Version 1.1, 12 April 2021
Version history:
1.0, 8 March 2021
1.1, 12 April 2021
Introduction
Texts written in the Sindhi language may be written using the Perso-Arabic script or the Devanagari script. Because the majority of present-day Sindhi speakers live in Pakistan, and most Sindhis are muslims, in the first instance we shall treat only Sindhi written in the Perso-Arabic script.
When compared with many applications of the Perso-Arabic script, the Sindhi writing system exhibits a few idiosyncrasies (see the sil.org Lateef Smart Font Features page, specifically the Language-specific illustration).
mīm U+0645 always exhibits the same form, no matter whether it occurs in an isolated position, initially, medially, or finally.
hāʾ U+0647 always exhibits the same form, no matter whether it occurs in an isolated position, initially, medially, or finally.
šadda+kasra, šadda+kasratan: when a consonant carries both šadda+kasra or šadda+kasratan, the kasra or the kasratan is always positioned below the consonant, never above it just below šadda.
sukūn U+0652 is not used to mark the absence of a vowel. The ‘vowel killer’ mark in Sindhi is U+065B ARABIC VOWEL SIGN INVERTED SMALL V ABOVE (which looks like a ^).
The digits are of the ‘Eastern Indic’ kind and encoded as such (U+06F0..06F9), but compared to Persian digits, the shapes of the digits 6 and 7 are different.
The punctuation marks comma and semicolon were formerly encoded as Arabic comma (U+060C) and Arabic semicolon (U+061B). In Sindhi, these punctuation marks must show the comma element pointing downward, not upward as in Arabic text. The Lateef smart fonts (both the Graphite and the OpenType versions) allowed the user to select the glyphs that are appropriate for Sindhi. However, using the Arabic code points is no longer recommended by the Unicode Technical Committee. Instead, use the code points ⹁ (U+2E41 REVERSED COMMA) and ⁏ (U+204F REVERSED SEMICOLON).
Fonts
Very few fonts exist which support typically Sindhi script phenomena. The most advanced at the time of this writing (March-April of 2021) appears to be SIL.org’s Lateef. Lateef currently (March-April of 2021) lacks the distinct punctuation code points ⹁ (U+2E41 REVERSED COMMA) and ⁏ (U+204F REVERSED SEMICOLON), except as glyph variants which can be selected in various ways for the Arabic code points Arabic comma (U+060C) and Arabic semicolon (U+061B). Because the selection of these glyph variants is not without its challenges, Pim Rietbroek has generated a version of Lateef in which the punctuation characters ⹁ (U+2E41 REVERSED COMMA) and ⁏ (U+204F REVERSED SEMICOLON) have been added. This was made legally possible because SIL’s Lateef font was issued under the Open Font License. The adapted font is called KalyanSindhiJOSS. The “JOSS” part in the font name refers to the Brill Journal of Sindhi Studies in which the Sindhi script was first expected to make an appearance.
The font file can be downloaded by choosing the following link: KalyanSindhiJOSS.ttf.
Font sizes
Brill 11 pt: ~ KalyanSindhiJOSS 14 pt
Brill 10 pt: ~ KalyanSindhiJOSS 14 pt
Brill 9 pt: ~ KalyanSindhiJOSS 12 pt
Leading
When Sindhi text written in the Perso-Arabic script occurs inline within a Latin-script context, the Sindhi text follows the Brill Typographical Style baseline grid, i.e., in contexts when ‘Brill’ 10 or 11 pt is specified. In ‘Brill 9 pt’ contexts (such as footnotes, indices), the default leading must be 12 pt. Inline Sindhi text without vowels set in the KalyanSindhiJOSS font at the sizes indicated should not prove problematic. If, however, ascenders or descenders or diacritics clash with characters in the lines immediately above and/or below, leading must be increased locally in order to mitigate this problem.
All-Sindhi paragraphs are treated differently. They do not line up with the Brill Typographical Style baseline grid:
KalyanSindhiJOSS 14 pt: leading 16.8 pt;
KalyanSindhiJOSS 12 pt: leading 12 pt.
Marking emphasis
Emphasis is marked by using colour. This is because currently KalyanSindhiJOSS does not have companion fonts in different weights, such as bold.
Windows and macOS
Windows fonts, as long as they are TrueType fonts (.ttf) or TrueType Collections (.ttc), can also be used on macOS.
