Sindhi ( ;Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh or , ) is an Indo-Aryan language. It is the official language of the Pakistani province of Sindh. It is also an official scheduled language in India. Sindhi is written in the Perso-Arabic script in Pakistan and both the Perso-Arabic and Devanagari scripts in India.
Sindhi is an inflected language, with five cases for noun, three for personal pronoun, four for third-person pronoun; eleven case markers; two genders (masculine, feminine); and two numbers (singular, plural).
Sindh was one of the first regions in the Indian subcontinent to encounter influence from Persian and Arabic following the Umayyad conquest in 712 AD. A substantial body of Sindhi literature subsequently developed, the most famous of which is the religious and mystic poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai from the 18th century. Modern Sindhi was promoted under British rule beginning in 1843. The current regulatory agency for the development and promotion of the language in Sindh is the Sindhi Language Authority.
It is spoken by more than 34 million people in Pakistan and by 2.7 million people in India.
History The name "Sindhi" is derived from the Sanskrit síndhu, the original name of the Indus River, along whose delta Sindhi is spoken. In the Bronze Age (), the primary language of this region was likely the Harappan language, but no records exist indicating when or how that language was replaced by the Indo-Aryan languages.
Like other languages of the Indo-Aryan family, Sindhi is descended from Old Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit) via Middle Indo-Aryan (Pali, secondary Prakrits, and Apabhramsha). 20th century Western scholars such as George Abraham Grierson believed that Sindhi descended specifically from the Vrācaḍa dialect of Apabhramsha (described by Markandeya as being spoken in Sindhu-deśa, corresponding to modern Sindh) but later work has shown this to be unclear.
The sound changes that characterise the development of Sindhi from Middle Indo-Aryan are: Development of implosives from geminate and initial stops (e.g. g-, -gg > ɠ); this is a highly distinctive sound change in NIA Shortening of geminates (e.g. MIA akkhi > Sindhi akhi "eye") Voicing of post-nasal consonants (e.g. MIA danta > Sindhi ɗ̣andu "tooth") Debuccalization of intervocalic -s- > -h- Intervocalic -l- > -r- (likely via intermediate retroflex -ḷ-), -ll- > -l-, -ḍ- > -ṛ- Fronting of r from medial clusters to initial (e.g. OIA dīrgha > Sindhi ḍrigho "long")
Additionally, the following retentions distinguish Sindhi from other New Indo-Aryan languages: Retention of MIA -ṇ- Retention of final short vowels -a, -i, -u, but also insertion of these into loanwords Retention of long vowels before geminates (more archaic than e.g. Prakrit) Retention of stop + r clusters but with retroflexion, e.g. tr- > ṭr- Retention of v- Literary attestation of early Sindhi is sparse. Historically, Isma'ili religious literature and poetry in India, as old as the 11th century CE, used a language that was closely related to Sindhi and Gujarati; at this point, Sindhi was not clearly established as an independent literary language. Much of this work is in the form of ginans (a kind of devotional hymn).
Sindhi was the first Indo-Aryan language to be in close contact with Arabic and Persian following the Umayyad conquest of Sindh in 712 CE. Arabic sources thus do mention the language of Sindh in various instances. The following excerpts are translated from The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians by Henry Miers Elliot.
Additionally, the Korean Buddhist monk Hyech'o mentions the unique language of Sindh in his travelogue:
Medieval Sindhi literature is of a primarily religious genre, comprising a syncretic Sufi and Advaita Vedanta poetry, the latter in the devotional bhakti tradition. The format of this poetry is the bayt, indicating significant influence from Arabic and Persian. The earliest known Sindhi poet of the Sufi tradition is Qazi Qadan (1493–1551). Other early poets were Shah Inat Rizvi ( 1613–1701) and Shah Abdul Karim Bulri (1538–1623). These poets had a mystical bent that profoundly influenced Sindhi poetry for much of this period.
Another famous part of Medieval Sindhi literature is a wealth of Sindhi folktales, adapted and readapted into verse by many bards at various times and possibly much older than their earliest literary attestations. These include romantic epics such as Sassui Punnhun, Sohni Mahiwal, Momal Rano, Noori Jam Tamachi, Lilan Chanesar, and others.
The greatest poet of Sindhi was Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai (1689/1690–1752), whose verses were compiled into the Shah Jo Risalo by his followers. While primarily Sufi, his verses also recount traditional Sindhi folktales and aspects of the cultural history of Sindh.
The first attested Sindhi translation of the Quran was done by Akhund Azizullah Muttalawi (1747–1824) and published in Gujarat in 1870. The first to appear in print was by Muhammad Siddiq in 1867.
British India
In 1843, the conquest of Sindh by the British East India Company led the region to become part of the Bombay Presidency. Soon after, in 1848, Governor George Clerk established Sindhi as the official language in the province, removing the literary dominance of Persian. Sir Bartle Frere, the then commissioner of Sindh, issued orders on August 29, 1857, advising civil servants in Sindh to pass an examination in Sindhi. He also ordered the use of Sindhi in official documents. In 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. The granting of official status of Sindhi along with script reforms ushered in the development of modern Sindhi literature.
The first printed works in Sindhi were produced at the Muhammadi Press in Bombay beginning in 1867. These included Islamic stories set in verse by Muhammad Hashim Thattvi, one of the renowned religious scholars of Sindh.
