SindhiKalakar

SindhiKalakar.com September 2004

Scroll Down for viewing the following items:

1. Jaisingha's Perfect Roman Script for Sindhi

2. Vechaaro Announcer - A Hilarious Play in Sindhi (in Perfect Roman Script)

By Ashok T. Jaisinghani (Editor & Publisher)

3. Announcing the Launch of SindhiKalakar.com

4. Leader! O Leader! - A Poem By Ashok T. Jaisinghani

5. Sindhi Websites & Links: Important Sindhis & Organizations

6. Sindhi Artistes, Writers, Dramatists, etc.

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My brother Prakash, owner of SEWAK, Puerto de la cruz, Tenerife,

and my brother Uttam, owner of TRISHUL GIFT SHOP,

Playa de las Americas, Adeje, Tenerife, Spain, have sponsored

the launch of this website in memory of our late parents
Tilokchand Amirchand Jaisinghani

and

Ishwari T. Jaisinghani

— Editor.

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To visit My Website on Health

Click on www.Wonder-Cures.com

Ranked as No. 1 Website in the World by many

top search engines

in the category of Wonder Cures.

*************************************************

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Bhaauro ai' Bhenaro,

Umenda aahey ta tavhaa' khey heea website pasand achee vayee aahey. Naee'a Roman lipeea me' muhinjo likhiyalu pooro draamo, Vechaaro, hika pakee saabtee aahey ta Sindhee b:olee bi asaa' sahee tareekey saa' Roman lipeea me' likhee saghoo' thaa.

Muhinjee eehaa ichhaa aahey ta vadheeka me' vadheeka Sindhee b:aaran khey Sindhee b:olee sekhaaran:a laai Roman lipeea jo bi istemaal kayo vanyey. Jekey b:aara Arbee ai' Devanagree lipeea me' Sindhee sikhee rahyaa aahin, oohey bhaley unhan b:in lipiyun me' Sindhee sikhandaa rahan, para jekey Sindhee b:aara Arbee ai' Devanagree lipeea me' Sindhee kahi' bi kaaran:a karey na sikhee rahyaa aahin, onhan khey Roman lipeea me' Sindhee par:han:u ai' likhan:u sekhaaran:a jee koshashi asaa' khey karan:u ghurjey.

Sabhnee laai shubh kaamnaaun saa'

Tavhaa' jo

Ashok.

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Jaisingha's Perfect Roman Script for Sindhi

Modified Roman Script for All Languages

by Ashok T. Jaisinghani

alias Ashok Jaisingha

The Roman script is presently the most widely used script on computers and on the internet all over the world. So those who use the Roman script for their languages have a great advantage over other people who do not use that script. Jaisingha's Perfect Roman Script for Sindhi can be used very effectively by the modern Sindhis who are unable or reluctant to learn Sindhi in the Arabic and Devanagree scripts. Based on the most logical principles, this new simplified version of the Roman script for Sindhi is the most convenient script which can be very easily used for the fast and accurate correspondence between Sindhis living in different parts of the world.

Most of the literary persons in India cannot believe that the Roman script can be made more phonetically perfect than even the Devanagree script, and it can be used for correctly representing all the extra alphabets of Sindhi and other Indian and foreign languages. The skeptical Sindhi and other Indian writers, who use the Devanagree script, are likely to become extremely outraged by my confident claim because they believe that the Devanagree script is the absolutely perfect "Script of the Gods." Anybody claiming that some other script can become more perfect than even the "Script of the Gods" will almost certainly be accused of committing the crime of blasphemy by the dogmatic supporters of the Devanagree script.

No useful purpose can be served by trying to make the Roman script look partly like the Arabic or the Devanagree script to suit any language like Sindhi. Jaisingha's Perfect Roman Script is based on the use of the characters and signs that are already available on the common keyboards of computers and typewriters. The script fully takes care of all those Sindhi alphabets that have peculiar pronunciations, which are not found in the ordinary Roman script. So, the new Roman Script is much more suitable than the Arabic and Devanagree scripts for teaching Sindhi more easily and accurately. The Script can also be used by many other Indian languages and even by all those foreign languages that do not have a proper script of their own.

