Critical Study Of 9 Excessive Letters Existing In Sindhi Alphabet

Abstract

The Sindhi alphabet has a long history of graphemes, phonemes and sequence of letter. The history of the written shapes of the Sindhi alphabet spans millennia, with its forms evolving at various eras. The written form of Sindhi language first appeared in 8th century AD and a number of various scripts have been used for its writing system in different times. Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere (1815–1884), the British colonial administrator at the time, established the most recent form of the Sindhi alphabet under British rule in Sindh. He was Commissioner of Sindh in the period of 1851 to1859. He constituted a committee to present its recommendations for standard Sindhi alphabet. He issued notification for Sindhi as an obligatory for all officers working in Sindh. In his time, Sindhi language became official language of Sindh.

The present form of Sindhi alphabet is mostly written with modification and adaptation of Arabic and Persian letters that was implemented under the influence of the British rule in 19th century. It has total 52 letters, supplemented by the Arabic letters for the additional sounds. A few letters that are illustrious in Arabic are pronounced phonemes in Sindhi.

Sindhi language's internal sounds and phonemes, scope & sequence, shapes of letters, aspirated & un-aspirated sounds, vowels, short vowels, long vowels, consonants, diacritics, borrowed letters, sounds and so many concerns do require the comprehensive discourse with recommendations.

This research basically focused upon the 9 unnecessary letters of Sindhi language (ع، ض، ظ، ذ، ث، ص، ط، ق، ح). This paper also seeks to initiate a dialogue in academics and linguistics in an effort to conduct a critical review of the unnecessary phonemes present in the Sindhi alphabet. In addition, this work intends to provide suggestions for an updated Ioveta based on Sindhi phonemics and phonetics.