Indo-European · ISO 639-3 snd · sd
Sindhi Language سنڌي
Sindhi is an Indo-European language spoken by about 38 million people in 2 countries. It is written in the Devanagari, Perso-Arabic and Gurmukhi scripts.
Where Sindhi is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Indo-Iranian
- Indo-Aryan
- Middle-Modern Indo-Aryan
- Continental Indo-Aryan
- Indo-Aryan Northwestern zone
- Sindhi-Lahnda
- Sindhic
- Sindhi-Kachchi
- Sindhi
Writing system
Devanagari, Perso-Arabic, Gurmukhi, Khudawadi and Latin scripts
Related languages
About the Sindhi language
Sindhi (سنڌي) is spoken by about 38 million people, which makes it the 45th most spoken language in the world — just behind Polish (40 million) and ahead of Yoruba (38 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Sindhi-Kachchi group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Sindhi spoken?
Sindhi is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in Pakistan (38 million) and India (3.7 million).
Share of the population that speaks Sindhi: Pakistan 15% (38 million) and India 0.3% (3.7 million).
Sindhi is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in India.
Writing system and status
Sindhi is written in the Devanagari, Perso-Arabic, Gurmukhi and 2 more scripts. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Panjabi, Western Panjabi, Saraiki, Northern Hindko, Pahari-Potwari, Hindi and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 sd, ISO 639-3 snd.
Frequently asked questions about Sindhi
How many people speak Sindhi?
Where is Sindhi spoken?
What language family does Sindhi belong to?
What is Sindhi called in Sindhi?
Is Sindhi an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.