.
Template:Static row numbersTemplate:Sticky headerTemplate:Table alignment
| State | Population |
|---|---|
| Template:Flag+link | 34,401,564 |
| Template:Flag+link | 33,462,299 |
| Template:Flag+link | 555,198 |
| Template:Flag+link | 352,686 |
| Template:Flag+link | 21,362 |
| Template:Flag+link | 10,019 |
The Pakistan Sindh Assembly has ordered compulsory teaching of the Sindhi language in all private schools in Sindh.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sindhi is taught in all provincial private schools that follow the Matric system and not the ones that follow the Cambridge system.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and increase the status of Sindhi as a national language<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> of Pakistan.
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.
India
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 states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In India, Sindhi mother tongue speakers were distributed in the following states: Template:Static row numbersTemplate:Sticky headerTemplate:Table alignment
| State | Population |
|---|---|
| Template:Flag+link | 2,772,264 |
| Gujarat | 1,184,024 |
| Maharashtra | 723,748 |
| Rajasthan | 386,569 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 245,161 |
| Chhattisgarh | 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 Haveli 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 |
Sindhi diaspora
In Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore (where Sindhi has no official status), ethnics Sindhis are largely shifting to English as their first language, excepting some monolingual first-generation immigrants and second-generation speakers who use Sindhi at home. Codeswitching of varying degrees is observed in some speakers, usually with English but also with Malay and Indonesian.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Similar shift to English is found in the smaller Hong Kong Sindhi community.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Sindhi speakers by country
Template:Static row numbersTemplate:Sticky headerTemplate:Table alignment
| Country | Population |
|---|---|
| Template:Flag+link<ref name="2023 census"/> | 34,401,564 |
| Template:Flag+link<ref name="india census"/> | 2,772,264 |
| Template:Flag+link<ref>Template:Ethnologue25</ref> | 102,000 |
| Template:Flag+link<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | 6,299 |
| Template:Flag+link<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | 5,315 |
| Template:Flag+link<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> | 3,971 |
Dialects
Sindhi has many dialects, and forms a dialect continuum at some places with neighboring languages such as Punjabi to the north and Gujarati to the south, but not with Marwari to the east.<ref name="lsi"/> Some of the documented dialects of Sindhi are:<ref>Template:E19</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="lsi"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Vicholi: The prestige dialect spoken around Hyderabad and central Sindh (the Vicholo region), on which the literary standard is based.
- Uttaradi: The dialect of northern Sindh (Uttaru, meaning "north"), with minor differences in Larkana, Shikarpur and in parts of Sukkur and Kandiaro.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Lari: The dialect of southern Sindh (Lāṛu) spoken around areas like Karachi, Thatta, Sujawal, Tando Muhammad Khan and Badin districts.
- Siroli (also Siraiki, Ubheji): The dialect of northernmost Sindh (Siro, meaning "head").Template:Sfnp Spoken in smaller number all over Sindh but mainly in Jacobabad and Kashmore districts, it may be transitional with the Saraiki language variety of southern PunjabTemplate:Sfnp and has variously been treated either as a dialect of Saraiki or as a dialect of Sindhi.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Lasi: The dialect of Lasbela, Hub and Gwadar districts in Balochistan, closely related to Lari and Vicholi, and in contact with Balochi.
- Firaqi: The dialect of the Kachhi plains the north eastern districts of Balochistan, where it is referred to as Firaqi Sindhi or commonly just Sindhi.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Thareli (also Tharechi): Spoken in the northeastern Thar desert of Sindh, but mainly spoken in the western part of Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan, India by many Sindhi Muslims.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Sindhi Bhili: Spoken in Sindh by the Sindhi Meghwars and Bhils.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Furthermore, Kutchi and Jadgali are sometimes classified as dialects of Sindhi rather than independent languages.
