Pakistani languages (Sindhi)

Sindhi (Arabic script: سنڌي, Devanagari script: सिन्धी, Sindhī) is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan. It is spoken by approximately 18 million people inPakistan, and is also spoken in India; it is the third most spoken language ofPakistan, and the official language of Sindh in Pakistan. It is also an official language of India. The government of Pakistan issues national identity cards to its citizens only in two languages, Sindhi and Urdu.

It is an Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family, though 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 to migrate to the Hindu-majority India, during the time of the independence of Pakistan in 1947.

The language is written in Devanagari script by Sindhi Hindus; however, with the Arab invasion of Sindh and the conversion of most Sindhis to Islam, a modified Arabic script was produced.^[1] After the independence of bothPakistan and India from British rule, the government of India introducedDevanagari, alongside the official Arabic script, for writing Sindhi.

Geographical distribution:

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

In India, especially in the states of Maharashtra & Gujarat, in 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, Northwestprovince of Pakistan (NWFP), and also Gujarat, as well as in India (in theRajasthan state).

States of India by Sindhi speakers

History:

The immediate predecessor of Sindhi was an Apabhramsha Prakrit namedVrachada. 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 three different scripts -- Ardhanagari, Saindhu and Malwari, all variations of Devanagari. Biruni has described many Sindhi words leading to the conclusion that the Sindhi language was widely spoken and rich in vocabulary in his time.

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 theosophicalpoetry depicting the relationship between humans and God.

During the British period, traders and common people—including Khojas andMemons -- were using Devanagari, Modi or Khudabadi Script (later known asVanika script)s, without any vowels for writing Sindhi, while government employees used some kind of Arabic script.

In 1849 the first English-Sindhi dictionary was written in the Devanagari script.

Arabic Influence:

The Sindhi language contains Arabic loanwords as a result of the fact that Arabs ruled Sindh for more than 150 years. Muhammad bin Qasim entered Sindh and conquered it in 712 AD. He remained there for three years and governed the area.

According to Sindhi tradition, the first translation of the Quraan into Sindhi was made by in 270/883 by an Arab scholar. The first extant Sindhi translation was done by Akhund 'Azaz Allah Mutta'lawi (1160-124011747-1824) and first published in Gujrat in 1870. The first to appear in print was by Muhammad Siddlq (Lahore1867).