written in
Hatvanki Sindhi or
Khudabadi script.
Origins 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 (), 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- (shared with some
Punjabi varieties, primarily
Saraiki) • 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- Early Sindhi (–16th century) Literary attestation of early Sindhi is sparse. The earliest written evidence of Sindhi as a language can be found in a translation of the Qur’an into Sindhi dating back to 883 A.D. 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. Additionally, the Korean
Buddhist monk
Hyech'o mentions the unique language of Sindh in his travelogue:
Medieval Sindhi (16th–19th centuries) 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 ( 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. 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.
British India (1843–1947) In 1843, the
British conquest of Sindh 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. 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. ==Geographical distribution==