Sindhi language

Contemporary status

The Sindhi language and other native languages of Pakistan are struggling to be officially given the status of national language in Pakistan. Before the inception of Pakistan, Sindhi was the national language of Sindh. There are many Sindhi language television channels broadcasting in Pakistan such as KTN, Sindh TV, Awaz Television Network. Besides this, Indian television Doordarshan have been asked by the Indian court to start a news channel for Hindu Sindhis of India.

Sindhi Computing

Sindhi Computing is the term used for the Software developed for the Sindhi language, these software are intended for the users to read, write and learn Sindhi language online or offline.

Sindhi language Software

Sindhi language software such as Sindhi language keyboards have been developed for the Windows OS, Android smartphones. Various other online websites provide Sindhi keyboard such as (Keymanweb.org), M.B Sindhi keyboard by Majid Bhurgri. A software have been developed by the Sindhi Language Authority which will end the barrier between the Arabic-Sindhi script or Perso-Sindhi script and Devanagari Sindhi script; such software have also been developed by the Punjabi researchers at Punjabi University and Manchester University for the Sindhi.

Etymology

The name "Sindhi" is derived from Sindhu, the local name of the Indus River.

Significance

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.

History

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.

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.

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) and first published in Gujarat in 1870. The first to appear in print was by Muhammad Siddiq (Lahore 1867).

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. 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, so they 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. /ʋ/ is realized as labiovelar [w] or labiodental [ʋ] in free variation occurs, but is not common, except before a stop.

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'.

Grammar

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

Vocabulary

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.

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 عربي ٻوليءَ جو بہ تمام وڏو اثر آهي. 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 khāndān sā̃ taʿlluqu rakhandaṛ āryāī b̤olī āhe, janhin te arbi boli-a jo tamaam waddo asar-u aahe. hin-a vaqtu sindhī b̤olī sindh jī mukh b̤olī ãĩ daftarī zabānā āhe.

Dialects

The dialects of Sindhi include Vicholi, Lari, Lasi, Kathiawari Katchi, Thareli, Macharia, Dukslinu and Muslim Sindhi. The "Siraiki" dialect in northern Sindh is distinct from the Saraiki language of South Punjab and has variously been treated either as a dialect of it, or as a dialect of Sindhi. The Sindhi dialects previously known as "Siraiki" are nowadays more commonly referred to as "Siroli".

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.

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 Arabic-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. During British rule in the late 19th century, a Persian alphabet was decreed standard over Devanagari.

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.

Laṇḍā scripts

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

Khudabadi

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.

Khojiki

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

Gurmukhi

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

Arabic script

Historically, different versions of the Arabic script were used by the Hindu and Muslim communities. 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 64 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.

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.

Gujarati script

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

Roman Sindhi Script

The Sindhi-Roman script or Roman-Sindhi script is the contemporary Sindhi script usually used by the Sindhis during texting messages on their mobile phones. A Sindhi writer Haleem Brohi was the staunch advoacate of the Roman-Sindhi script and he also wrote book for that script.

Education

Indian Government has legislated Sindhi as a language of option and as medium of study in India, so that students can choose to learn Sindhi. Sindhi is an optional third language in the Indian states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Rajasthan Sindhi Academy has been set up for the promotion of Sindhi Language in Rajasthan.