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Sindhi language

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Sindhi
سنڌي
Native toSindh, Pakistan and Kutch, India,Ulhasnagar. Also immigrant communities in different part of world, Hong Kong, Oman, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, UAE, UK, USA, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka
RegionSouth Asia
Native speakers
25 million (2007)[1]
Arabic, Devanagari, Khudabadi alphabet, Laṇḍā, Gurmukhi[2]
Official status
Official language in
 Pakistan (Sindh)
 India
Regulated bySindhi Language Authority (Pakistan),
National Council For Promotion Of Sindhi Language (India)
Language codes
ISO 639-1sd
ISO 639-2snd
ISO 639-3Variously:
snd – Sindhi
lss – Lasi
sbn – Sindhi Bhil
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Template:Contains Sindhi text

Sindhi /ˈsɪndi/[3] (سنڌي / सिन्धी / Sindhi) is an Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the language of the historical Sindh region, spoken by the Sindhi people. It is the official language of the Pakistani province of Sindh.[4][5][6] In India, Sindhi is one of the scheduled languages officially recognized by the federal government. It has influences from Balochi spoken in the adjacent province of Balochistan.

Most Sindhi speakers are concentrated in the Sindh province and in Kutch, Gujarat and Ulhasnagar , Maharashtra India where the Kutchi dialect is a local language. The remaining speakers in India are composed of the Hindu Sindhis who migrated from Sindh, which became a part of Pakistan and settled in India after the independence of Pakistan in 1947 and the Sindhi diaspora worldwide.

Etymology

Sindhi means 'of the Sindhu'. Sindhu was the proper name of the Indus River.[7] In Indo-Iranian languages, 'S' is observed to transform to 'H' as one moves eastwards through the region. For example the word "haft" and "sapt" both mean seven, in the Persian and Sanskrit, respectively. Thus, though the modern languages are distinct, the word Sindhi is simply the eastern variant of the word Hindi, both meaning 'of the Indus', or 'Indian'.

Significance

See also Sindhi literature and Sindhi poetry.

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.

At the time of the independence of Pakistan in 1947, both Bengali and Sindhi were official languages in their respective provinces. Both languages had a cherished history and a treasure trove of literature. Both languages were not only lingua franca of their provinces but were also in vogue for revenue, court, education and other official business.

When Sindh was occupied by British army and was annexed with Bombay, governor of the province Sir George Clerk ordered to make Sindhi the official language in the province in 1848. Sir Bartle Frere, the then commissioner of Sindh, issued orders on August 29, 1857 advising civil servants in Sindh to qualify examination in Sindhi. He also ordered Sindhi to be used in all official communication. Seven-grade education system commonly known as Sindhi-Final was introduced in Sindh. Sindhi Final was made a prerequisite for employment in revenue, police and education departments.[8]

History

Cover of a book containing the epic Dodo Chanesar written in the Khudabadi script
The earliest Arabic manuscripts written during the Abbasid Era.

The origin of the Sindhi language can be traced to an Old Indo-Aryan dialect, or primary Prakrit, that was spoken in the region of Sindh at the time of compilation of the Vedas (1500–1200 bce) or perhaps some centuries before that. Glimpses of that dialect can be seen to some extent in the literary language of the hymns of the Rigveda.

Like other languages of this family, Sindhi has passed through Old Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit) and Middle Indo-Aryan (Pali, secondary Prakrits, and Apabhramsha) stages of growth, and it entered the New Indo-Aryan stage around the 10th century ce.[9]

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. 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 and Persian words.

Sindhi became a popular literary language between the 14th and 18th centuries. This is when mystics or Sufis such as Shah Abdul Latif, Sachal Sarmast, Sultan-al-Aoliya Muhammad Zaman, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (as well as numerous others) narrated their theosophical poetry depicting the relationship between humans and Allah.

In the year 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.[10]

According to Islamic Sindhi tradition, the first translation of the Quran into Sindhi was completed in the year 883 CE / 270 AH in Mansura, Sindh. The first extensive Sindhi translation was done by Akhund Azaz Allah Muttalawi (1747–1824 CE / 1160–1240 AH).