| English | Vicholi | Lari | Uttaradi | Lasi | Kutchi<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | 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) | Awha/Ahee(n)/ Aween |
| To me | Mukhe | Muke | Mānkhe | Mukh | Muke | Mina |
| We | Asee(n) | Asee(n), Pān | Asā(n) | Asee(n) | Asee(n), Pān | Asee(n), Asā(n) |
| What | Chha/Kahirō | Kujjāro/Kujja | Chha/Shha | Chho | Kuro | Kee |
| Why | Chho | Ko | Chho/Shho | Chhela | Kolāi/Kurelāe | Kayla |
| How | Kiya(n) | Kei(n) | Kiya(n) | Kee(n) | Kiya(n) | |
| No | Na, Kōna, Kōn | Nā(n), Kīna | Na, Kōna, Kāna, Kon, Kān | Nā(n), Ma | Nā | Nā, Ni, Ko, Kon, Ma |
| Legs (plural, fem) | Tangu(n), Jjanghu(n) | Tangu(n), Jjangu(n) | Tangā(n), Jjanghā(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, Chaṅō | Khāso/Sutho/Thhāuko | Sutho, Bhalo, Chango | Khāsho | Khāso, Laat | Sutho, Phutro, Thhāuko |
| 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/Chokro | |
| Daughter | Dhiu/Niyāni | Dia/Niyāni/Kañā | Dhee/Adri | Dhia | Dhi/Dhikri | 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 | Meh, Maiwla | |
| And | Aēi(n) | Ãū(n)/Ãē(n)/Nē | Aēi(n)/Aū(n)/Aen | Ãē/Or | Nē/Anē | A'e(n)/Ān |
| 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/Bāh | Jjērō | Jirō/lagāņō/āg | |
| Water | Pāņī | Pāņī/Jal | Pāņī | Pāņī | Pāņī/Jal | Pāņī |
| Where | Kithē | Kithē | Kithē, Kāthe, Kehda, Kāday, Kādah, Kidah, Kithrē | Kith | Kidhē/Kidhā | Kith |
| Sleep | Nindr(a) | Nind(a) | Nindr(a) | Nind | Ninder | Oongh |
| Slap | Thaparr/Chammāt | Tārr | Chamātu/Chapātu/
Lapātu/Thapu |
Thapaat | ||
| To Wash | Dhoain(u) | Dhun(u) | Dhoain(u)/Dhuan(u)/
Dhowan(u) |
Dhowan | Dhuwan(u)/
Dhoon(u) | |
| Will write (Masc) | Likhandum, Likhandus | Likhados | Likhdum, Likhdus | Likhdosī | likhdos (m) / likhdis (f) | Likhsā(n) |
| I Went | Aao(n) Vius | Aao(n) Vēs | Ma(n) Vayus (m)/ Vayas (f) | Ã viosī | Aau vyos (m) / veyis (f) | Hu Gios |
Phonology
Sindhi has a relatively large inventory of both consonants and vowels compared to other Indo-Aryan languages.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sindhi has 46 consonant phonemes and 10 vowels.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The consonant to vowel ratio is around average for the world's languages at 2.8.<ref>Nihalani, Paroo. (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association (Sindhi). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</ref> 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
The retroflex consonants are apical postalveolar and do not involve curling back of the tip of the tongue,Template:Sfnp so they could be transcribed Template:IPA in phonetic transcription. The affricates Template:IPA are laminal post-alveolars with a relatively short release. It is not clear if Template:IPA is similar, or truly palatal.<ref>The IPA Handbook uses the symbols Template:IPA, 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 Template:IPA and further remarks that "Template:IPA is often a slightly creaky voiced palatal approximant" (caption of table 3.19).</ref> Template:IPA is realized as labiovelar Template:IPA or labiodental Template:IPA in free variation, but is not common, except before a stop.
Vowels
The vowels are modal length Template:IPA and short Template:IPA. Consonants following short vowels are lengthened: Template:IPA 'leaf' vs. Template:IPA 'worn'.
Grammar
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.<ref name="jetley">Template:Cite thesis</ref> 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 (Template:Gcl) and -i (Template:Gcl).
