Sindhi Language: A River, a Literary Tradition, and Many Scripts
A translation of the Qur’an dated to 883 CE provides the earliest written evidence of Sindhi, a language spoken along the Indus River and across the historic region of Sindh. Today, Sindhi is primarily associated with the Sindhi people of Pakistan’s Sindh province, where it has official status. It is also spoken in India and by Sindhi communities in countries including Malaysia, Oman, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
Sindhi belongs to the Northwestern branch of the Indo-Aryan languages, within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. Its linguistic history reaches back through Apabhraṃśa and Prakrit to Old Indo-Aryan. Over time, contact with Arabic and Persian expanded its vocabulary, while more recent borrowings came from English and, to a lesser extent, Portuguese and French.
The language has a substantial literary heritage. Medieval Sindhi poetry brought together Sufi mysticism, Advaita Vedanta, and devotional bhakti traditions. Bards adapted older folktales into verse, while Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’s Shah Jo Risalo became the most celebrated work in the language. Sindhi’s modern history was shaped by colonial language policy, the Partition of India, official recognition, education, and the continued use of both Perso-Arabic and Devanagari writing traditions.
Origins and Classification
Linguistic Family
Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is classified under the Northwestern branch of Indo-Aryan. Among its closest linguistic relatives are Saraiki and Punjabi.
Sindhi also forms part of a broader linguistic landscape that includes Balochi, Brahui, Gujarati, and Marwari. Its relationship with neighbouring languages is not uniform. In some areas, Sindhi forms a dialect continuum with Saraiki to the north and Gujarati to the south, while it does not form such a continuum with Marwari to the east.
The language has both influenced and been influenced by neighbouring languages. Minor influence has passed between Sindhi and Saraiki, Punjabi, Balochi, Brahui, Gujarati, and Marwari. Its vocabulary and sound system therefore reflect both its Indo-Aryan inheritance and its long history of regional contact.
Origins
Sindhi is descended from Old Indo-Aryan, conventionally associated with Sanskrit, through Middle Indo-Aryan stages. These stages include Pali, secondary Prakrits, and Apabhraṃśa. The language is described as having developed from Shauraseni Prakrit, which gradually developed into Apabhraṃśa and then into Early Sindhi.
The precise path from Middle Indo-Aryan to Sindhi is not completely fixed. Some twentieth-century Western scholars, including George Abraham Grierson, proposed that Sindhi descended specifically from the Vrācaḍa dialect of Apabhraṃśa. Markandeya described Vrācaḍa as being spoken in Sindhu-deśa, a region corresponding to modern Sindh. Later work, however, has shown that this specific descent remains unclear.
The Bronze Age region of the Indus delta had a primary language often described as the Harappan language, but no records establish when or how that language was replaced by Indo-Aryan languages. The existence of the earlier language is therefore part of the region’s linguistic background rather than a demonstrable direct stage in the history of Sindhi.
Name Etymology
The name “Sindhi” derives from the Sanskrit word síndhu, the original name of the Indus River. Sindhi is spoken along the river’s delta, and the river has given its name to both the language and the historical region associated with it.
The geographical meaning of the name is especially significant because Sindh has long been a zone of contact between the linguistic traditions of South Asia, Iran, and the Islamic world. Sindhi’s later development reflects this location: its inherited vocabulary is Indo-Aryan, while its high-register vocabulary contains a significant Persian and Arabic component.
Historical Development
Old and Middle Indo-Aryan Ancestry
Like other Indo-Aryan languages, Sindhi is descended from Old Indo-Aryan through Middle Indo-Aryan forms. Its historical development involved the transition from Sanskrit to Prakrit and Apabhraṃśa varieties, followed by the emergence of Early Sindhi.
The surviving evidence does not establish every stage of this transition. The language’s earliest written evidence appears only in the ninth century, while the linguistic changes connecting Middle Indo-Aryan with New Indo-Aryan Sindhi must be reconstructed from comparative evidence.
Several sound changes distinguish Sindhi from other New Indo-Aryan languages. One is the development of implosives from geminate and initial stops. This is considered a highly distinctive sound change in New Indo-Aryan. Other changes include the shortening of geminates, the voicing of post-nasal consonants, and the debuccalisation of intervocalic -s- into -h-.
