Sindhi language evolved over a period of 2400 years : with 8 waves of migration of Soythians, people from Southern Iran. The language of the people of Sindh, after coming in contact with the Aryan, became Indo-Aryan (Prakrit). Sindhi language, therefore, has a solid base of Prakrit as well as Sanskrit, the language of India, with vocabulary from Arabic, Persian, and some Dravidian - descendants from Mediterranean sub-continent, also known as Moen-jo-Daro...click civilization. The script, that is predominantly used in Sindh, as well as in many states in India and elsewhere, where the migrant Sindhis have settled, is in Arabic Nask, having 52 alphabets. However, in some of the circles in India, Devanagri - the Hindi script - has also been used as a sript for writing Sindhi, although the vocal and oral consonance and connotation remains same as in Sindh itself.

Sindhi language has been the inspiration for the Sindhi art, music, literature...click, culture and the way of life. Many great poets and literatis have been profoundly inspired by the beauty of Sindhi language. The poetry of the Sindhi saint-poets, likeBhitai, Sachal, and Sami, sung in sweet, melodious, rhythmic Sindhi tunes, fills the hearts and souls of the listeners with sheer rapture, joy and ecstasy.

Sindhi developed out of Prakrit and has preserved many interesting grammatical features. Mainly due to the close contacts with Arabic-speaking Muslims, Sindhi adopted, in very early times, a number of Arabic words not only in the religious sphere but for everyday concepts as well. For example, the word 'Allah' meaning God, is used in a religious as well as a non-religious sense, by both Muslims and Hindus of Sindh. The book dealing with the historical aspects of Sindh, Mujmal at-Tawarikh, mentions that in the time of Yahya al- Barmaki, a man from Sindh recited before him, an Arab, a qasida in the native Sindhi language, but the transcription is so strange and in such a strange language, that it is impossible to decipher it or even to compare it with its alleged Arabic translation.

Apparently the inhabitants of the Sindhu Valley were quite enterprising and took to travelling not only to the court in Baghdad, the centre of Islamic Empire, where we find Sindhi physicians, but even further. Ibn Fadlan tells that a man from Sindh was killed by the Bulghars in Northern Russia to be offered to their god "because of his extreme intelligence."

According to the famous story of that great book, "Ajaib al-Hind," the prince of Alor, a Hindu, asked for religious instructions and had the Holy Qur'an partly translated into his mother tongue, Sindhi, in the year 883/884 A.D. To waht extent this tongue was an early form of Sindhi cannot be judged or verified from the existing sources. The Arab geographers Istakhri (951 A.D.), Al-Masudi (956 A.D.) and Ibn Hauqal (977/978 A.D.) mentioned in their works that people of Sindh spoke the native Sindhi besides the official Arabic and a bit of Persian. That is the reason why there is a lot of influence of Arabic and Persian in our Sindhi language, whic can be seen in the poetry of Shah Bhitai and Sachal Sarmast, and the literary work of Mirza Kaleech Baig and other Muslim and even non-Muslim scholars, educationists, jurists and literatis.

Can we, the children of Sindh - heir to that great legacy known as Sindhi language and ancient civilization - afford to be cut off from our language and literature? Language is our life - to be alienated from it would be to be uprooted from the life itself. And, yet, the children of Sindh debate the viability of the Sindhi language...click.

Urdu poetry, the first Urdu literature, started in the waning days of the Moghuls and imitates Persian style, nevertheless adding a sort of color and richness to Hindi. In any case, Urdu (or Hindi) and the Sindhi language have had their distinct evolution (other than the fact that Hindi and Sindhi are both belong to the Indo-European family of languages).

Language families are determined by the syntactic structures of the languages but Sindhi offers a distinct and unique phonetics, phonology and morphology which is critical in particular to the recitative form of poetry (e.g. the remarkable and unique universal alliterative structure in Shah's poetry is due to the unique nature of Sindhi phonology and is hardly possible in the world's other major languages).

Shah Latif (b. ca 1680 AD) wrote his poetry in Sindhi and in fact defines the classical Sindhi language in the same way that Shakespeare defines English. He was very innovative in his style and wrote original musical compositions. He is universally acclaimed as the greatest Sindhi poet of all times and phrases and verses from his poetry are quoted by people (consciously or otherwise) in ordinary speech. Just as the dramatist Shakespeare captured European stories, Latif gave a literary form to the many folk stories of Sindh. Like Charles Dickens, Latif is also a social critic whose philosophy would influence Sindhi thinking for centuries to come. Like the romantic English poets (e.g. Shelley), he is also an acclaimed observer of nature.