A few nouns representing familial relations take irregular declensions with an extension in -r- in the plural. These are the masculine nouns Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari bhāu "brother", Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari pīu "father", and the feminine nouns Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari dhīa "daughter", Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari nū̃hã "daughter-in-law", Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari bheṇa "sister", Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari māu "mother", and Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari' joi "wife".<ref name="jetley"/>
| Template:Gcl | Template:Gcl | Gloss | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Gcl | Template:Gcl | Template:Gcl | Template:Gcl | Template:Gcl | Template:Gcl | ||
| Template:Gcl | Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari bhāu |
Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari bhāuru / bhāura |
Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari bhāura / bhāuro |
Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari bhāurani / bhāuni |
brother | ||
| Template:Gcl | Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari dhīa / dhīu |
Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari dhīaru / dhīarū̃ / dhīū̃ |
Template:Naskh Template:Script/Devanagari 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 Template:Script/Devanagari jo for the rest. The personal pronouns are listed to the right.Template:Sfnp<ref name="sindhi1">Template:Cite web</ref>
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 Template:Script/Arabic Template:Script/Devanagari ko "someone" are Template:Script/Arabic Template:Script/Devanagari har-ko "everyone", Template:Script/Arabic Template:Script/Devanagari sabh-ko "all of them", Template:Script/Arabic Template:Script/Devanagari je-ko "whoever" (relative), and Template:Script/Arabic Template:Script/Devanagari te-ko "that one" (correlative).Template:Sfnp
Numerals
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 Template:Lang Template:Lang khe.<ref name="trumpp">Template:Cite book</ref>
The postpositions are divided into case markers, which directly follow the noun, and complex postpositions, which combine with a case marker (usually the genitive Template:Lang Template:Lang jo).
Case markers
The case markers are listed below.Template:R
The postpositions with the suffix -o decline in gender and number to agree with their governor, e.g. Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokiro j-o pīu "the boy's father" but Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokiro j-ī māu "the boy's mother".
| Case | Marker | Example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | — | Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokiro |
the boy |
| Accusative Dative |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang khe |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire khe |
the boy to the boy |
| Genitive | Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang j-o |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire jo |
of the boy |
| Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang sand-o |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire sando | ||
| Sociative | Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang sudh-o |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire sudho |
along with the boy |
| Comitative Instrumental |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang sā̃ |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire sā̃ |
with the boy |
| Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang sāṇu |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire sāṇu | ||
| Locative | Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang mẽ |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire mẽ |
in the boy |
| Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang manjhi |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire manjhi | ||
| Adessive | Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang te |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire te |
on the boy |
| Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang vaṭi |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire vaṭi |
near the boy the boy has... | |
| Orientative | Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang ḍā̃hã |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire ḍā̃hã |
towards the boy |
| Terminative | Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang tāī̃ |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire tāī̃ |
up to the boy |
| Benefactive | Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang lāi |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire lāi |
for the boy |
| Semblative | Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang vānguru |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire vānguru |
like the boy |
| Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang jahṛ-o |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang 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".Template:R
| Marker | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang khā̃ |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire khā̃ |
from the boy |
| Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang mā̃ |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire mā̃ |
from inside the boy |
| Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang tā̃ |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang chokire tā̃ |
from upon the boy |
| Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang ḍā̃hā̃ |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang 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.