Sindhi also shows changes in lateral and retroflex sounds. Intervocalic -l- developed into -r-, likely through an intermediate retroflex -ḷ-. Geminate -ll- became -l-, while -ḍ- developed into -ṛ-. In medial clusters, r moved to an initial position in a change illustrated by the development of Old Indo-Aryan dīrgha into Sindhi ḍrigho, meaning “long.”
Other features are retentions rather than innovations. Sindhi retains Middle Indo-Aryan -ṇ-, final short vowels such as -a, -i, and -u, and long vowels before geminates. It also retains stop-plus-r clusters, though with retroflexion, as in tr- becoming ṭr-. The retention of v- further distinguishes Sindhi from a number of other New Indo-Aryan languages.
Early Sindhi: Before the Sixteenth Century
Literary evidence for Early Sindhi is sparse. The earliest written evidence of Sindhi is a translation of the Qur’an dated to 883 CE. This record places Sindhi among the earliest Indo-Aryan languages to come into close contact with Arabic and Persian.
The Umayyad conquest of Sindh in 712 CE brought the region into sustained contact with Arabic-speaking Muslim authorities. Arabic sources subsequently referred to the language of Sindh on several occasions. Historical descriptions distinguish the language of Sind from the languages of other parts of India and identify Arabic and Sindian as languages used in places such as Mansúra and Multán. Makrán, by contrast, was associated with Persian and Makranic.
The Korean Buddhist monk Hyech’o also described the language of Sindh in his travelogue. After travelling westward from Takka for a month, he reached Sindhukula and recorded that the area’s dress, customs, climate, and temperature resembled northern India, although its language was slightly different.
Isma’ili religious literature and poetry in India, including works dating as far back as the eleventh century CE, used a language closely related to Sindhi and Gujarati. At this stage, Sindhi was not yet clearly established as an independent literary language. Much of this material took the form of ginans, devotional hymns associated with Isma’ili traditions.
Medieval Sindhi: Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries
Medieval Sindhi literature was primarily religious. Its poetry brought together Sufi and Advaita Vedanta traditions, with the latter connected to devotional bhakti practice. The poetic form known as the bayt became particularly important and reflected the influence of Arabic and Persian literary culture.
Qazi Qadan, who lived from 1493 to 1551, is regarded as the earliest known Sindhi poet of the Sufi tradition. Other early poets included Shah Abdul Karim Bulri, who lived from 1538 to 1623, and Shah Inat Rizvi, who lived approximately from 1613 to 1701. Their mystical poetry exerted a profound influence on Sindhi verse throughout the period.
Medieval Sindhi literature also preserved a large body of folktales. Bards adapted and readapted these stories into verse at different times. Some tales may be considerably older than their earliest literary attestations. Among the best-known romantic epics are Sassui Punnhun, Sohni Mahiwal, Momal Rano, Noori Jam Tamachi, and Lilan Chanesar.
These stories became important not only as literary narratives but also as expressions of Sindhi cultural memory. Their repeated adaptation allowed poets to connect traditional characters and regional settings with religious, ethical, and mystical themes.
Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and Shah Jo Risalo
Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, who lived from 1689 or 1690 to 1752, is widely regarded as the greatest poet of Sindhi. His followers compiled his verses into the Shah Jo Risalo, the single greatest work of Sindhi literature.
The work is primarily Sufi in character, but its poetry also recounts traditional Sindhi folktales and aspects of Sindh’s cultural history. Its importance lies in the way it joins mystical reflection with stories already rooted in the cultural world of Sindh.
Through Shah Jo Risalo, figures from romantic epics and oral traditions became vehicles for broader poetic and spiritual expression. The text therefore occupies several positions at once: it is a major work of Sufi literature, a landmark of Sindhi poetry, and a record of traditional stories and cultural history.
Qur’an Translations and Printing
The history of Sindhi religious literature continued into the age of print. The first Sindhi translation of the Qur’an to be attested was completed by Akhund Azaz Allah Muttalawi, who lived from 1747 to 1824. It was published in Gujarat in 1870.
The first Sindhi translation to appear in print was by Muhammad Siddiq in 1867. These translations belong to a longer history of religious writing in Sindhi that began with the early Qur’anic translation dated to 883 CE.
