Tag Archives: سنڌي ٻولي

Sindhi turns out to be second language of Pakistan

Sindhi remains the second-most widely spoken language in Pakistan, according to MoveHub, a website for people looking to move abroad.

To facilitate people thinking of moving abroad, the website has come up with a map of the world where the names of countries are replaced with their ‘second languages’. While in most cases this shows the effects of colonialism and cultural imperialism, in the case of Pakistan, it reflects post-independence policymaking.

Sindhi is a regional language spoken which is not widely spoken outside of Sindh province, somewhat similar to Punjabi – the first language – which is mostly used in Punjab province.

Incidentally, Pakistan is one of the few countries where the official language is not the first or even the second language. The official language is Urdu.

Pakistan’s regional languages face looming extinction

An Indo-Aryan language, Sindhi is spoken in both India and Pakistan, with some 75 million native speakers around the world. It is the official language of Sindh province of Pakistan and is recognised by India as one of its scheduled languages.

Read more » The Express Tribune
See more >> https://tribune.com.pk/story/1324502/sindhi-turns-second-language-pakistan/

Dialects of Sindhi language

These are the major dialects of Sindhi Language. The language is the same but their is a slight difference in words or way of speaking. Their are several other dialects of Sindhi language too (like Memoni) but they are not spoken by a big population.

Futher information about the Dialects:

1. Laasi – It is spoken by around 1 million people in Parts of Lasbela, Balochistan and Sindh.

2. Larri – It is spoken by over 2 million people, in Thatto, Sujawal and Tando.

3. Kutchhi, it is spoken by around 2 million people in Pakistan and 2 million in India too. Their is a hug Kutchhi population in Karachi, Sindh. The language bears more grammatical similarity with Sindhi and lexical similarity with Gujarati.

4. Thari or Thareli or (Ddaaddki): it is language of the people of Thar. Spoken on both side of border by over 6-7 million. It is a bit influenced by Rajasthani languages.

5. Vicholi: It is spoken by a huge population of Sindhis. It is spoken mostly in Hyderabad region. Over 11 million people speak this dialect.

6. Siroli: It is spoken by a large Number of people in Upper Sindh, Larkano and Sukkur region, but also in parts of Balochistan and RahimYarKhan (Punjab). It is influenced by Seraiki. It is spoke by over 11 million people. In Balochistan it is known as Firaqi Sindhi, with around 1 million speakers.

* In Karachi the situation is different and Sindhi is more influenced by Urdu, and all dialects mix up. While in rural Karachi people usually speak Laasi or Larri. The total number of Sindhi speakers worldwide is impossible to know as Census of Pakistan and India are politically influenced. According to famous Pakistani demographers the population of Sindh is usually 15-20% shown lesser than it actually is. The total number of Sindhis worldwide is over 40 million, out of which 80% live in Sindh, Pakistan. All the Memon’s and even those that came in 1947 are actually Sindhis by ancestry, their origin is from Thatto. Sindhis in India make up around 6-7 million of the population and while Sindhis in other countries make up around 1.5 million to 2 million, out of which 60% are Indian, and remaining Pakistani Diaspora, but the Pakistani Sindhi diaspora is growing at a faster rate*

Courtesy: Source of above material: Explore the Beauty of Sindh

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Other than that there are some more branches of the Dialects of Sindhi language

1- Lahinda لهندا معنا اولهندي واري زبان
2- Saraiki/ Jatki سرائڪي يا جتڪي
3- Kaytranni ڪيتراڻي جا لهندا سان مشابهت رکي ٿي
4- Ubhee اُڀي
5- Thareli/ ddaddki ٿريلي يا ڍاڍڪي
6- Mokakee موڪاڪي
7- Lorree chienee لوڙي چيني
8- Jadghhalee جدغالي
Reference: Janat-ul-Sindh book ريفرينس جنت السنڌ ڪتاب
Source: https://iaob.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/dialects-of-sindhi-language/

What is the original script of the Sindhi language: Devanagari or Arabic?

Today we write Sindhi in Arabic script, but is it true that the original script of Sindhi is Devanagari?

 

Answer:

By Arvind Iyengar, Professional Student in Linguistics

The short answer is: There is no clear answer to this question.

The answer to your question also depends on when you think the Sindhī language came into being, since languages change at a rapid rate.

The language of Shāh ʿAbdul Latīf Bhiṭṭāī (1689 – 1752 AD), the ‘national poet’ of Sindh, might be quite difficult to understand for a speaker of modern Sindhī. Therefore, can Shāh Latīf’s language be considered Sindhī?

That said, those driven by linguistic pride often claim (usually without proof) that the yet unknown language of the Indus Valley Civilisation was actually Sindhī, and therefore, the script used on the Indus Valley seals must be the original Sindhī script (even though no one knows what the symbols mean).

On similar lines, there might be those who claim that (depending on their ideology) either Arabic or Devanāgarī is the original script of Sindhī, again usually without proof.

A Sindhī translation of the Qurʾān and of the Mahābhārata are believed to have existed as far back as the 11th century (assuming of course that one can safely call this language Sindhī). Whether these were written in a Brāhmī-based script or an Arabic-based script is not clearly known (Brāhmī is the ancestor of the modern Devanāgarī script).

By the early 1800s, it has been attested by several authors, both Indian and European, that there were several different scripts in use for Sindhī, including Haṭavāṇikā (or Kẖudābādī), Gurmukhī and of course Devanāgarī and Arabic.

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