"Latif was a keen observer and his descriptions are very interesting. He loved to roam on the silent hills, to sail on the roaring waters, to be buried in the deep quiet of the forests, and to enjoy the sweet breezes of the lakes. He describes the scenes on the lakes in his own mystical way. Birds of beautiful colours and lotuses on the lake, with humming bees round them, for the objects of his study; but his observations refer invariably to some phase or the other of his great search after the Beloved. He loves the humming of the black 'Bhanwar' that buries itself in the fragrant petals of the lotus, and Latif ponders:
"The Lotus' roots in the bottom lie
The Bhanwar is a denizen of the skies,
Glory to the love that them unites."
..............Jethmal Parsram Gulraj ("Sindh and Its Sufis", Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Madras, 1924.

Ali Koofi, the author of the 'Chachnama", said that Sindh at the time of Chachu (Founder of the Brahamin dynasty in Sindh) bordered Kashmir in the North, Sindh Sagar in the south, Kirman in the west and Kanooj in the east. In such a vast country, either there were number of languages or branches and dialects of a dominant language. If one looks at the history of the present day Sindh and its adjoining areas, it is apparent that Sindhi appears to be the dominant language with many dialects including Seraiki spoken in various parts of the country.

This has been accepted by many a scholars and travellers both Sindhis and non-Sindhis. Well-known Arab geographer Al-Istakhari, who visited Sindh in the Arab period, has termed Seraiki as Sindhi in his book entitled 'Almasalik Walmamalik". He writes that in his travels to Mansora (Capital of Arab Sindh which was in present day Sindh near Brahaminabad) and Multan (Capital of Seraiki area now in Punjab), he found common people speaking a language called Sindhi. In other words, language spoken in Multan or Seraiki area was considered by him as Sindhi.

Mr. Grierson, an English linguist, writes in 'Linguistic Survey of India' that Seraiki is one of the dialects of Sindhi. He also considers Kachhi and Lassi as dialects of Sindhi. Kako Bherumal Advani has explained this fact more clearly in his book "Sindhi Boolia Ji Tareekha". Dr. Ghulam Ali Allana in his books "Sindhi Boolia Ji Lissani Geograpgy" and "Sindhi Boolia Jo Bunu Buniyadu" has discussed this matter further and has proved Seraiki to be a dialect of Sindhi. He does that by pointing out historical, cultural, literary, linguistic and gramatical factors. I can mention many other scholars that deal with the issue at length but I think the above references are both respectable and reputed ones. I recommend Dr. Allana and Kako Bherumal books for detailed study of this subject.

• Governer - who can not speak in Sindhi
• Chief Minister - who has changed more colors than a chamelion
• Speaker of Sindh Assembly - who can not and does not want to speak Sindhi and whose life and ideology depend on never becoming a sindhi
• Sindh Assembly - where half the members can not speak Sindhi and the other half do not have the guts to speak in Sindhi
• Senate and National Assembly - where half the members from Sindh cannot speak in Sindhi and the other half are to drunk most of the time to be able to say anything
• Print media - 90% of which is printed in languages other than Sindhi
• Television - where 99% of programs are in languages other than Sindhi
• Radio - where 90% of the programs are in languages other than Sindhi
• Army - which had absolutely no sindhis
• Police and Beauracracy - 90% of which is imported from other provinces
• Is it not tragic that a civilization based purely on love, peace, and mysticism has seen nothing but hatred, genocide, ethinicity, violence and bloodshed in the last fifty years. A civilization so old and peacefull is dying such a sudden and violent death. It took us less than fifty years to destroy what my forefathers had built in five thousand years, why not think about this also when we celebrate our glorious fifteeth century this year.
• Isn't their anybody who can speak for Sindh?

click here for...Sindhi Art, Literature And Music.

The Sindhi Language Of Moenjodaro

click here for...Asa'anjo Kha'adho Aeen Ra'agG-u : Sindhi Food And Music.

click here for...The Viability Of Sindhi Language.

click here for...Sindhi Language Is Not Accepted.

click here for...Utraadi Aeen LaarRechi Mboli.

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