The printing of Sindhi texts helped establish modern written forms and contributed to the growth of Sindhi literature during the nineteenth century. The Muhammadi Press in Bombay began producing printed Sindhi works in 1867. Among these were Islamic stories in verse by Muhammad Hashim Thattvi, one of Sindh’s renowned religious scholars.
British India: 1843–1947
The British conquest of Sindh in 1843 brought the region into the Bombay Presidency. A major language-policy change followed in 1848, when Governor George Clerk established Sindhi as the official language of the province and removed Persian’s literary dominance.
Sir Bartle Frere, then commissioner of Sindh, issued orders on August 29, 1857, requiring civil servants in Sindh to pass an examination in Sindhi. He also ordered the use of Sindhi in official documents. These measures strengthened the position of Sindhi in administration and contributed to the development of modern written literature.
Script policy produced considerable controversy. In 1868, the Bombay Presidency assigned Narayan Jagannath Vaidya to replace the abjad used for Sindhi with the Khudabadi script. The Bombay Presidency decreed the script a standard script, a decision that caused unrest in the Muslim-majority region. Twelve martial laws were imposed by the British authorities following the powerful unrest.
The granting of official status to Sindhi and the accompanying script reforms marked a major transition. Sindhi moved from a language whose literary sphere had been dominated by Persian into a language with an expanding modern administrative and literary role.
Independent Pakistan and India: After 1947
The Partition of India in 1947 changed the demographic and political setting of Sindhi. Most Sindhi speakers ended up in the new state of Pakistan. The division also contributed to a strong sub-national linguistic identity among Sindhi speakers.
In Pakistan, this identity later manifested in resistance to the imposition of Urdu and eventually in Sindhi nationalism during the 1980s. The literary development of Sindhi also began to diverge on either side of the new border.
By the late twentieth century, contemporary Sindhi writings in Pakistan and India displayed noticeable differences in language and literary style. Pakistani authors borrowed extensively from Urdu, while Indian authors were strongly influenced by Hindi.
Modern Period
Modern Sindhi is spoken primarily in Sindh, where it has official status. In India, it is a scheduled language but has no state-level official status. The language continues to be used in literature, education, broadcasting, religious writing, and everyday communication.
The Sindhi Language Authority, an autonomous institution of the government of Sindh, is the primary regulatory agency responsible for the language’s development and promotion.
Technological developments have also expanded the language’s digital presence. By 2001, Abdul-Majid Bhurgri had coordinated with Microsoft to develop Unicode-based software for the Perso-Arabic Sindhi script. This work became a basis for the wider use of Sindhi communication software among speakers around the world.
Google introduced the first automated translator for Sindhi in 2016. Offline support was added to Google Translate in 2023, followed by strengthened support from Microsoft Translator in May of the same year.
Scripts and Writing Systems
Sindhi Perso-Arabic Script
In Pakistan, Sindhi is written in a version of the Perso-Arabic script adapted to represent the language’s distinctive phonology. It is the sole official script for Sindhi in Pakistan. The script is also used in India, where it exists alongside Devanagari and historical script traditions.
The Sindhi Perso-Arabic alphabet has 52 letters. It expands the Persian alphabet through digraphs and eighteen additional letters for sounds found in Sindhi and other Indo-Aryan languages. These additional letters include:
ڄ, ٺ, ٽ, ٿ, ڀ, ٻ, ڙ, ڍ, ڊ, ڏ, ڌ, ڇ, ڃ, ڦ, ڻ, ڱ, ڳ, ڪ
Some letters distinguished in Arabic or Persian are homophones in Sindhi. Other letters are used mainly for loanwords. Sindhi also makes use of digraphs representing aspirated consonants and ligatures serving grammatical functions.
The ligature ۽ is pronounced approximately as [ãĩ̯] and represents “and.” The ligature ۾ is pronounced approximately as [mẽ] and creates a locative relationship between words.
Hāʾ and Aspirated Consonants
The orthography of hāʾ in Sindhi can be confusing, particularly in digital typing. Arabic and Persian have one letter for hāʾ, while Urdu distinguishes between gol he, or “round he,” and do-cašmi he, or “two-eyed he.”
The round form can represent the h sound [ɦ] in different positions and can also indicate the long vowels /ɑː/ or /eː/ at the end of a word. The loop-shaped form is used in digraphs and helps create aspirated consonants.