Jaisingha's Perfect Roman Script will make it possible for even Europeans and Americans to learn Sindhi very easily and enthusiastically! More and more such persons will feel encouraged to learn Sindhi, which is actually one of the sweetest languages of the world. Young Sindhis all over the world can now learn the Sindhi language very easily and help in keeping it alive for ever. By using the Perfect Roman Script, we should be able to ensure that the Sindhi language will never die.

We should use any suitable and convenient signs or symbols available on the keyboards of computers and typewriters to denote an alternative or altered pronunciation of any particular alphabet. Some suitable signs available on the ordinary keyboards that can be used for alternative pronunciations are ^ * : ' < >. For example, the colon (:) or the greater than sign (>) can be suffixed to the alphabets like b, d, g, j, k, kh, l, n, r, s, sh, t, etc. to indicate the altered or alternative pronunciations of those alphabets used in Sindhi, Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi and other languages. Any number of new alphabets of different languages can be represented in the Roman script by using a few suitable signs like the colon, greater than, apostrophe, asterisk, etc. For example, with the colon and the greater than signs as suffixes, we can get the new alphabets like b: d: g: j: k: kh: l: n: r: s: sh: t: and b> d> g> j> k> kh> l> n> r> s> sh> t> etc.

I have found that the colon (:) and the greater than (>) signs can be used as the most suitable and convenient indicators of alternative pronunciations of many alphabets. The colon and the greater than signs give more balanced designs of the new alphabets than the other signs. They are also more convenient to use as they are available on the lower two lines of the keyboard. That helps in getting greater accuracy while typing them very often.

The colon is more useful than the greater than sign as it is present on the keyboards of both the computers and the (manual) typewriters. The greater than sign (>) is not found on most typewriters. In practice, we may have to use both the : and > signs according to the individual choice as well as the need. In future, any other better signs can also be used in place of the : and > signs if they are introduced on the commonly used keyboards of computers. There is no need to be dogmatic on this issue. There will always be some scope for making the script more perfect.

The following are some examples of Sindhi words written in the Perfect Roman Script with their peculiar pronunciations along with their English meanings shown in the brackets :

b:a (two).

b:akree (goat).

b:or:o or b:od>o (deaf man).

b:or:ee or b:od>ee (deaf woman).

b:udhho (old man).

b:udhhee (old woman).

bhej:o (brain).

chang>o (well; okay).

d:aad:o (grandfather).

d:aad:ee (grandmother).

d:ad:u (dull).

d:aha (ten).

d:aar:hee or d:aad>hee (beard).

d:ingo (naughty; unruly).

d:isu (see).

d:ekhaar (show).

d:ithhal (seen).

dimaag:u (brain).

g:aayo (sang).

g:ero (dove).

gad:u (together).

ghan:aa (many).

g:othree (bag).

g:ujhee (secret; hidden).

j:aao (was born).

jad:o (useless; duffer).

j:aan:u (know; soon).

j:an:aa (persons).

j:ibha (tongue).

kor:hee or kod>hee (leper).

kaar:ho or kaad>ho (brew; concoction).

khaaj:aa (cashewnuts).

laj:a (shame).

mud:o (blunt).

maan:hoo (man).

paan:ee (water).

par:hu or pad>hu (read).

peer:hee or peed>hee (generation).

per:o or ped>o (a sweet).

por:ho or pod>ho (old man).

rog:ee (sick person).

sad:u (a call).

seer:hee or seed>hee (ladder).

sud:ko (a sob).

thhor:o or thhod>o (bald).

ted:o (squint-eyed).

ter:o or ted>o (crooked).

vad:o (big).

var:o or vad>o (patty).

var:aa or vad>aa (patties).

shaal:aa (in Marathi, means school in English).

