Sindhi language

Sindhi
سنڌي , सिन्धी ,Sindhī
Spoken in
Region South Asia
Total speakers ~40 million[1]
Ranking 23
Language family Indo-European
Writing system Arabic, Devanagari, Laṇḍā scripts, particularly Gurumukhi [2]
Official status
Official language in Pakistan Pakistan (Sindh)
India India
Regulated by Sindhi Language Authority (Pakistan),
Indian Institute of Sindhology (India)
Language codes
ISO 639-1 sd
ISO 639-2 snd
ISO 639-3 snd
Linguasphere
Indic script
 This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Sindhi (Sindhi: سنڌي , Urdu: سندھی , Devanagari script: सिन्धी, Sindhī) is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan. It is spoken by an estimated 34,410,910 people in Pakistan. It is the third most spoken language in all of Pakistan and is the official language of the province of Sindh. It is also spoken in India by some 2,820,485 speakers.[1] The government of Pakistan issues national identity cards to its citizens only in two languages, Sindhi and Urdu.

It is an Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Its has influences from a local version of spoken form of Sanskrit and from Balochi spoken in the adjacent province of Balochistan.

Most Sindhi speakers are concentrated in the Sindh province and in Kutch, India where Sindhi is a local language. The remaining speakers in India are composed of the Hindu Sindhis who migrated from Sindh and settled in India after partition and the Sindhi diaspora worldwide.

Contents

Geographical distribution

Sindhi Language banner in Pune, India

Sindhi is spoken in Sindh, Balochistan, Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan (NWFP) in Pakistan. Sindhi is taught as a first language in the state schools of interior Sindh and some in Karachi and as a second language in Karachi and Balochistan in Pakistan. It is also spoken in many states of India and Ulhasnagar near Mumbai is largest Sindhi enclave in India.

It is also spoken by sindhi tribes living in Kutch. In India, especially in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and in many educational institutions Sindhi is taught either as the medium of instruction or as a subject.[3]

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.

History

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, all variations of Devanagari. Biruni has described many Sindhi words leading to the conclusion that the Sindhi language was widely spoken and rich in vocabulary in his time. Over the course of centuries, Sindhi culture absorbed Arabic, Persian and Islamic words which further enriched its heritage.

Sindhi became a very 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. During the British period, traders and common people—including Khojas and Memons -- were using Devanagari, Modi or Khudabadi Script (later known as Vanika script), without any vowels for writing Sindhi, while government employees used some kind of Arabic script.The Khudabadi script was invented by Khudabadi Sindhi Swarankar community. The members of the Swarnakar community, while residing in Khudabad, around 1550, felt it necessary to invent a very simple script so that they can send written messages to their relations, who were living far away from them in their own home towns. This necessity mothered the invention/creation of a new script. The new script had no vowels and to be written from left to right (like Sanskrit) and continued to be in use for very long period of time among Khudabadi Sindhi Swarankar. Due to its simplicity, the use of this script spread very quickly and got acceptance in other sindhi communities, for sending written communications. Even, The Education Department of Sindh, on advice of Directors of British East India Co., directed Sindhi Schools to employ Khudabadi Script for teaching. Because it was originated from Khudabad, it was called Khudabadi script and later on, was known as Vanika and Hatkai, because it was mainly used by traders and shopkeepers, till 1947. The Khudabadi Script could not survive because it had no vowels.

In 1849 the first English-Sindhi dictionary was written in the Devanagari script.

According to Islamic Sindhi tradition, the first translation of the Quran into Sindhi was made by in 270/883 by an Arab scholar. The first extensive Sindhi translation was done by Akhund 'Azaz Allah Mutta'lawi (1160-124011747-1824) and first published in Gujrat in 1870. The first to appear in print was by Muhammad Siddiq (Lahore 1867).

Phonology

Sindhi has 46 consonant phonemes and 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 implosives.

Consonants

Consonants of Sindhi
Labial Dental/
Alveolar		 Retroflex Palatoalveolar
/ Palatal		 Velar Glottal
Nasal m
mʱ		 n
nʱ		 ɳ
ɳʱ		 ɲ ŋ
Plosive and
affricate		 p
pʰ		 b
bʱ		 t̪
t̪ʰ		 d̪
d̪ʱ		 ʈ
ʈʰ		 ɖ
ɖʱ		 t̠ɕ
t̠ɕʰ		 d̠ʑ
d̠ʑʱ		 k
kʰ		 g
gʱ
Implosive ɓ ɗ    ʄ ~ jˀ ɠ
Fricative f   s z ʂ x ɣ h  
Rhotic r ɽ
ɽʱ
Approximant ʋ l̪
l̪ʱ		 j

The retroflex consonants are apical postalveolar, as they are throughout northern India, and so could be transcribed /t̠, t̠ʰ, d̠, d̠ʱ n̠ n̠ʱ s̠ ɾ̠ ɾ̠ʱ/. The dental implosive is sometimes realized as retroflex [ɗ̠]/[ᶑ] The affricates /t̠ɕ, t̠ɕʰ, d̠ʑ, d̠ʑʱ/ are laminal post-alveolars with a relatively short release. It is not clear if /ɲ/ is similar, or truly palatal.[4] /ʋ/ is realized as labiovelar [w] or labiodental [ʋ] in free variation. /n/ occurs, but is not common, except before a stop (/nd/ etc).