Sindhi generally uses unique letters for aspirated consonants rather than relying on the Urdu practice of digraphs. This principle does not apply to every aspirated consonant, however, because some are still written as digraphs.
The letter hāʾ can also represent [h] in native Sindhi words and in Arabic and Persian loanwords. It may represent the vowels /ə/ or /əʰ/ at the end of a word. Sindhi conventions differ from Arabic, Persian, and Urdu conventions, and consistent Unicode usage is necessary for correct display when typing.
Devanagari Script
Devanagari is also used to write Sindhi in India. A modern version was introduced by the government of India in 1948. It did not achieve complete acceptance, so Sindhi-Arabic and Devanagari continue to be used in India.
Sindhi Devanagari uses diacritical bars below letters to mark implosive consonants. Dots known as nukta are used to form additional consonants. The coexistence of Devanagari and Perso-Arabic allows Sindhi writing in India to continue two different graphic traditions.
Laṇḍā-Based Scripts
Before Sindhi orthography was standardised, several forms of Devanagari and Laṇḍā scripts were used for trade. Laṇḍā-based scripts used historically for Sindhi include Gurmukhi, Khojki, and Khudabadi.
For literary and religious purposes, a Perso-Arabic script developed by Abul-Hasan as-Sindi, while Gurmukhi, a subset of Laṇḍā, was also used. Khudabadi and Shikarpuri were reforms of the Laṇḍā script.
Khudabadi
The Khudabadi alphabet was invented in 1550 CE. It was used alongside other scripts by the Hindu community until the colonial period, when the use of Arabic script for official purposes was legislated.
Khudabadi continued to be used on a smaller scale by the trading community until the Partition of India in 1947. In June 2014, the Khudabadi script was added to Unicode. It currently lacks proper rendering support on devices that do not support the script.
Khojki
Khojki was used primarily to record Muslim Shia Ismaili religious literature. It was also used for literature associated with a few secret Shia Muslim sects.
Gurmukhi
Gurmukhi was used to write Sindhi, mainly in India by Hindu Sindhis. As with other Laṇḍā-based writing systems, it represents part of the historical diversity of Sindhi writing before and alongside the dominance of the Perso-Arabic script.
Roman Sindhi
The Sindhi-Roman or Roman-Sindhi script is a contemporary writing system used by Sindhis when texting messages on mobile phones. Its use reflects the adaptation of Sindhi communication to digital devices and informal electronic writing.
Script Evolution
The history of Sindhi writing is marked by plurality and later standardisation. The earliest attested records in Sindhi date from the fifteenth century, although the earliest written evidence of the language is a Qur’anic translation dated to 883 CE. Before standardisation, traders used various forms of Devanagari and Laṇḍā.
Perso-Arabic became important for literary and religious purposes, while Gurmukhi, Khudabadi, Khojki, and Shikarpuri served different communities and contexts. During British rule in the late nineteenth century, the Perso-Arabic script was decreed standard over Devanagari. In contemporary Pakistan, this script remains the sole official script, while India uses both Perso-Arabic and Devanagari.
Sindhi punctuation also differs slightly from Arabic, Persian, and Urdu practice. Instead of the typical inverted comma ،, Sindhi uses a reversed comma ⹁, although many documents use Urdu punctuation incorrectly.
Geographic Distribution
Historical Spread
Sindhi is native to the region of Sindh, especially the area along the Indus River and its delta. Historically, communities speaking Sindhi have also been present in neighbouring Balochistan.
Arabic historical descriptions distinguish the language of Sind from the languages of other regions of India. The language of Mansúra, Multán, and nearby areas was described as Arabic and Sindian, while Makrán was associated with Persian and Makranic.
The language’s historical distribution extended beyond a single modern provincial boundary. In Pakistan, Sindhi is spoken throughout Sindh and by communities in Balochistan, especially in the Kacchi Plain. Its dialects also connect it linguistically with Saraiki-speaking areas to the north and Gujarati-speaking areas to the south.
Centers of Learning and Literary Activity
Hyderabad and the surrounding areas of central Sindh are the basis of Standard Sindhi. The dialect spoken in this area, Vicholi, is the prestige dialect and provides the foundation for the literary standard.