I have used the Roman equivalents of Devanagree vowels as shown below:

a aa i ee u oo e (or ey) ai o au (or ou)

For the different pronunciations and nasal nuances of N, we can choose from n: n> n< (n)^ (n)* (n)'. In the last three versions of the nasal nuances, the letter n need not be shown before the ^ sign, asterisk and apostrophe.

The following are examples of different possibilities of using some of the above signs:

paan:ee (water); raan:ee (queen); ghan:aa (many);

maan:hoon* or maan:hoo* (men);

maayoon* or maayoo* (women); chhokriyoon* or chhokriyoo* (girls);

asaan' asaa' asaa* or asaa^ (we);

b:akriyoon* or b:akriyoo' (goats); toon' or too' (you).

naheen* nahee' nahee* or nahee^ (no) ( in Hindi).

kahaansey kahaa'sey kahaa*sey or kahaa^sey (from where) (in Hindi).

All the other details about the Perfect Roman Script will be given in my full article which I shall publish on my two websites www.SindhiKalakar.com and www.NewzViews.com in the near future.

We should start using the new Roman script for correspondence in Sindhi very soon without waiting for any permission from any government, university, academy or association. There is no need for getting any sanction from any government because we don't need any financial assistance or grant for using the new Roman script for correspondence in Sindhi.

(This article was released to the Press and Sindhi Organizations on 31 July 2004)

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Additional Information on

Jaisingha's Perfect Roman Script

As announced by me in my article released to the Press and Sindhi organizations on 31 July 2004, a copy of which is shown above, I am giving some of the other details about the Perfect Roman Script on this website here.

I prefer to write the Roman equivalents for the Devanagree consonants as shown below :-

ka kha ga gha ng:a

(or ng>a)

cha chha ja jha nya

ta thha da dhha n:a

(hard) (hard)

ta tha da dha na

(or t<a) (or d<a) soft ta and da

(or t:a)

pa fa & pha ba bha ma

(or fa & f:a) soft and hard fa

ya ra la va

sha sa ha za

r:a (or d>a) r:ha (or d>ha)

g:a j:a d:a b:a (for Sindhi)

The following notes explain the use of some consonants :-

1. In Sindhi, there are 4 consonants with special pronunciations for which I have chosen the following equivalents in the Roman script :-

g:a j:a d:a b:a

The equivalents of d:a and b:a are also present in the Gujarati language.

2. At present, we are using pha in Roman Sindhi for the hard alternative of fa, but in English the letter f and ph are pronounced softly in the same way. Foto and photo are actually pronounced in the same way in English. So, in future, we may write the hard alternative of fa as f:a to distinguish foto and photo (picture) from f:oto (cardamom). We may write phatphatee as f:atf:atee (motorcycle) and phataakaa as f:ataakaa (firecrackers). Of course we even have the choice to spell the words as ph:oto, ph:atph:atee and ph:ataakaa, but that makes the words longer.

3. In Marathi, there is a hard alternative pronunciation of la which can be written as l:a in the Roman script.

4. In English dictionaries, there is a pronunciation denoted by zh which is found in the words like measure, treasure, leisure, television, azure, etc. We have no exact or proper equivalent for zh in the Devanagree script. While writing in the Roman script for Sindhi, I feel that it is better to denote the equivalent of that pronunciation by z: instead of zh.

5. In Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Sindhi and other languages, there are some consonants which are variations of ka, kha, ga, etc., which can be denoted by k:a, kh:a, g>a or g<a, etc. We can choose different signs that are suitable for denoting the different variations of any consonant to avoid the confusion which can result from using the same sign for a number of variations of the same consonant.

6. We should also avoid the confusion due to any mix-up of the English letters d and t with their hard and soft pronunciations. To distinguish between them, we have the following options:-

d and d> or d and d< for the letter d.

t and t> or t and t< or even t and t: for the letter t.

