Sindhi Language Guide

Also spoken in
India, Pakistan
Script
Arabic

Where it's spoken

In India, Sindhi is one of the languages included in the constitution's Eighth Schedule, a list headed "Languages."

A report in the Pakistani newspaper Dawn says that the Sindhi Language Authority was set up under a law on the teaching, promotion and use of Sindhi, and describes its purpose as including arrangements for Sindhi "as the provincial language." The same report says Sindhi is "made mandatory by law, in government offices," but that little is done to enforce this.

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Script & pronunciation

This app's Sindhi cards are written in the Arabic script. The Unicode Standard says the Arabic script "has been extended to represent a number of other languages, such as Persian, Urdu, Pashto, Sindhi, and Uyghur, as well as many African languages," and that text in the scripts of its Middle East chapter "is written from right to left."

In this app's card السلام عليڪم ("Peace be upon you (Hello)"), the letter ڪ is the Sindhi form, and the card's own note says that it is "written with Sindhi ڪ, not Urdu ک." The app gives each card a Latin-letter romanization alongside the Sindhi text, for example Assalāmu alaikum for that card.

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Grammar essentials

Sindhi uses postpositions, which are placed after the noun or pronoun they go with rather than before it. The Sindhi Language Authority's grammar page defines a postposition as "a word used with a noun or a pronoun to show its position" and says it is "used after the noun or the pronoun." The page lists examples including کي ("to"), سان ("with"), ۾ ("in"), تي ("on") and جو ("of").

In this app's card توهان جو نالو ڇا آهي؟ ("What is your name?"; romanization Tavahān jo nālo chhā āhe?), جو follows توهان ("you") and links it to نالو ("name"). The card's own note says that نالو is masculine, so the genitive is جو.

A paper on a computational grammar of Sindhi lists accusative and dative case as marked with the word "khE." In this app's card مون کي سنڌي نه ايندي آهي ("I can't speak Sindhi"; romanization Mũ khe sindhī na eĩdī āhe), کي is labelled a dative marker, and the card's own note says the negative نه goes before the verb.

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