The Standardized Registration of Sindhi Letters and the Use of Standardized Unicode

Abstract

Abstract

alphabet and Unicode have caused confusion. A key issue is This research paper examines the challenges of developing and standardizing the Sindhi language in the current era of computer and information technology. Over the last fifty years, the world has witnessed rapid technological progress, setting unprecedented milestones in digital invention and innovation. The evolution of electronic information delivery systems, which continue to change at an accelerating pace, underscores the urgent need for the standardization of the Sindhi language. This standardization is crucial, as technological advancements have turned the world into a global village, placing Sindhi in direct competition with other global languages. To fully leverage modern technological resources, establishing a national standard is imperative. Without it, Sindhi risks falling behind in its development compared to other languages. Currently, like hundreds of other languages, Sindhi relies on Unicode encoding for the exchange of information and ideas via the Internet. While Sindhi has successfully entered the Information Age, inconsistencies between the standard Sindhi that Unicode has allocated multiple code points for the letter "هـ". As a result, different keyboards and fonts use varying Unicode characters for the same letter, leading to discrepancies. Words that appear identical on screen or in print are, in fact, stored differently in digital formats. Moreover, two essential letters in the standard Sindhi alphabet— Jhae (جھ) and Ghaaf (گھ)—are entirely absent from Unicode, hindering proper usage and making it difficult to search for words in online dictionaries. This issue is also evident in the Sindhi Language Authority's online dictionary, accessible at https://dic.sindhila.edu.pk/.These inconsistencies will pose challenges for future language processing systems, such as Text-to-Speech systems for Sindhi, and will affect the creation of essential reference materials, such as thesauri. In this paper, I argue that, beyond standardizing Unicode usage for Sindhi, it is essential to develop a dedicated code for Sindhi characters and register it with both the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Achieving this, however, requires the active involvement of the Sindhi Language Authority.

Keywords: Sindhi language, technological advancements, Unicode, Standardization, language characters and letters, ISO