I wish to give preference to the English versions for the use of the letters d and t, as the hard pronunciations of d and t, as English is the most widely used European language in the world. We should remember that we frequently insert many English words in our sentences while speaking and writing in Sindhi. Many of those words contain the letters d and t which must be pronounced as in English. So the softer versions of d and t should be denoted by d< and t< (or t:).

We can use the letter d as in daakoo (dacoit), and d< as in d<ost (friend) and d<aftar (office). We should not use d: to write d:ost as it has already been decided to use d: for another consonant as shown in the Sindhi words like d:aad:o (grandfather), d:ad:u (dull), d:aha (ten), d:ingo (naughty, unruly), d:isu (see), etc.

We can use the letter t as in tiklee (stamp), and t< as in t<aakat<a (strength) and t<akhtu (throne). We can even use t: as in t:aakat:a and t:akhtu, because we do not have to use t: for any other pronunciation as in the case of d:.

I don't wish to insist on my preferences being accepted at present, as both the hard and soft pronunciations of the letters d and t are already being used in English and many other European languages. We should not decide about how the hard and soft versions of the letters d and t should be distinguished without arriving at a consensus after discussing the problem with the European linguists. We may continue to use the letters d and t for both their hard and soft versions without distinguishing between them with the help of any signs, till the issue is finally resolved properly.

7. In Sindhi and Hindi, there are two consonants which can be considered as the two types of variations of both ra and da. Their equivalents in the Roman script can be represented by r:a and r:ha or by d>a and d>ha as in the examples shown below:

b:or:o or b:od>o (deaf man).

b:or:ee or b:od>ee (deaf woman).

kor:hee or kod>hee (leper).

kaar:ho or kaad>ho (brew; concoction).

par:hu or pad>hu (read).

peer:hee or peed>hee (generation).

per:o or ped>o (a sweet).

por:ho or pod>ho (old man).

seer:hee or seed>hee (ladder).

thhor:o or thhod>o (bald).

ter:o or ted>o (crooked).

var:o or vad>o (patty).

var:aa or vad>aa (patties).

As the consonant da already has some other variations in its pronunciations, I give preference to the use of r:a and r:ha. We should prefer to use words like b:or:o, b:or:ee, kaar:ho, par:hu, peer:hee, per:o, por:ho, seer:hee, thhor:o, ter:o, var:o, var:aa, etc. Therefore, we should avoid using the words above which contain the consonants written as d>a and d>ha.

8. We must leave behind the unecessary baggage of the Arabic and Devanagree scripts while using the modified Roman script for Sindhi or any other language. As far as possible, we should try to avoid the use of more than one form of a consonant for exactly the same pronunciation as it is done for sa, sha, za, etc., in the Sindhi language written in the Arabic script.

Roman Equivalents of Devanagree vowels

I have used the Roman equivalents of Devanagree vowels as shown below :-

a aa i ee u oo e (or ey) ai o au (or ou) a' a-a

The following examples in the English language form the basis for the system of my using the vowels and vowel combinations for writing Sindhi in the Roman script :-

a as pronounced in a boy; Roman; Norman; woman; human; organ.

aa as pronounced in bazaar; salaam; ma'am (madam); baa baa (goat's bleating).

i as pronounced in din; pin; thin; fit; sit; hill; bill; will; tip; with; milk; gift; lift.

ee as pronounced in keen; seen; green; feet; meet; greet; deed; feed; seed; reed; teen.

u as pronounced in bull; full; pull; put; push; bush.

oo as pronounced in boon; moon; soon; cartoon; tool; fool; school; food; mood; root.

e or ey as pronounced in cafe; fete; hey; they; whey; prey; grey. Ordinarily, we should not use ey in the middle of the word, but at the end of it; as e can be used in the middle.

ai as pronounced in air; chair; fair; hair; lair; pair.

o as pronounced in roll; toll; old; cold; gold; fold; mold; sold; told; bolt; colt; dolt.

au or ou pronounced almost as in shroud; proud; pound; round; sound; ground.