Sindh’s literary culture developed through religious institutions, oral performance, devotional poetry, and later printing. The work of Sufi poets and the preservation of traditional folktales gave the language a substantial literary tradition before the modern period.
Bombay became an important center of Sindhi printing in the nineteenth century. The Muhammadi Press began producing printed Sindhi works in 1867, including Islamic verse narratives by Muhammad Hashim Thattvi.
Modern Distribution
According to Pakistan’s 2023 census, Sindhi is the first language of 34.40 million people, or 14.6 percent of Pakistan’s population. Of these speakers, 33.46 million live in Sindh, where they account for 60 percent of the province’s total population.
Balochistan has approximately 0.55 million Sindhi speakers, particularly in the Kacchi Plain. The language is the most widely spoken language in southern Pakistan and the third most widely spoken language in Pakistan as a whole, after Punjabi and Pashto.
In India, Sindhi is spoken by approximately 1.7 million people. It is a scheduled language but does not have state-level official status. It remains a prominent minority language in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.
Sindhi is also spoken by a global diaspora. Communities are present in India, the Gulf states, the Western world, and the Far East. Sindhi speakers are additionally found in Malaysia, Oman, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
In Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, many ethnic Sindhis are shifting toward English as a first language. The same tendency appears in the smaller Hong Kong Sindhi community. Some speakers use Sindhi at home, particularly monolingual first-generation immigrants and some second-generation speakers. Codeswitching may involve English, Malay, or Indonesian.
Dialects
Sindhi has many dialects and, in some areas, forms a dialect continuum with neighbouring languages. The principal documented dialects include Vicholi, Uttaradi, Lari, Siroli, Lasi, Firaqi, Thareli, and Sindhi Bhili.
Vicholi
Vicholi is spoken around Hyderabad and in central Sindh, the Vicholo region. It is the prestige dialect and provides the basis for Standard Sindhi, the established standard form of the language.
Uttaradi
Uttaradi is spoken in northern Sindh. The name is connected with Uttaru, meaning “north.” Minor differences occur in Larkana, Shikarpur, and parts of Sukkur and Kandiaro.
Lari
Lari is the dialect of southern Sindh, known as Lāṛu. It is spoken around Karachi, Thatta, Sujawal, Tando Muhammad Khan, and Badin districts.
Siroli
Siroli is also called Siraiki or Ubheji. It is spoken in the northernmost part of Sindh, particularly in Jacobabad and Kashmore districts, although smaller numbers of speakers are found throughout Sindh.
Siroli may be transitional with the Saraiki language variety of southern Punjab. It has variously been treated as either a dialect of Saraiki or a dialect of Sindhi.
Lasi
Lasi is spoken in the Lasbela, Hub, and Gwadar districts of Balochistan. It is closely related to Lari and Vicholi and has been in contact with Balochi.
Firaqi
Firaqi is spoken in the Kacchi plains and the northeastern districts of Balochistan. In this region it is called Firaqi Sindhi or, commonly, simply Sindhi.
Thareli
Thareli, also known as Tharechi, is spoken in the northeastern Thar Desert of Sindh. It is mainly spoken in the western part of Jaisalmer district in Rajasthan, India, by many Sindhi Muslims.
Sindhi Bhili
Sindhi Bhili is spoken in Sindh by Sindhi Meghwars and Bhils.
Kutchi and Jadgali
Kutchi and Jadgali are sometimes classified as dialects of Sindhi rather than as independent languages. Their classification reflects the difficulty of drawing firm boundaries within the region’s interconnected dialect landscape.
Literary Heritage
Classical and Medieval Literature
Sindhi literature developed through a combination of oral tradition, religious poetry, mystical writing, and later print culture. Medieval literature was primarily religious and brought Sufi poetry into conversation with Advaita Vedanta and devotional bhakti traditions.
The bayt was a characteristic poetic format. Its development reflects the influence of Arabic and Persian literary traditions while remaining rooted in Sindhi linguistic and cultural expression.
Religious Texts
Religious writing has played a central role in the history of Sindhi. The earliest written evidence of Sindhi is a Qur’an translation dated to 883 CE. Isma’ili ginans, or devotional hymns, were also composed in a language closely related to Sindhi and Gujarati as early as the eleventh century CE.
