Sindhi language

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Sindhi
सिन्धी سنڌي Sindhī
Spoken in: India, Pakistan. Also Hong Kong SAR, Oman, Philippines, Singapore, UAE, UK, USA 
Region: South Asia
Total speakers: 19.7 million 
Ranking: 47
Language family: Indo-European
 Indo-Iranian
  Indo-Aryan
   Northwestern Zone
    Sindhi 
Writing system: Arabic, Devanagari script 
Official status
Official language of: India, Pakistan
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: sd
ISO 639-2: snd
ISO/FDIS 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...

Sindhī (सिन्धी, سنڌي) 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 up signs of Dravidian influence, making it unique in its importance and identity. Most Sindhi speakers in Pakistan are concentrated in Sindh. The remaining speakers are found spread throughout the many areas of the world (mainly other parts of India) to which members of an ethnic group migrated when Sindh became a part of Pakistan during the partition of British India in 1947. The language is written using the modified Arabic script. In 1948, the Government of India implemented the Devanagari script for Sindhi that did not get wide acceptance.

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 [1] Sindhi language 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

Sindhi was a very popular literary language around the 14th-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.

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.

[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 Labiodental Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosives p
ph		 b
bɦ		 t
th		 d
dɦ		 ʈ
ʈh		 ɖ
ɖɦ		 k
kh		 g
gɦ
Implosives ɓ ɗ ʄ ɠ
Affricates c
ch		 ɟ
ɟɦ
Nasals m
mɦ		 n
nɦ		 ɳ
ɳɦ		 ɲ ŋ
Fricatives f s z ʂ x ɣ h
Taps and flaps r ɽ
ɽɦ
Approximants ʋ j
Lateral
approximants		 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

The vowel phonemes of Sindhi

[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, accommodating the additional sounds peculiar 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  ? 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 besides standard Sindhi-Arabic script. 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

[edit] References

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Nuristani Askunu | Kalasha-ala | Kamkata-viri | Tregami | Vasi-vari
Wikipedia
Sindhi language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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