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Sindhi Language and Script
Sindhi Language and Script
‘Sindh’ is situated in Indus Valley on the southern banks of Indus river. At present, the entire Sindh province is part of Pakistan. However, Sindhi language is spoken outside Sindh in many countries like India and some countries in Far East, Middle East and in other parts of world wherever Sindhis have settled in large numbers, before and after the partition of India.
Sindhi, like many other Indian languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali is an Indo-Aryan language, having its origin in Sanskrit. The generally held view is that Sindhi has descended from the Vracade Apabhramsa form of Prakrit.
Dr. Ernest Trumpp, in his ‘Grammar of Sindhi language’ (Leipzg 1872) writes “The Sindhi is pure Sanskritical language more free from foreign elements than any other of the North Indian Vernaculars.”
Sindhi has six dialects viz., Sireli (area of upper Sindh), Vicholi (area of central Sindh), Lari (area of south Sindh), Thari (area of Tharparker, adjoining Rajasthan), Lasi (area of Las Belo, bordering Baluchistan), and Kutchi (area of Kutch in India).
Sindh was conquered by the British in 1843. At that time there were four main scripts in vogue for Sindhi language – Devanagiri, Hatwanki, Gurmukhi and Persio-Arabic. British Government adopted and standardized Persio-Arabic script for Sindhi in 1853 for all educational as well as administrative purposes. Today this script is called ‘Sindhi Script’ or ‘Arabic Sindhi’ script. It is written from right to left.
Sindhi has many distinct features of sound system, grammar and vocabulary. Sindhi language gas four implosive sounds like ٻ ḇ, ڏ ḏ, ڳـ g̱, ڄ j̱ (which are non existent in other indian languages). It has four fricatives ف f, ز z, خ ḳh, غ ǵ. It has five nasal sounds ن n, ڱ ñ, ڃ ṉ, ڻ ṇ, م m; all of are significant and capable to distinguish the meaning. Like Sanskrit, Sindhi is a vowel ending language. In which mazimum numbers of words end with a vowel. The occurrence of extra short vowel (a, i, u) i.e., at the end of the word is a distinct feature of Sindhi sound system. Sindhi grammar has a peculiarity of pronominal construction i.e., to use pronominal suffix in place of pronoun. e.g موُن کاڌو 'mūN khādho' (I ate), could be said as کاڌم 'khādhumi' (I ate). Here, the pronoun موُن 'mūN' (I) is dropped by adding suffix ‘um’ to the verb root ‘khadh’ (to eat). From the point of view of vocabulary, Sindhi is quite a rich language as it contains words not only of its source language (Sanskrit), but also very large number of words originating from Persian and Arabic. Some of the words of Dardic and Dravidian languages are also found in Sindhi language.
Thus Sindhi language is one of the important modern Indian languages. Recognizing its importance, it has been included in the Constitution of India, as one of the national languages of India by amending the Constitution of India on 10th April 1967. Sindhi language is spoken by more than 20 million people in Sindh as well in India and other parts of the world.
Captain George Stack has a high opinion for Sindhi language. He says, “I was hitherto proud of the English language as I considered it to be more beautiful and a very copious language in the world, but it was really vain of me. When I learnt Sindhi, I found reduplicated causal verbs and other points that gave to Sindhi a beauty distinct from most Indian languages.”
Learn Sindhi Language and Script of Sindhi Language, Sindhi Boli, Sindhi Bhasha, سنڌي ٻولي, सिंधी भाषा,سنڌي سکو
Sindhi Language and Script
‘Sindh’ is situated in Indus Valley on the southern banks of Indus river. At present, the entire Sindh province is part of Pakistan. However, Sindhi language is spoken outside Sindh in many countries like India and some countries in Far East, Middle East and in other parts of world wherever Sindhis have settled in large numbers, before and after the partition of India.
Sindhi, like many other Indian languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali is an Indo-Aryan language, having its origin in Sanskrit. The generally held view is that Sindhi has descended from the Vracade Apabhramsa form of Prakrit.
Dr. Ernest Trumpp, in his ‘Grammar of Sindhi language’ (Leipzg 1872) writes “The Sindhi is pure Sanskritical language more free from foreign elements than any other of the North Indian Vernaculars.”
Sindhi has six dialects viz., Sireli (area of upper Sindh), Vicholi (area of central Sindh), Lari (area of south Sindh), Thari (area of Tharparker, adjoining Rajasthan), Lasi (area of Las Belo, bordering Baluchistan), and Kutchi (area of Kutch in India).
Sindh was conquered by the British in 1843. At that time there were four main scripts in vogue for Sindhi language – Devanagiri, Hatwanki, Gurmukhi and Persio-Arabic. British Government adopted and standardized Persio-Arabic script for Sindhi in 1853 for all educational as well as administrative purposes. Today this script is called ‘Sindhi Script’ or ‘Arabic Sindhi’ script. It is written from right to left.
Sindhi has many distinct features of sound system, grammar and vocabulary. Sindhi language gas four implosive sounds like ٻ ḇ, ڏ ḏ, ڳـ g̱, ڄ j̱ (which are non existent in other indian languages). It has four fricatives ف f, ز z, خ ḳh, غ ǵ. It has five nasal sounds ن n, ڱ ñ, ڃ ṉ, ڻ ṇ, م m; all of are significant and capable to distinguish the meaning. Like Sanskrit, Sindhi is a vowel ending language. In which mazimum numbers of words end with a vowel. The occurrence of extra short vowel (a, i, u) i.e., at the end of the word is a distinct feature of Sindhi sound system. Sindhi grammar has a peculiarity of pronominal construction i.e., to use pronominal suffix in place of pronoun. e.g موُن کاڌو 'mūN khādho' (I ate), could be said as کاڌم 'khādhumi' (I ate). Here, the pronoun موُن 'mūN' (I) is dropped by adding suffix ‘um’ to the verb root ‘khadh’ (to eat). From the point of view of vocabulary, Sindhi is quite a rich language as it contains words not only of its source language (Sanskrit), but also very large number of words originating from Persian and Arabic. Some of the words of Dardic and Dravidian languages are also found in Sindhi language.
Thus Sindhi language is one of the important modern Indian languages. Recognizing its importance, it has been included in the Constitution of India, as one of the national languages of India by amending the Constitution of India on 10th April 1967. Sindhi language is spoken by more than 20 million people in Sindh as well in India and other parts of the world.
Captain George Stack has a high opinion for Sindhi language. He says, “I was hitherto proud of the English language as I considered it to be more beautiful and a very copious language in the world, but it was really vain of me. When I learnt Sindhi, I found reduplicated causal verbs and other points that gave to Sindhi a beauty distinct from most Indian languages.”