The first attested Sindhi translation of the Qur’an was by Akhund Azaz Allah Muttalawi and was published in Gujarat in 1870. Muhammad Siddiq’s translation, printed in 1867, was the first to appear in print.
Sindhi religious literature also includes Sufi poetry and Islamic verse narratives. Muhammad Hashim Thattvi’s Islamic stories in verse were among the printed works produced at the Muhammadi Press in Bombay from 1867 onward.
Sufi Poetry
The Sufi tradition shaped Sindhi poetry over several centuries. Qazi Qadan is identified as the earliest known Sindhi poet of the Sufi tradition. Shah Abdul Karim Bulri and Shah Inat Rizvi were other early poets whose mystical writing strongly influenced later Sindhi verse.
Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai stands at the center of this literary history. His poetry, compiled by his followers as Shah Jo Risalo, combines Sufi themes with traditional Sindhi folktales and elements of Sindh’s cultural history.
Folktales and Romantic Epics
Sindhi bards adapted numerous folktales into verse. Many of these stories may be older than their earliest surviving literary forms. The major romantic epics include:
- Sassui Punnhun
- Sohni Mahiwal
- Momal Rano
- Noori Jam Tamachi
- Lilan Chanesar
These tales form a significant part of the language’s literary heritage and were repeatedly adapted by poets and performers.
Shah Jo Risalo
Shah Jo Risalo is the central work of Sindhi literary culture. It contains the verses of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, whose poetry is primarily Sufi but also engages with oral narratives, traditional romance, and the cultural history of Sindh.
The work’s importance is both literary and cultural. It helped preserve and reinterpret traditional stories while establishing a powerful model for Sindhi poetic expression. Its verses remain associated with the highest achievements of Sindhi literature.
Grammar and Phonology
Key Grammatical Features
Sindhi is an inflected language. Its nouns distinguish:
- Two genders: masculine and feminine
- Two numbers: singular and plural
- Five cases: nominative, vocative, oblique, ablative, and locative
This case system is similar to the paradigm found in Punjabi. Almost all Sindhi noun stems end in a vowel, apart from some recent loanwords. Masculine stems commonly end in -o, while feminine stems commonly end in -a, although other final vowels may belong to either gender.
Sindhi has eleven case markers. Most nominal relationships are expressed by postpositions following a noun in the oblique case. The subject of a verb takes the bare oblique case. The object may appear in the nominative or in the oblique case followed by the accusative marker khe.
Postpositions include direct case markers and complex postpositions. Complex postpositions generally combine with a case marker, most often the genitive jo. Forms ending in -o decline for gender and number to agree with the noun they govern.
The ablative and locative cases are used with only some lexemes in the singular. Ablative suffixes include -ā̃, -aū̃, and -ū̃, while the locative suffix is -i. Sindhi also preserves several case markers in medieval literature and poetic Sindhi that are not otherwise used in standard speech.
Pronouns
Sindhi has first- and second-person personal pronouns and several types of third-person proximal and distal demonstratives. Personal pronouns decline in the nominative and oblique cases. The first- and second-person singular have special genitive forms, while other genitives are formed with the oblique case and the marker jo.
Third-person pronouns include unmarked, specific, and present demonstratives. In the nominative singular, demonstratives are marked for gender. Other pronouns decline like ko, meaning “someone.” These include forms meaning “everyone,” “all of them,” “whoever,” and “that one.”
Sindhi is distinctive among Indo-Aryan languages in having pronominal suffixes. These can express possession as an alternative to possessive pronouns. They can also attach to verbs to mark an agent or indirect object. A verb may take multiple pronominal suffixes to identify both subject and object.
The use of pronominal suffixes is especially common in northern Sindh.
Numerals
The word for “one” has masculine and feminine forms, hiku and hika. Other numbers do not decline for gender.
Verbs
The copula functions as an auxiliary verb in the conjugation of other verbs. Sindhi verbs have two conjugations. One has a characteristic a and includes passive and intransitive verbs. The other has a characteristic i and includes transitive verbs, including causative verbs.
The infinitive is formed by adding -aṇu to the verb root. If the root ends in a long ī or ū, these vowels shorten to i and u. In the i-conjugation, -iṇu is added when the verb root ends in a or ā.