Independent Pakistan and India The partition of India in 1947 resulted in most Sindhi speakers ending up in the new state of Pakistan, commencing a push to establish a strong sub-national linguistic identity for Sindhi. This manifested in resistance to the imposition of Urdu and eventually Sindhi nationalism in the 1980s.
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 Urdu, while those from the latter were highly influenced by Hindi.
Geographical distribution Sindhi is the official language of the Pakistani province of Sindh and one of the scheduled languages in the constitution of India.
Sindhi is additionally spoken by many members of the Sindhi diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Oman, Singapore, UAE, USA and UK.
Pakistan In Pakistan, Sindhi is the first language of 34.40 million people, or % of the country's population as of the 2023 census. 33.46 million of these are found in Sindh, where they account for % of the total population of the province. There are 0.55 million speakers in the province of Balochistan, especially in the Kacchi Plain.
+2023 Census StatisticsStatePopulation 34,401,56433,462,299555,198352,68621,36210,019
The Sindh Assembly has ordered compulsory teaching of the Sindhi language in all private schools in Sindh. According to the Sindh Private Educational Institutions Form B (Regulations and Control) 2005 Rules, "All educational institutions are required to teach children the Sindhi language. Sindh Education and Literacy Minister, Syed Sardar Ali Shah, and Secretary of School Education, Qazi Shahid Pervaiz, have ordered the employment of Sindhi teachers in all private schools in Sindh so that this language can be easily and widely taught. Sindhi is taught in all provincial private schools that follow the matric system and not the ones that follow the Cambridge system.
At the occasion of 'Mother Language Day' in 2023, the Sindh Assembly under Culture minister Sardar Ali Shah, passed a unanimous resolution to extend the use of language to the primary level, and to increase the status of Sindhi as a national language of Pakistan.
Many Sindhi-language television channels are broadcasting in Pakistan, such as Time News, KTN, Sindh TV, Awaz Television Network, Mehran TV, and Dharti TV.
India
The Indian government has legislated Sindhi as a scheduled language in India, making it an option for education. Despite lacking any state-level status, Sindhi is still a prominent minority language in the Indian states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. In India, Sindhi mother tongue speakers were distributed in the following states:
+2011 Census StatisticsStatePopulation 2,772,264Gujarat1,184,024Maharashtra723,748Rajasthan386,569Madhya Pradesh245,161Chhattisgarh93,424Delhi (NCT)31,177Uttar Pradesh28,952Assam19,646Karnataka16,954Andhra Pradesh11,299Tamil Nadu8,448West Bengal7,828Uttarakhand2,863Odisha2,338Bihar2,227Jharkhand1,701Haryana1,658Kerala1,251Punjab754Goa656Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu894Meghalaya236Chandigarh134Puducherry94Nagaland82Himachal Pradesh62Tripura30Jammu and Kashmir19Andaman and Nicobar Islands14Arunachal Pradesh12Lakshadweep7Sikkim2
Sindhi diaspora In Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore (where Sindhi has no official status), ethnic Sindhis are largely shifting to English as their first language, excepting some monolingual first-generation immigrants and second-generation speakers who use Sindhi at home. Codeswitching of varying degrees is observed in some speakers, usually with English but also with Malay and Indonesian. Similar shift to English is found in the smaller Hong Kong Sindhi community.
Sindhi speakers by country
CountryPopulation 34,401,564 2,772,264 102,000 6,299 5,315 3,971
Dialects
Sindhi has many dialects, and forms a dialect continuum at some places with neighboring languages such as Saraiki to the north and Gujarati to the south, but not with Marwari to the east. Some of the documented dialects of Sindhi are:
Vicholi: The prestige dialect spoken around Hyderabad and central Sindh (the Vicholo region), on which the literary standard is based. Uttaradi: The dialect of northern Sindh (Uttaru, meaning "north"), with minor differences in Larkana, Shikarpur and in parts of Sukkur and Kandiaro. Lari: The dialect of southern Sindh (Lāṛu) spoken around areas like Karachi, Thatta, Sujawal, Tando Muhammad Khan and Badin districts. Siroli (also Siraiki, Ubheji): The dialect of northernmost Sindh (Siro, meaning "head"). Spoken in smaller number all over Sindh but mainly in Jacobabad and Kashmore districts, it may be transitional with the Saraiki language of southern Punjab and has variously been treated either as a dialect of Saraiki or as a dialect of Sindhi. Lasi: The dialect of Lasbela, Hub and Gwadar districts in Balochistan, closely related to Lari and Vicholi, and in contact with Balochi. Firaqi: The dialect of the Kachhi plains the north eastern districts of Balochistan, where it is referred to as Firaqi Sindhi or commonly just Sindhi. Thareli (also Tharechi): Spoken in the northeastern Thar desert of Sindh, but mainly spoken in the western part of Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan, India by many Sindhi Muslims. Sindhi Bhili: Spoken in Sindh by the Sindhi Meghwars and Bhils.
Furthermore, Kutchi and Jadgali are sometimes classified as dialects of Sindhi rather than independent languages.
+Sindhi dialects ComparisonEnglishVicholi Lari UttaradiLasi KutchiIAao(n)Aao(n)Mā(n)ÃAau(n)MyMuhnjoMujoMānjo/MāhjoMojo/MājoMujoYou "Sin, plu" (formal)Awha(n)/Awhee(n) Tawha(n)/Tawhee(n)Aa(n)/Aei(n)Taha(n)/Taa(n)/