Sindhi is written using a modified form of the Arabic script. Since Sindhi has many more consonants and vowels than Arabic, extra letters have been created through the use of diacritic dots that modify the basic letter shapes. There are 52 distinct letters in the Sindhi alphabet, and all but two of these,  (alifu) and  (hamzo), represent a consonant sound. |
 |
1. A cursive (connecting) writing form |
| A basic feature of the Arabic script is that it is written with the letters connecting, just as the cursive form of the Roman Latin script that's used for English. But in the case of the Arabic script, there is no non-connecting writing form (no "print" style). Each letter has up to four distinct forms: initial, medial, final, detached. As the name suggests, the detached form is used when the letter is written by itself, as in an alphabet chart. The other three forms are the forms used when letters are connected together to form a word. Some of the consonant letters are only partially connecting--linking with the preceding letter but not with the following. The connecting forms for the letters are noted on each individual letter page, with example words. |
|
2. Right-to-left direction |
| The Sindhi-Arabic script is written from right-to-left. This means that the first letter of a word appears at the right edge of the word, and the successive letters follow in a leftward direction. A line of Sindhi text starts at the top right edge of the page, and continues leftward until the end of the line. The next line starts again at the right edge, and so on. When writing Sindhi you will have to practice moving your hand in a leftward direction across the page, opposite to the pattern used for English and other European languages. |
|
3. Vowels |
| Sindhi has a fairly large inventory of distinctive vowel sounds (see Pronunciation page). There are three short vowels [a, i, u] and five long vowels [aa, ii, uu, e, o]. There are also two diphthongs (gliding vowels) [ai, au], but they are infrequent and many dialects pronounce these the same as [e, o]. Each of these 10 vowels can also occur as a nasalized vowel. A feature common to all variations of the Arabic script, including Sindhi-Arabic, is the omission of short vowels in the written form of words. Except at the beginning of the word, the short vowels [a, i, u] appear only as diacritics on the preceding consonant. Although short vowel diacritics are specified on all Sindhi words presented in this course, written Sindhi (in both machine-printed and handwritten forms) does not usually include these diacritics. Once you become familiar with Sindhi words, you'll find that it's not difficult to recognize a word in its written form even without the short vowels expressed. Of some help for the student, long vowels are always written--- although with no distinction between [ii] and [e], or between [uu] and [o]. A vowel that is at the very beginning of a word is always written using the letter alifu with additional diacritics and vowel symbols. Click on the letters on the Vowels chart to see how letters are written using diacritics in Sindhi, with example words. |
|
4. Consonants |
| There are 50 letters in the Sindhi alphabet that stand for consonant sounds. Each letter always represents the same sound in Sindhi, which makes it very easy to read and sound out new words. In this regard, learning to read Sindhi is very much easier than English! Most of the letters have 4 related shapes--initial, medial, final, detached--and these are called "connecting" letters. Some letters only connect on one side and are called "partially connecting" letters. They use just one shape for the initial and medial, and another shape for final and detached. The distinct shapes for each letter along with example words are shown on the letter's page, which you can see by clicking on the letter on the Alphabet chart. One thing you will notice is that some letters share the same basic shape, and are distinguished only by the number or placement of dots or other minor features. The connecting forms of letters in the same shape group are always the same. The four major shape groups are illustrated by these letters: |
 |
b |
|
 |
j |
|
 |
d |
|
 |
g |
|
5. Special Topics |
|