Imperatives have three conjugation patterns depending on whether the verb stem is intransitive, transitive, or passive.
Sindhi has several participles. The present participle of active verbs is formed with -ando in a-conjugation verbs and -īndo in i-conjugation verbs or a-conjugation verbs ending in ā. The past participle is generally formed by adding -yo to the root, although roots ending in certain consonants may instead take -o. The past participle carries a passive meaning, as in other Indo-Aryan languages.
The future passive participle is formed with -iṇo on the infinitive stem, or with -aṇo when that stem ends in -i. It is used only with transitive verbs.
Sindhi also has three conjunctive participle forms. The most common adds -ī or -e to the root according to conjugation. Other forms use -yo or -yū̃, or -ije for transitive verbs and -ijī for intransitive verbs. The i in the final pattern is often dropped.
Agent nouns can be formed with -vāro or -hāru. The latter carries the meaning of a future active participle.
Syntax
Sindhi has subject-object-verb word order. Adverbs are indeclinable.
Sound System
Sindhi has a relatively large inventory of consonants and vowels compared with other Indo-Aryan languages. It has 46 consonant phonemes and 10 vowels, with a consonant-to-vowel ratio of approximately 2.8.
All plosives, affricates, and nasals, as well as the retroflex flap and the lateral approximant /l/, have aspirated or breathy voiced counterparts. Sindhi also has four implosives.
Its vowels include modal-length /i e æ ɑ ɔ o u/ and short /ɪ ʊ ə/. Consonants following short vowels are lengthened. The contrast can be observed in forms such as pəto “leaf” and pɑto “worn,” where the consonantal and vowel timing differs.
Sindhi retroflex consonants are apical postalveolars and do not require curling the tip of the tongue backward. Its affricates are laminal postalveolars with relatively short release. The phonetic character of /ɲ/ is not fully clear: it may be similar to the affricates or genuinely palatal.
The sound /ʋ/ is realised in free variation as either labiovelar [w] or labiodental [ʋ]. It is uncommon except before a stop.
Influence and Legacy
Languages Influenced and Regional Contact
Sindhi has had minor influence on and from Saraiki, Punjabi, Balochi, Brahui, Gujarati, and Marwari. Its strongest close relationships are with Saraiki and Punjabi, which are also Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages.
The dialect continuum with Saraiki to the north and Gujarati to the south demonstrates the importance of regional contact. At the same time, Sindhi does not form a dialect continuum with Marwari to the east, despite geographical proximity.
Vocabulary
The base of Sindhi vocabulary derives from Sanskrit through Prakrit and Apabhraṃśa. A significant portion of high-register vocabulary comes from Persian and Arabic, reflecting Sindh’s close contact with the Islamic world after the Umayyad conquest and during the Islamic period in South Asia.
Sindhi has also borrowed more recent words from English and, to a lesser extent, Portuguese and French. Sindhi in Pakistan has been influenced somewhat by Urdu and contains more borrowed Perso-Arabic elements. Sindhi in India has been influenced by Hindi and contains more borrowed tatsam Sanskrit elements.
Cultural Impact
Sindhi has served as a major vehicle for Sufi poetry, devotional expression, folktales, and regional cultural history. The language’s literature preserves stories such as Sassui Punnhun, Sohni Mahiwal, Momal Rano, Noori Jam Tamachi, and Lilan Chanesar.
Its cultural reach extends beyond Pakistan and India through the Sindhi diaspora. Yet diaspora communities also demonstrate the pressures of language shift. In Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, English increasingly functions as a first language for many ethnic Sindhis, while Sindhi remains particularly important in some homes and among some first-generation immigrants.
Official Recognition and Advocacy
Sindhi became the official language of Sindh through language legislation. In 1972, a bill passed by the provincial assembly of Sindh gave Sindhi official status, making it the first provincial language in Pakistan to receive its own official status.
The legislation also mandated the teaching of Sindhi in educational institutions in Sindh. The Pakistan Sindh Assembly later ordered compulsory Sindhi teaching in all private schools in the province. Under the Sindh Private Educational Institutions Form B Regulations and Control 2005 Rules, educational institutions are required to teach children Sindhi.
