Endangered Sindhi Language

By: Fiza Jamali

To understand Language is to understand the world; Language is one of humankind’s best findings; it is the discovery of human contact because if we isolate people from human contact, there is no language. Of around 7000 known World languages, Sindhi is one the very ancient and old Language of the sub-continent, with a rich culture, vast folklore, and boundless literature. The Sindhi language marks its root back to 2500 years, that is when the first written word “Sindhi” was recorded in history. Sindhi is the Language of the Indo-Aryan people, and it takes its name from the Indus river, which was then known as Sindhu, a Sanskrit word for “river” or “sea”.
According to recent research, the Sindhi language is one of the endangered languages on Earth; the possible reasons could be virtual Language. We usually do not use our alphabet and use it in Roman English, living in the virtual world with the virtual Language. We do not protect our Language even at the state level. From nursery level to the research, mostly Sindhi Language is eliminated, which is also a renowned reason for declining country development. The developed countries like America, China, Korea, and all others protected their Language as they climbed the ladder of growth, civilization, and success.

Notification from the Government of Sindh was issued for the Sindhi as a compulsory subject. Yet, some parts of Sindh’s hardly took over a notice to made Sindhi a mandatory language in schools, primary cities school creates controversy like the Cambridge Schooling system. As it is rightly said, “if you want to kill the nation, kill their mother tongue”, This is the reality that developed societies are aware of.
Further, English is not just taken as a Language, but intelligence; people find it cool and modern to speak in other languages and not in Sindhi. This reality saddened me to the core, and at the same time, I am reminded of the wistful words of linguists; “A language dies when nobody speaks it anymore”.
We hope people realize that they could not be intelligent or modern by speaking another language, which does not belong to you. Further, the Government must give the Sindhi language prior rights on the state level. Moreover, the Government should impose stricter regulations on the Sindhi language as equal to the English Language.