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

Geographical distribution

Sindhi is spoken in Sindh and Balochistan in Pakistan. Sindhi is taught as a first language in the Pakistani province of Sindh, including in the provincial capital Karachi. It is taught as a second language in many government schools of Karachi and Balochistan in Pakistan. It is also spoken by Sindhi tribes living in Kutch. Karachi is the largest Sindhi-speaking city with 3–4 million Sindhis. Hyderabad ranks second with 1 million Sindhi speakers, and Larkana ranks third with almost a half a million Sindhis.

Sindhi is also spoken in India, especially in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. It is also spoken in Ulhasnagar near Mumbai which is the largest Sindhi enclave in India.[11]

Dialects and varieties

Dialects of Sindhi
  • Sindhi Saraiki, a form of Saraiki language regarded as a dialect of Sindhi; spoken mainly in Upper Sindh. Shown in orange.
  • Vicholi, in Vicholo, Central Sindh. Shown in yellow. Vicholi is the basis for standardised Sindhi.
  • Lari, in Laru (Lower Sindh). Shown in grey.
  • Lasi, in Lasbelo, a part of Kohistan in Baluchistan and the western part of Sindh. Shown in green.
  • Thari or Thareli, also known as Dhatki in Tharu, the desert region on the southeast border of Sindh and a part of the Jaisalmer district in Rajasthan. Shown in purple.
  • Kachhi or Kutchi, in the Kutch region and in a part of Kathiawar in Gujarat, in southern Sindh. Shown in blue.

Phonology

Sindhi has a relatively large inventory of both consonants and vowels compared to other languages. Sindhi has 46 consonant phonemes and 16 vowels. The consonant to vowel ratio is around average for world's languages at 2.8.[12] 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[13]
Labial Dental
Alveolar 		Retroflex Post-alveolar
/Palatal 		Velar Glottal
Nasal m
mʱ 		n
nʱ 		ɳ
ɳʱ 		ɲ ŋ
Plosive/
affricate 		p
pʰ 		b
bʱ 		t̪
t̪ʰ 		d̪
d̪ʱ 		ʈ
ʈʰ 		ɖ
ɖʱ 		t̠ɕ
t̠ɕʰ 		d̠ʑ
d̠ʑʱ 		k
kʰ 		ɡ
ɡʱ
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.[14] /ʋ/ is realized as labiovelar [w] or labiodental [ʋ] in free variation occurs, but is not common, except before a stop.

Vowels

The vowel phonemes of Sindhi on a vowel chart

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'.

Grammar

Ernest Trumpp authored the first Sindhi grammar entitled Sindhi Alphabet and Grammar.[15]

Vocabulary

Historically, the Sindh region suffered frequent invasions. Arabs under Mohammad bin Qasim conquered parts of Sindh and the region was Islamized gradually under the Sultanate of Delhi and later under the Mughal Empire until the British conquest in 1843. Hence, the Sindhi language borrowed many Arabic and Persian words. In spite of this, the basic vocabulary and grammatical structure of Sindhi has remained mostly unchanged.[16]

In addition, Sindhi has borrowed from English and Hindustani. 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.[17][18]

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 آھي.

Devanagari script: सिन्धी ॿोली इण्डो यूरपी ख़ान्दान सां ताल्लुक़ु रखन्दड़ आर्याई ॿोली आहे, जिंहन ते कुझ द्राविड़ी उहुञाण पण मौजूद आहिनि. हिन वक़्तु सिन्धी ॿोली सिन्ध जी मुख बोली ऐं दफ़्तरी ज़बान आहे.

Transliteration (IAST): sindhī b̤olī iṇḍo yūrapī ḵẖāndāna sā̃ taʿlluqu rakhandaṛ āryāī b̤olī āhe, jinhã te kujha drāviṛī uhuñāṇa paṇa maujūda āhini. hina vaqtu sindhī b̤olī sindha jī mukha b̤olī ãĩ daftarī zabānā āhe.

Writing system

Written Sindhi is mentioned in the 8th century, when references to a Sindhi version of the Mahabharata appear. However, the earliest attested records in Sindhi are from the 15th century.[19]

Before the standardisation of Sindhi orthography, numerous forms of the Devanagari and Lunda (Laṇḍā) scripts were used for trading. For literary and religious purposes, an Arabo-Persian alphabet known as Ab-ul-Hassan Sindhi and Gurmukhi (a subset of Laṇḍā) were used. Another two scripts, Khudabadi and Shikarpuri, were reforms of the Landa script.[20] During British rule in the late 19th century, a Persian alphabet was decreed standard over Devanagari.[21]

Medieval Sindhi devotional literature (1500–1843) comprises Sufi poetry and Advaita Vedanta poetry. Sindhi literature flourished during the modern period (since 1843), although 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 Persian and Arabic vocabulary, while those from the latter were highly influenced by Hindi.[22]

Laṇḍā scripts

Laṇḍā- based scripts, such as Gurmukhi, Khojki and the Khudabadi script were used historically to write Sindhi.

