Sindhi language

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Sindhi
سنڌي सिन्धी Sindhī
Spoken in: Pakistan, India. Also Hong Kong, Oman, Philippines, Singapore, UAE, UK, USA 
Region: South Asia
Total speakers: 21.3 million 
Ranking: 47
Language family: Indo-European
 Indo-Iranian
  Indo-Aryan
   Northwestern Zone
    Sindhi 
Writing system: Arabic, Devanagari 
Official status
Official language in: India, Pakistan (Provincial Language)
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: sd
ISO 639-2: snd
ISO 639-3: snd
Image:Example.of.complex.text.rendering.svg
This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Sindhī (Arabic script: سنڌي, Devanagari script: सिन्धी) is the language of the Sindh region of South Asia, which is now a province of Pakistan. It is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 18.5 million people in Pakistan, and 2.8 million in India; it is also a recognised official language in both of these countries. Although the language is predominantly Indo-Aryan, it also shows signs of 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 partition of British India in 1947. The language was once written in Devanagari; however, with the mediation of the British East India Company, a modified Arabic script was produced. [1] After the partition, the Government of India introduced Devanagari, alongside the modified Arabic, for writing Sindhi. [2]

Contents

[edit] Geographical distribution

Sindhi is taught as a first language in the schools of south-east Pakistan. In India, especially in the State of Maharashtra, 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 [3]. 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.

[edit] History

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 different scripts. Biruni has described many Sindhi words leading to the conclusion that the Sindhi language was widely spoken and rich in vocabulary in his time.

The Qur'an was first translated into Sindhi in rhymatic format. This was the first ever translation of Qur'an in the 12th century or earlier.

Sindhi was a very popular literary language between the 14th and 18th centuries. This is when sufis such as Shah Abdul Latif (as well as numerous others) narrated their theosophical poetry depicting the relationship between humans and God.

[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

Bilabial Labio-
dental 		Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m
mʱ 		n
nʱ 		ɳ
ɳʱ 		ɲ ŋ
Plosive p
pʰ 		b
bʱ 		t
tʰ 		d
dʱ 		ʈ
ʈʰ 		ɖ
ɖʱ 		k
kʰ 		g
gʱ
Implosive ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ
Affricate c
cʰ 		ɟ
ɟʱ
Fricative f s z ʂ x ɣ h
Tap r ɽ
ɽʱ
Approximant ʋ j
Lateral l
lʱ

The phoneme /r/ is usually pronounced as an alveolar tap, [ɾ], though occasionally reminiscent of a trill with two or more contacts. The affricates /c, cʰ, ɟ, ɟʱ/ are pronounced with a relatively short release and corresponding plosives symbols have therefore been used. /ʋ/ can be realized as either [w] or [ʋ] with free variation.

[edit] Vowels

Image:Sindhi vowel chart.png

[edit] Writing system

[edit] Arabic

In Pakistan, Sindhi is written in a variant of the Arabic script, 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 Arabic with five letters for the additional sounds particular to Indo-Aryan languages. Some letters that are distinguished in Arabic are pronounced identically 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

In India, the Devanagari script is also used. It was introduced by the Government of India in 1948; however, it did not gain full acceptance, so both the Sindhi-Arabic Devanagari are used [4]. 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

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Sindhi language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] References

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br:Sindeg

bg:Синдхи ca:Sindhi da:Sindhi de:Sindhi es:Idioma sindhi eo:Sinda lingvo fr:Sindhi ko:신디어 hi:सिंधी भाषा id:Bahasa Sindhi ka:სინდური ენა nl:Sindhi ja:シンド語 no:Sindhi (språk) pl:Sindhi pt:Língua sindi ru:Синдхи (язык) sd:سنڌي ٻولي fi:Sindhi sv:Sindhi ta:சிந்தி மொழி th:ภาษาสินธี tr:Sindhî ur:سندھی زبان zh:信德语

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