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Sindhi language

Indo-Aryan language native to Sindh / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Sindhi (English pronunciation: /ˈsɪndi/;[4] Sindhi: سنڌي (Perso-Arabic); (Devanagari): सिंधी; Sindhi pronunciation: [sɪndʱiː]) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 30 million people in the Pakistani province of Sindh, where it has official status. It is also spoken by a further 1.7 million people in India, where it is a scheduled language, without any state-level official status. The main writing system is the Perso-Arabic script, which accounts for the majority of the Sindhi literature and is the only one currently used in Pakistan. In India, both the Perso-Arabic script and Devanagari are used.

Quick facts: Sindhi, Native to, Region, Ethnicity, Na...
Sindhi
Sindhī
سنڌي • सिंधी
Sindhi.svg
Sindhi written in Perso-Arabic script
Native toPakistan and India
RegionSindh and neighbouring regions (e.g. Kutch and Balochistan)
EthnicitySindhis
Native speakers
c.32 million (2017)[1]
Perso-Arabic (Naskh), Devanagari (India) and others
Official status
Official language in
Flag_of_Pakistan.svg Pakistan Flag_of_India.svg India[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]
Regulated by
Language codes
ISO 639-1sd
ISO 639-2snd
ISO 639-3snd
Glottologsind1272  Sindhi
Linguasphere59-AAF-f
Sindhi-speakers_by_Pakistani_District_-_2017_Census.svg
The proportion of people with Sindhi as their mother tongue in each Pakistani District as of the 2017 Pakistan Census
Lang_Status_99-NI.png
Sindhi is not in the category of endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
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Sindhi has an attested history from the 10th century CE. Sindhi was one of the first Indo-Aryan languages to encounter influence from Persian and Arabic following the Umayyad conquest in 712 CE. A substantial body of Sindhi literature developed during the Medieval period, 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, which led to the current status of the language in independent Pakistan after 1947.