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Sindhi language

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error: ISO 639 code is required (help) Sindhi (Arabic script: سنڌي, Devanagari script: सिन्धी, Sindhī) is the language of the Sindh region of South Asia, which is a province of Pakistan. It is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 41 million people in Pakistan, and 12 million in India; it is the second most spoken language of Pakistan, a recognized official language in Pakistan and also an official language in India. Government of Pakistan issues National Identity Cards to its citizens only in two languages, i.e. Sindhi and Urdu. Although the language is predominantly Indo-Aryan, 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 during the Independence of Pakistan in 1947. The language is written in Devanagari script by Sindhi Hindus; however, with the conversion of most Sindhis to Islam, a modified Arabic script was produced.[1] After the independence of both India and Pakistan from British rule, the Government of India introduced Devanagari, alongside the modified Arabic, for writing Sindhi. [1]

Geographical distribution

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

See also: States of India by Sindhi speakers

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, Sachal Sarmast,Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (as well as numerous others) narrated their theosophical poetry depicting the relationship between humans and God.

Sindhi Culture is estimated to be about 4108 years old; When Mohenjo Daro ("Mound of the Dead", an ancient city of the Indus Valley civilization) was dug out, a statue was found covered in Ajrak, which is one of the symbols of Sindhi culture.

Basic Phrases

  • Keeyen aahyo?- "how are you?" (general greeting)
  • Ma theek aahiyan - "Very well".
  • Meherbani - "Thank you"
  • Meherbani karay - "Please"
  • Ha - "Yes"
  • Nain - "No"
  • Kee ahyo/khiya haye - "How are you?"
  • Maa teekh ahyaan - "I'm fine"
  • Allah wahi - "Goodbye" (used to end a conversation by Muslim Sindhis)
  • Teekhaih- "Goodbye" (used to end a conversation by Hindu Sindhis)
  • Teenjho naalo cha aahaye - "What's your name?"
  • Meenhjo naalo ______ aahaye. - "My name is _____."
  • Hik - "One"
  • Ba - "Two"
  • Tay - "Three"
  • Maa Sindh jo aahya/ Maa Sindh maa ahyaa - "I am from Sindh"
  • Maa musulman / hindhu aahya - "I am Muslim / Hindu"
  • Maa Sindhi aahya / Assin Sindhi aahyoo - "I am Sindhi" / "We are Sindhis"
  • Allah Wahi - "God bless you"
  • Tayi ghalat aahiyo - "you are wrong"

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.

Consonants

Bilabial Labio-
dental 		Dental Alveolar Post-
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 ~ jˀ ɠ
Affricate t̠ɕ
t̠ɕʰ 		d̠ʑ
d̠ʑʱ
Fricative f   s z ʂ x ɣ h  
Tap r ɽ
ɽʱ
Approximant ʋ j
Lateral l
lʱ

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 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 [w] or [ʋ] in free variation. /n/ occurs, but is not common, except before a stop (/nd/ etc).

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'.

Writing system

Arabic

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

Devanagari

In India, the Devanagari script is used. It was 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 AMEERDDIN

See also

External links

Sindhi edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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).

Sources

  • International Phonetic Association (1999) Handbook of the International Phonetic Association ISBN 0-521-63751-1
  • Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996). The Sounds of the World's Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-19815-6.
  • Sindhi Alphabet with example words
  • Sindhi Alphabet with Devanagari equivalents
  • [3]
  • M. Qasim Bughio, The Diachronic Sociolinguistic Situation in Sindh in Web Journal on Cultural Patrimony (Fabio Maniscalco ed.), vol. 1, January-June 2006
  • Trumpp P., Grammar of the Sindhi Language, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück, Reprinted in 1970 (original edition 1872)
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