Sindhi language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sindhi سنڌي सिन्धी Sindhī
Spoken in:	Pakistan, India. Also Hong Kong, Oman, Philippines, Singapore, UAE, UK, USA, Afghanistan
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 spoken by approximately 41 million people in Pakistan, and 12 million in India; it is the second most spoken language of Pakistan, a recognized official language in Pakistan and also an official language in India. The Government of Pakistan issues National Identity Cards to its citizens only in two languages, i.e. Sindhi and Urdu. Genealogically it is an Indo-Aryan language, though 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. [1]

[edit] 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 states of Maharashtra & Gujarat, 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.

See also: States of India by Sindhi speakers

[edit] History

The immediate predecessor of Sindhi was an Apabhramsha Prakrit named Vrachada. 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 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.

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.

During the British period, traders and common people -- including Khojas and Memons -- were using Devanagari, Modi or Vanika scripts, without any vowels for writing Sindhi, while government employees used some kind of Arabic script.

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

[edit] Basic Phrases

• Keeyen aahyo?- "how are you?" (general greeting)
• Ma theek aahiyan - "Very well".
• Meherbani - "Thank you"
• Meherbani karay - "Please"
• Ha - "Yes"
• Na - "No"
• Keeyen ahyo/Kehra haal aahin - "How are you?"
• Maa/Aaon teekh ahyaan - "I'm fine"
• Allah wahi - "Goodbye" (used to end a conversation by Muslim Sindhis)
• Theekh aah- "Okay" (used to end a conversation by Hindu Sindhis)
• Tawhanjo naalo cha aahaye - "What is your name?"
• Munhenjo naalo ______ aahaye. - "My name is _____."
• Hik - "One"
• Ba - "Two"
• Tray - "Three"
• Maa/Aaon Sindh jo aahya/ Maa/Aaon Sindh maa ahyaa - "I am from Sindh"
• Maa/Aaon musulman / hindhu aahya - "I am Muslim / Hindu"
• Maa/Aaon Sindhi aahya / Assin Sindhi aahyoo - "I am Sindhi" / "We are Sindhis"
• Allah Wahi - "God bless you"

[edit] 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.

[edit] Consonants

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 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.^[3] /ʋ/ is realized as labiovelar [w] or labiodental [ʋ] in free variation. /n/ occurs, but is not common, except before a stop (/nd/ etc).

[edit] Vowels

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'.

[edit] Writing system

[edit] Arabic

In Pakistan, Sindhi is written in a variant of the Persian alphabet, 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 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.

[edit] 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 [2]. Diacritical bars below the letter are used to mark implosive consonants, and dots called nukta are used to form other additional consonants.

[edit] See also

• Sindhology
• Institute of Sindhology
• List of Sindhi-language films
• Languages of Pakistan
• Languages of India
• List of national languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers

[edit] External links

Sindhi language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Let's Learn Sindhi CD ROM from Sindhi Sangat - promoting & preserving Sindhi language Worldwide.
• Institute of Sindhology, Pakistan
• 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

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

• International Phonetic Association (1999) Handbook of the International Phonetic Association ISBN 0-521-63751-1
• Ladefoged, Peter; Ian Maddieson (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19814-8. 
• Sindhi Alphabet with example words
• Sindhi Alphabet with Devanagari equivalents
• [3]
• 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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