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Sindhi language

Indo-Aryan language native to Sindh

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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 (c. 3300 – c. 1200 BCE), 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.

The language of Sind is different from that of India. Sind is the country which is nearer to the domains of the Muslims; India is farther from them.

— al-Masudi (c. 896–956 CE), The Meadows of Gold

The language of Mansúra, Multán, and those parts is Arabic and Sindian. In Makrán, they use Persian and Makranic.

— Ibn Hawqal, Surat Al-Ard (977 CE)

Additionally, the Korean Buddhist monk Hyech'o mentions the unique language of Sindh in his travelogue:

From Takka, I walked towards the West for another month and arrived at the country of Sindhukula. The dress, customs, climate, and temperature are similar to north India, although the language is slightly different.

— Hyech'o, Wang och'ŏnch'ukkuk chŏn (c. 723–728 CE)

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 (c. 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.

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