There are no proper examples in English for au. Au in Sindhi and Hindi is a combination of two vowels a and u. The joint vowel can be understood by writing it as a-u which separately can be pronounced as the a in the word Roman and as the u in the word bull, just as shown separately in the examples of the two vowels above. Au in fraud and maraud are not good examples because they are pronounced quite differently.

a' or a* can represent the "anusvara" in Sindhi, Hindi and other Indian languages as written in the Devanagree script. In English, the apostrophe can be used in place of the omitted letters in words like I'm, don't, won't, you'll, can't, etc. In Sindhi written in the Roman script, we can use the apostrophe or the asterisk to indicate the pronunciation of the "anusvara" which is a subtle nasal nuance of the letter n. We should use the apostrophe or the asterisk wherever the subtle form of n can be omitted and replaced by the "anusvara".

We can use the apostrophe to replace n in the words as shown below :-

maan:hoo' for maan:hoon (men);

maayoo' for maayoon (women);

chhokriyoo' for chhokriyoon (girls);

asaa' for asaan (we);

b:akriyoo' b:akriyoon (goats);

too' for toon (you).

nahee' for naheen (no) ( in Hindi).

kahaa'sey for kahaansey (from where) (in Hindi).

The use of the apostrophe (or asterisk) to indicate the "anusvara" gives greater accuracy in pronouncing the Sindhi and Hindi words written in the Roman script.

a: of Devanagree should be written as a-a or a-a-a or a-a-a-a which is just a lengthened pronunciation of any vowel. This is done especially while calling out the name of a person, during excited behavior and during shouting for any reason. We can lengthen the pronunciation of some other vowels in a similar way.

There can be a problem in the use of the colon as a colon. In Sindhi written in the modified Roman script, we should use the colon as a colon by leaving a space before and after it ( : ). Alternatively, we can use a dash, hyphen ( - ) or double hyphen ( -- ), leaving space on both sides, instead of a colon. We can even use the colon followed by a hyphen ( :- ) instead of a colon alone.

Some persons wrongly claim that the Devanagree script is absolutely perfect, as they believe it has alphabets for all the phonetically correct pronunciations. It is also wrong to believe that Devanagree has vowels for all the regularly spoken words of other languages. We know a lot about the funny ways in which many of us speak English in India because the scripts of our languages do not have provision for all the pronunciations.

In the original Devanagree script of Sanskrit, we have no provision for the pronunciation as found in words like all, ball, call, doll, God, not, sought, naughty, haughty, etc. We pronounce these words as aal, baal, kaal, daal or dole, Gaad, naat, saat, naatee, haatee, etc. They should be pronounced something like aawl, baawl, kaawl, daawl, Gaawd, naawt, saawt, naawtee, haawtee, etc. Modern Devanagree now uses a moon-shaped sign on top of the alphabets to denote such a change in the pronunciation. However, in Devanagree, we still do not seem to have any provision for the proper pronunciation of words like get, set, met, jet, etc.

Like a-u and aaw, we may require equivalents in the new Roman script for vowel combinations like a-ee, a-oo, a-ey, aa-ee, aa-oo, aa-ey, ee-ey, o-ey, o-ai, o-au, u-ey, u-ai, u-o, u-au, etc. They can become necessary when we have to write words coming from many different languages in the Roman script.

As far as possible, we should avoid using too many pronunciation signs so that the Roman script becomes easy to learn as well as appears neat and clean.

The Roman Sindhi should preferably be printed in bold or thicker fonts as the colon sign (:), apostrophe ('), and asterisk (*) can be seen more clearly in thicker fonts.

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Ashok T. Jaisinghani. E-mail: atsingha@vsnl.com

Editor & Publisher:

www.SindhiKalakar.com Editor@SindhiKalakar.com

www.NewzViews.com Editor@NewzViews.com

www.Wonder-Cures.com Ashok@Wonder-Cures.com

Tel: (009120) 26353308.