Khudabadi

Khudabadi
or Sindhi
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Sind (318), ​Khudawadi, Sindhi
Unicode
Unicode alias
Khudawadi
U+112B0–U+112FF

The Khudabadi alphabet was invented in 1550 CE, and was used alongside the Arabic script 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 in a smaller scale by the trader community until the independence of Pakistan in 1947.[23]

Chart of the Khudabadi Script
Chart of the Khudabadi Script

Khojiki

Khojiki was employed primarily to record Muslim Shia Ismaili religious literature, as well as literature for a few secret Shia Muslim sects.[24]

Gurmukhi

The Gurmukhi script was also used to write Sindhi, mainly in the North of Sindh, and also by Hindu women.[25][23]

Arabic script

Sindhi alphabet
ا ب ٻ ڀ پ ت ٿ ٽ ٺ ث ج ڄ جهہ ڃ چ ڇ ح خ د ڌ ڏ ڊ ڍ ذ ر ڙ ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ڦ ق ڪ ک گ ڳ گهہ ڱ ل م ن ڻ و ھ ء ي
Extended Perso-Arabic script

Historically, different versions of the Arabic script were used by the Hindu and Muslim communities.[26] During British rule in India, a variant of the Persian alphabet was adopted for Sindhi in the 19th century. The script is used in Pakistan today. 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
Sindhi alphabet with equivalent characters in English, Urdu and Hindi.

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 ॻ ग़ घ ङ
k kʰ x ɡ ɠ ɣ ɡʱ ŋ
च छ ज ॼ ज़ झ ञ
c cʰ ɟ ʄ z ɟʱ 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
ʃ ʂ s h

Gujarati script

The Gujarati script is used to write the Kutchi dialect in India.[27]

See also

References

  1. ^ Nationalencyklopedin "Världens 100 största språk 2007" The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007
  2. ^ "Script". Sindhilanguage.com.
  3. ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
  4. ^ Gulshan Majeed. "Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict in Pakistan" (PDF). Journal of Political Studies. Retrieved December 27, 2013.
  5. ^ "Sindhi". The Languages Gulper. Retrieved December 27, 2013.
  6. ^ "Encyclopædia Britannica". Sindhi Language. Retrieved December 29, 2013.
  7. ^ "Sindhi". The Languages Gulper. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
  8. ^ Naseer Memon (April 13, 2014). "The language link". The News on Sunday. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  9. ^ "Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved May 11, 2013.
  10. ^ "Sindhi alphabets, pronunciation and language". Omniglot.com.
  11. ^ The Sindhu World
  12. ^ Nihalani, Paroo. (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association (Sindhi). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  13. ^ Paroo Nihalani (December 1, 1995). "Illustration of the IPA - Sindhi". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. Retrieved April 19, 2014.
  14. ^ 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).
  15. ^ Ernest Trumpp (1872). "Grammar of the Sindhi Language". Google Books. Retrieved April 13, 2014.
  16. ^ "Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved May 11, 2013.
  17. ^ Cole (2001:652–653)
  18. ^ Khubchandani (2003:624–625)
  19. ^ "Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved May 11, 2013.
  20. ^ Khubchandani (2003:633)
  21. ^ Cole (2001:648)
  22. ^ "Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved May 11, 2013.
  23. ^ a b "Sindhi Language: Script". Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  24. ^ http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3978.pdf
  25. ^ http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n3871.pdf
  26. ^ p.14 Proposal to Encode the Sindhi Script in ISO/IEC 10646
  27. ^ http://www.omniglot.com/writing/gujarati.htm

Sources

For further reading:

  • Chopra, R. M., The Rise, Growth And Decline of Indo-Persian Literature, 2012, Iran Culture House, New Delhi, Chapter on"Persian in Sindh".
Sindhi edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Sindhi phrasebook.
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