Vowels

The vowel phonemes of Sindhi

The vowels are modal length /i e æ ɑ ɔ o u/ and short /ɪ̆ ʊ̆ ɐ̆/. (Note /æ ɑ ɐ̆/ are imprecisely transcribed as /ɛ a ə/ in the chart.) Consonants following short vowels are lengthened: [pɐ̆tˑo] 'leaf' vs. [pɑto] 'worn'.

Dialects[5]

Dialects of Sindhi

i. Sindhi Siraiki,a version of siraiki regarded as a dialect of sindhi;spoken mainly in Upper Sindh.

ii. Vicholi, in Vicholo, Central Sindh

iii. Lari, in Laru, i.e. Lower Sindh

iv. Lasi, in Lasa B’elo, a part of Kohistan in Baluchistan on the western side of Sindh

v. Thari or Thareli, in Tharu, the desert region on the southeast border of Sindh and a part of the Jaisalmer district in Rajasthan

vi. Kachhi, in the Kutch region and in a part of Kathiawar in Gujarat, on the southern side of Sindh

Vicholi is considered as the standard dialect by all Sindhi speakers.

Writing

Before the standardisation of Sindhi orthography, numerous forms of the Devanagari and Lunda (Laṇḍā) scripts were used for trading, universally by all Sindhis. For literary and religious purposes, a modified form of Perso-Arabic known as Ab-ul-Hassan Sindhi and Gurmukhi (a subset of Laṇḍā) were used. Another two scripts, Khudawadi and Shikarpuri were attempts to reform the Landa script.[6] During British rule in the late 19th century, an Arabic-based orthography was decreed standard, after much controversy, as the Devanagari script had also been considered. However, this script has since become accepted.[7]

Arabic script

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

جھ ڄ ج پ ث ٺ ٽ ٿ ت ڀ ٻ ب ا
ɟʱ ʄ ɟ p s t̪ʰ t̪ tʰ t bʱ ɓ b *
ڙ ر ذ ڍ ڊ ڏ ڌ د خ ح ڇ چ ڃ
ɽ r ð ɖʱ ɖ ɗ dʱ d x ħ cʰ c ɲ
ق ڦ ف غ ع ظ ط ض ص ش س ز ڙھ
k pʰ f ɣ ∅ ʐ ʈ z ʂ ʃ s z ɽʱ
ي ه و ڻ ن م ل ڱ گھ ڳ گ ک ڪ
* h * ɳ n m l ŋ ɡʱ ɠ ɡ kʰ k

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]. Diacritical bars below the letter are used to mark implosive consonants, and dots called nukta are used to form other additional consonants.

अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ए ऐ ओ औ
ə a ɪ i ʊ uː e ɛ o ɔ
क ख ख़ ग ग॒ ग़ घ ङ
k kʰ x ɡ ɠ ɣ ɡʱ ŋ
च छ ज ज॒ ज़ झ ञ
c cʰ ɟ ʄ z ɟʱ ɲ
ट ठ ड ड॒ 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 ब॒ भ म
p pʰ f b ɓ bʱ m
य र ल व
j r l ʋ
श ष स ह
ʃ ʂ s h

Vocabulary

In addition to a stock of native words inherited from Sanskrit, Sindhi has borrowed numerous words of Arabic and Persian origin. In addition, Sindhi has borrowed from Sanskrit, English, and Hindi-Urdu. 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.[8][9]

Basic Phrases

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: سنڌي ٻولي انڊو يورپي خاندان سان تعلق رکندڙ آريائي ٻولي آھي، جنھن تي ڪجھه دراوڙي اھڃاڻ پڻ موجود ‏آهن. هن وقت سنڌي ٻولي سنڌ جي مک ٻولي ۽ دفتري زبان .

Devanagari script: सुणी उली इदू ईओरपी ख़ानदान सान ताअलुक रकनद आरीआइई उली आ्ही, जन्हन ती झ्ह दरावी अ्हा प मौजूद ‏आ्हन. हन वकत सुणी उली सन जी मुक उली दफ़तरी ज़बान .

Transliteration (IAST): suṇī ulī idū ī'ōrapī ḵẖānadāna sāna tā'aluka rakanada ārī'ā'i'ī ulī āhī, janhana tī jhha darāvī ahā pa maujūda ‏āhana. hana vakata suṇī ulī sana jī muka ulī dafatarī zabāna .

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sindhi language at Ethnologue
  2. ↑ http://www.sindhilanguage.com/script.html
  3. ↑ The Sindhu World
  4. ↑ The IPA Handbook uses the symbols c, cʰ, ɟ, ɟʱ, but makes it clear this is simply tradition and that these are neither palatal nor stops, but "laminal post-alveolars with a relatively short release". Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:83) confirm a transcription of [t̠ɕ, t̠ɕʰ, d̠ʑ, d̠ʑʱ] and further remarks that "/ʄ/ is often a slightly creaky voiced palatal approximant" (caption of table 3.19).
  5. ↑ http://tdil.mit.gov.in/sindhidesignguideoct02.pdf
  6. ↑ Khubchandani (2003:633)
  7. ↑ Cole (2001:648)
  8. ↑ Cole (2001:652–653)
  9. ↑ Khubchandani (2003:624–625)

Sources

External links