| Case | Marker | Example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accusative Adessive |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang kane |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:Lang 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.Template:R
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | Transliteration | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je aɠyā̃ | "ahead of, before"; apudessive |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je andari | "inside of"; inessive |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je badirā̃ | "instead of, in place of" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je barābar | "equal to" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je ɓāharā̃ | "outside of" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | khā̃ ɓāhari | |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je bāre mẽ | "about, concerning" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je caudhārī | "around" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je heṭhā̃ | "below, under" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je kare | "for, on account of" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je lāi | "for" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je mathā̃ | "above, on top of, upon" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | khā̃ pare | "far from" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je pāri | "across, on the other side of" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je pāse | "on the side of, near" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | khā̃ poi | "after" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je puṭhyā̃ | "behind" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je sāmhõ | "in front of, facing" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | khā̃ sivāi | "besides, apart from" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je vāste | "for the sake of, on account of" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je vejho | "near"; adessive |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je vici mẽ | "between, among" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je xātiri | "for the sake of" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | je xilāfi | "against" |
| Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Devanagari | 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 UrduTemplate:Citation needed, with more borrowed Perso-Arabic elements, while Sindhi in India is influenced by HindiTemplate:Citation needed, with more borrowed tatsam Sanskrit elements.Template:Sfnmp
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Perso-Arabic for Sindhi was also made digitally accessible relatively earlier.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The earliest attested records in Sindhi are from the 15th century.<ref name="Encyclopædia Britannica"/> 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.Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> During British rule in the late 19th century, the Perso-Arabic script was decreed standard over Devanagari.Template:Sfnp
Perso-Arabic script
Template:Arabic-script sidebar 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 (Template:Lang) 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 are ligatures serving a grammatical function. These ligatures include the Template:Script/Arabic, which is pronounced as [ãĩ̯] and represents and, and the Template:Script/Arabic, which is pronounced as [mẽ] and it creates a locative relationship between words.
| Perso-Arabic [IPA] |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perso-Arabic [IPA] |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
| Perso-Arabic [IPA] |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
| Perso-Arabic [IPA] |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
| Perso-Arabic [IPA] |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
| Perso-Arabic [IPA] |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink |
| Perso-Arabic [IPA] |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
| Perso-Arabic [IPA] |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
| Perso-Arabic [IPA] |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
| Perso-Arabic [IPA] |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic [ə]/[əʰ]/[∅] |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink |
Template:Script/Arabic Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink |
| Perso-Arabic [IPA] |
Template:Script/Arabic [ãĩ̯] |
Template:Script/Arabic [mẽ] |
The orthography of the letter hāʾ in Sindhi, especially as it comes to typing as opposed to handwriting, has been a source of confusion for many. Especially because whereas in Arabic and Persian, there exists one single letter for hāʾ, in Urdu, the letter has diverged into two distinct variants: gol he ("round he") and do-cašmi he ("two-eyed he"). The former is written is written round and zigzagged as "Template:Nastaliq", and can impart the "h" (Template:IPA) sound anywhere in a word, or the long "a" or the "e" vowels (Template:IPA or Template:IPA) at the end of a word. The latter is written in Arabic Naskh style (as a loop) (Template:Nastaliq), 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 letter hāʾ is also used in Sindhi to represent the sound [h] in native Sindhi words, in Arabic and Persian loanwords, and to represent vowels (Template:IPA or Template:IPA) 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 of hāʾ across these languages for which Unicode 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.<ref>Kamal Mansour (2023), Handling of the Heh in Sindhi Text, L2-23/17 https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2023/23117-sindhi-heh.pdf (Archive)</ref><ref>Lorna Priest Evans (2021), Regarding the Sindhi Heh, L2-22/052 https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2022/22052-regarding-sindhi-heh.pdf (Archive)</ref>
| Unicode | Letter or Digraphs | IPA | Note | Examples | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final | Medial | Initial | Isolated | ||||
| U+06BE | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:IPAblink | Template:Script/Arabic | |
| U+0647 | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:IPAblink | Used for borrowed words | Template:Script/Arabic | |||
| U+062C + U+0647 |
Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:IPAblink | In isolated and final positions, an extra hāʾ Template:Script/Arabic (U+06C1) is added | Template:Script/Arabic |
| U+06AF + U+0647 |
Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:IPAblink | Template:Script/Arabic | |
| U+0647 | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | - | Template:IPAblink | Forming part of digraph for representation of other aspirated consonants ([ɽʰ], [lʱ], [mʰ], [nʰ], [ɳʰ]). In isolated and final positions, an extra hāʾ Template:Script/Arabic (U+06C1) is added | Template:Script/Arabic | |
| U+06C1 | Template:Script/Arabic | - | Template:Script/Arabic | [ə] / [əʰ] / [∅] | Template:Script/Arabic | ||
The punctuation of Sindhi Perso-Arabic script differs slightly from that of Urdu, Persian, and Arabic. Namely, instead of using the typical inverted comma (Template:Script/Arabic [U+060C]) common in these mentioned alphabet, a reversed comma (Template:Script/Arabic [U+2E41]) is used, although many documents do indeed incorrectly use Urdu punctuations.<ref>https://r12a.github.io/scripts/arab/sd.html</ref>
| Full Stop | Comma | Semicolon | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sindhi | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic |
| Urdu | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic |
| Persian/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic |
Devanagari script
In India, the Devanagari script is also used to write Sindhi.<ref name="auto3"/> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Devanagari was seen as the most practical option for Sindhi language in India.<ref name="in"/> Diacritical bars below the letter are used to mark implosive consonants, and dots called nukta are used to form other additional consonants.
| Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | ||
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | ||
| Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | |||
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | |||
| Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | ||
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | ||
| Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | |||||
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | |||||
| Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | |||
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | |||
| Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | ||||||
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | ||||||
| Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | Template:Script/Devanagari | ||||||
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | ||||||
Laṇḍā scripts
Laṇḍā-based scripts, such as Gurmukhi, Khojki, and the Khudabadi script were used historically to write Sindhi.
Khudabadi
Template:Infobox writing system
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.<ref name=sindhiscript>Template:Cite web</ref>
| File:Vowel 1 a.svg | File:Vowel 2 aa.svg | File:Vowel 3 i.svg | File:Vowel 4 ii.svg | File:Vowel 5 u.svg | File:Vowel 6 uu.svg | File:Vowel 7 e.svg | File:Vowel 8 ai.svg | File:Vowel 9 o.svg | File:Vowel 10 au.svg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
| File:Consonant 1 ka.svg | File:Consonant 2 kha.svg | File:Consonant 3 ga.svg | File:Consonant 4 gga.svg | File:Consonant 5 gha.svg | File:Consonant 6 nga.svg | ||||
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | ||||
| File:Consonant 7 ca.svg | File:Consonant 8 cha.svg | File:Consonant 9 ja.svg | File:Consonant 10 jja.svg | File:Consonant 11 jha.svg | File:Consonant 12 nya.svg | ||||
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | ||||
| File:Consonant 13 tta.svg | File:Consonant 14 ttha.svg | File:Consonant 15 dda.svg | File:Consonant 16 ddda.svg | File:Consonant 18 ddha.svg | File:Consonant 17 rra.svg | File:Consonant 19 nna.svg | |||
| Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | |||
| File:Consonant 20 ta.svg | File:Consonant 21 tha.svg | File:Consonant 22 da.svg | File:Consonant 23 dha.svg | File:Consonant 24 na.svg | |||||
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| File:Consonant 25 pa.svg | File:Consonant 26 pha.svg | File:Consonant 27 ba.svg | File:Consonant 28 bba.svg | File:Consonant 29 bha.svg | File:Consonant 30 ma.svg | ||||
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Khojki
Khojki was employed primarily to record Muslim Shia Ismaili religious literature, as well as literature for a few secret Shia Muslim sects.<ref name="auto3">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Gurmukhi
The Gurmukhi script was also used to write Sindhi, mainly in India by Hindus.<ref name="sindhiscript"/><ref name="auto3"/>
Roman Sindhi
Template:See also 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Advocacy
Template:See also In 1972, a 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 BhurgriTemplate: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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> In 2016, Google introduced the first automated translator for Sindhi language.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Later on in 2023 an offline support was introduced by Google Translate.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Which was followed by Microsoft Translator strengthening support in May of same year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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
- 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 poetry
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
Template:InterWiki Template:Wikivoyage Template:Commons category Template:EB1911 poster
- Sindhi Language Authority
- Sindhi Dictionary
- Template:Webarchive
- Mewaram's 1910 Sindhi-English dictionary
- Pages with broken file links
- Sindhi language
- Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages
- Languages of Pakistan
- Languages of Sindh
- Languages of Balochistan, Pakistan
- Official languages of India
- Subject–object–verb languages
- Languages of Gujarat
- Languages of Rajasthan
- Languages of Maharashtra
- Languages written in Brahmic scripts
- Languages written in Devanagari