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Letters received in response to my article, Jaisingha's Perfect Roman Script for Sindhi.

Roman Script: Not at all acceptable proposal. We are already having rich script since centuries. Instead of working on borrowed foreign script we need to UNITE and work hard to stick to our original ancestoral ARABIC-Script ONLY. I'm not expert on the subject but there's no need to even consider any such proposal. Our so called selfish leadres and unconcerned followers are cause for present situation.........
Parshottam Rohera. 3 August 2004
Email : parshottamrohera@hotmail.com
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My dear Ashok Jaisinghani
There seems to be a generation gap. Mr. Rohera has a fear that the present Lipi is being totally abolished. But that is not the case. Roman script is BEING used today for all the languages, so far as internet and E mail is concerned. The reason is simple. The computer keyboard has Roman script only.

    I am having some Sindhi friends. We always write Sindhi in Roman script, and we enjoy it. Therefore the idea of publishing books in Roman script has to be put forward very gently, and in a convincing manner.
    Regards
Ram Daryani.   7 August 2004
Email : ramdaryani@yahoo.com
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Dear Daryaniji,
   I do agree with your views since to learn Sindhi typing is very difficult task now that too for younger generation who does not know even to talk in Sindhi.
    Ashok Jaisinghani has done very good job.
        Kishor Lalwani.   7 Aug 2004
Email : kishor_1957@yahoo.com
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My Reply to Parshottam Rohera

Dear Mr. Parshottam Rohera,
    Many Sindhis belonging to the older generations are exercising their freedom to read and write in the Arabic script. Nobody can object to that. But why are you against others who want to use the Devanagree and Roman scripts for the Sindhi language? In a democracy, on the basis of which law can you prevent the younger generations from learning Sindhi in the Devanagree and Roman scripts?
    Can you inform me why anyone cannot choose to learn Sindhi in any suitable script of his or her choice? When there are no longer any facilities available to teach Sindhi in the Arabic script in most parts of India and the rest of the world, except Pakistan, how can persons like you forcibly stop young Sindhis from learning Sindhi in the Devanagree and Roman scripts? Do you have any dictatorial rights to prevent the learning of Sindhi in the non-Arabic scripts and thus cause the early death of the Sindhi language among the Hindu Sindhis spread all over India and the world?
    Many other Sindhi linguists have also suggested the use of the Roman Script, which is actually being used at present for email correspondence especially by the many young Sindhis living abroad.
    Do you think that you, and other persons like you, have the power to prevent the adoption of the Roman script by Sindhis for their email correspondence? Why don't you try to stop the use of the Roman script for Sindhi and see what happens? You are going to flop very miserably in your attempt!
            Sincerely,
    Ashok T. Jaisinghani.
__________________________________

    Thanks for mail will visit your site. Will send you small article in Roman script and you can publish on your site. Nothing wrong Roman script used on web sites. In way Sindhis can read Sindhi and will be able to speak Sindhi.

    Best wishes with you.
Success you will surely get.
    H.D.R.   10 Aug 2004
Hargun Rajani Email : hargun123@hotmail.com
__________________________________

Dear Ashok,
    I think you have done wonderful work. My congratulations to you. I am a member of Executive committee of Sindhi Association of Southern California.
    Is there a printed version of Roman Script, which I can download or buy a copy. Please let me know.
    Maharbani,
  Kishore Lala. USA. 2 Aug 2004
Email :   kishallala@hotmail.com

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Articles on Scripts for Sindhi & Survival of Sindhi Language

http://yangtze.cs.uiuc.edu/~jamali/sindh/sammelan/04.html

http://www.chandiramani.com/project/sindhi.htm

Email G. L. Chandiramani : industrial_supplies1948@yahoo.co.in

http://www.chandiramani.com/index.htm

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