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Sindhi language

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Sindhi
سنڌي , सिन्धी ,Sindhī
Spoken in Pakistan, India. Also Hong Kong, Oman, Philippines, Singapore, UAE, UK, USA, Afghanistan
Region South Asia
Total speakers 41 million
Ranking 23
Language family Indo-European
Writing system Arabic, Devanagari
Official status
Official language in Flag of Pakistan Sindh, Pakistan
Flag of India India
Regulated by Sindhi Language Authority (Pakistan)
Language codes
ISO 639-1 sd
ISO 639-2 snd
ISO 639-3 snd
Indic script
 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 Pakistan. It is spoken by approximately 18 million people in Pakistan, and is also spoken in India; it is the third most spoken language of Pakistan, and the official language of Sindh in Pakistan. It is also an official language of India. 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, 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 to migrate to the Hindu-majority India, during the time of the independence of Pakistan in 1947.

The language is written in Devanagari script by Sindhi Hindus; however, with the Arab invasion of Sindh and the conversion of most Sindhis to Islam, a modified Arabic script was produced.[1] After the independence of both Pakistan and India from British rule, the government of India introduced Devanagari, alongside the official Arabic script, for writing Sindhi. [1]

Contents

[edit] Geographical distribution

Sindhi is taught as a first language in the schools of Sindh and as a second language in Balochistan in Pakistan.

In India, especially in the states of Maharashtra & Gujarat, in 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 in India (in the Rajasthan state).

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 Khudabadi Script (later known asVanika 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 1750, 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 Hindu 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.

[edit] Arabic Influence

The Sindhi language contains Arabic loanwords as a result of the fact that Arabs ruled Sindh for more than 150 years. Muhammad bin Qasim entered Sindh and conquered it in 712 AD. He remained there for three years and governed the area.

According to Sindhi tradition, the first translation of the Quraan into Sindhi was made by in 270/883 by an Arab scholar. The first extant 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 Siddlq (Lahore 1867).

[edit] Basic Phrases

  • Keeyen aahyo?- "how are you?" (general greeting)
  • Aaon/Maa theek aahiyan - "Very well".
  • Allah Saen jo meherbani - "By the grace of God".
  • Tawhanjo naalo cha aahaye - "What is your name?"
  • Munhenjo naalo ______ aahaye. - "My name is _____."
  • Tawhan ker aahayo - "Who are you?"
  • Meherbani - "Thank you"
  • Tahan jee Meherbani - "Please"
  • Ha - "Yes"
  • Na - "No"
  • Keeyen ahyo/Kehra haal aahin - "How are you?"
  • Aaon/Maa teekh ahyaan - "I'm fine"
  • Allah wahi - "Goodbye" (used to end a conversation by Muslim Sindhis)
  • Theekh aahe- "Okay" (used to end a conversation by Hindu Sindhis)
  • Hik - "One"
  • Ba - "Two"
  • Tey - "Three"
  • Aaon/Maa Sindh jo aahya/ Aaon/Maa Sindh man ahyaa - "I am from Sindh"
  • Aaon/Maa musulman aahyan / hindhu aahyan - "I am Muslim / Hindu"
  • Aaon/Maa Sindhi aahya / Assin Sindhi aahyon - "I am Sindhi" / "We are Sindhis"
  • Allah Hafiz - "God protect you"
  • "tokhe cha khape'-"what do you want"
  • "chup kare ve-"keep quiet"
  • Jeay Sindh- "Long Live Sindh"

[edit] Sounds

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.

[edit] Consonants

Labial (Denti-)
Alveolar		 Retroflex Palatoalveolar
/ Palatal		 Velar Glottal
Nasal m
mʱ		 n
nʱ		 ɳ
ɳʱ		 ɲ ŋ
Plosives and
affricates		 p
pʰ		 b
bʱ		 t̪
t̪ʰ		 d̪
d̪ʱ		 ʈ
ʈʰ		 ɖ
ɖʱ		 t̠ɕ
t̠ɕʰ		 d̠ʑ
d̠ʑʱ		 k
kʰ		 g
gʱ
Implosives ɓ ɗ    ʄ ~ jˀ ɠ
Fricatives f   s z ʂ x ɣ h[citation needed]  
Taps r ɽ
ɽʱ
Approximants 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.[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 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'.

[edit] Writing system

[edit] Arabic Script

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.

جھ ڄ ج پ ث ٺ ٽ ٿ ت ڀ ٻ ب ا
ɟʱ ʄ ɟ p s ʈʰ ʈ tʰ t bʱ ɓ b *
ڙ ر ذ ڍ ڊ ڏ ڌ د خ ح ڇ چ ڃ
ɽ r z ɖʱ ɖ ɗ dʱ d x h cʰ c ɲ
ق ڦ ف غ ع ظ ط ض ص ش س ز ڙھ
k pʰ f ɣ ∅ z t z s 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

[edit] Devanagari Script

In India, the Devanagari script is used to write Sindhi. It was re-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.

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

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://yangtze.cs.uiuc.edu/~jamali/sindh/sammelan/04.html
  2. ^ The Sindhu World
  3. ^ 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).

[edit] External links

Wikipedia
Sindhi language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] Sources

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