Sindhi

Sindhi is an Indo-Aryan language with its roots in the lower Indus River valley. It takes its name from the Indus River, known in earlier times as the Sindhu. Today Sindhi is spoken in the province of Sindh, Pakistan, where it is recognized by the government as the official language of the province, home to an estimated 30-40 million people (projected from 1981 census data). Nearly half of the population of Sindh lives in rural areas, where Sindhi is the primary language. In the urban centers of Sindh, Sindhi competes for status and speakers with Urdu (the national language of Pakistan) and, increasingly, English. Sindhi is also spoken by about 2.5 million people in India, including major communities in Gujarat, Mumbai, and Pune, where immigrants from Sindh relocated after the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan. Beyond the Indian subcontinent, Sindhi is spoken by large diaspora communities in the United Kingdom and the United States, and around the world.