Sindhi teachers have been ordered to be employed in private schools so that the language can be taught widely. Sindhi is taught in provincial private schools following the Matric system, but not in those following the Cambridge system.
On Mother Language Day in 2023, the Sindh Assembly passed a unanimous resolution to extend the use of Sindhi to the primary level and increase its status as a national language of Pakistan.
Sindhi-language television broadcasting is also active in Pakistan. Channels include Time News, KTN, Sindh TV, Awaz Television Network, Mehran TV, and Dharti TV.
Modern Status
Current Speakers
Sindhi has more than 37 million native speakers worldwide. In Pakistan, it is the first language of 34.40 million people according to the 2023 census. This represents 14.6 percent of the country’s population.
Most Pakistani Sindhi speakers live in Sindh, where they form 60 percent of the province’s population. A further 0.55 million speakers live in Balochistan, particularly in the Kacchi Plain.
India has approximately 1.7 million Sindhi speakers. The language is especially prominent as a minority language in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra.
Official Recognition
Sindhi is the official language of Pakistan’s Sindh province. Before the creation of Pakistan, it was the national language of Sindh.
In India, Sindhi is one of the scheduled languages of the country. It does not have official status at the state level, but it is recognised for educational purposes and can be selected as an option in education.
Education and Broadcasting
Sindhi is taught in private schools in Sindh under provincial educational rules. The Sindh Assembly has also supported the extension of Sindhi-language use into primary education.
Television broadcasting provides an important modern platform for the language. Multiple Sindhi-language channels operate in Pakistan, contributing to the visibility of Sindhi in public life.
Digital Development
Sindhi’s digital presence has expanded through Unicode-based software, automated translation, and mobile communication. Abdul-Majid Bhurgri’s work with Microsoft helped develop Unicode-based software for the Perso-Arabic Sindhi script by 2001.
Google introduced automated Sindhi translation in 2016 and offline support in 2023. Microsoft Translator strengthened its support for Sindhi in May 2023.
The Khudabadi script was added to Unicode in June 2014, although it still lacks proper rendering support on devices that do not support the script. Roman Sindhi is also used for texting on mobile phones.
Learning and Study
Academic Study
Sindhi can be studied through several connected fields: Indo-Aryan historical linguistics, the history of Sindh, Islamic-period language contact, Sufi literature, South Asian script history, and modern language policy.
Its grammar offers a particularly rich field of study. Sindhi has five noun cases, eleven case markers, gender and number distinctions, pronominal suffixes, two verb conjugations, and a subject-object-verb word order. Its phonology is also notable for its large consonant inventory, four implosives, aspirated and breathy voiced counterparts, and retention of several older features.
The history of Sindhi writing is equally varied. Learners may encounter the Perso-Arabic alphabet, Devanagari, Khudabadi, Khojki, Gurmukhi, and Roman Sindhi. The different scripts reflect the language’s religious, commercial, regional, colonial, and digital histories.
Resources
Contemporary resources include Sindhi dictionaries, Sindhi transliteration materials, Sindhi-language television, Unicode-based software, and automated translation services. The Sindhi Language Authority serves as the primary regulatory agency for language development and promotion.
The historical record also includes printed works from the Muhammadi Press, the Shah Jo Risalo, Qur’an translations, and collections of Sindhi poetry and folktales. These materials provide access to the language’s literary, religious, and cultural traditions.
Conclusion
Sindhi’s history follows the course of a language rooted in the Indus region and shaped by repeated contact with neighbouring cultures. Descended from Old Indo-Aryan through Prakrit and Apabhraṃśa, it developed distinctive phonological features, including four implosives and the retention of several older sounds and vowels. Arabic and Persian contact expanded its high-register vocabulary, while Urdu, Hindi, English, Portuguese, and French contributed later layers.
Its literary tradition is especially associated with Sufi poetry, devotional writing, oral folktales, and the verses of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai preserved in Shah Jo Risalo. Its modern history includes the replacement of Persian by Sindhi in official use, colonial script debates, Partition, language legislation, education, broadcasting, and digital technology.
Today Sindhi remains the principal language of Sindh, an official language of the province, a scheduled language in India, and a living language of a worldwide diaspora. Its Perso-Arabic, Devanagari, historical, and Roman writing traditions embody the breadth of its cultural history.