northwestern Indo-Aryan language spoken in the province of Sindh, Pakistan, and in the neighbouring Rann of Kutch and Kāthiāwār Peninsula in India. The standard Sindhi dialect is Vicholi. Kacchi, spoken in Kutch, is classified by some as a Sindhi dialect strongly influenced by the Gujarati language and is considered by others to be a transitional dialect between Sindhi and Gujarati. Sindhi is closely related to the Lahnda language spoken to the north. It has a large number of Persian (Persian language) and Arabic (Arabic language) loanwords (because of centuries of Muslim influence) and is written in a variety of the Persian form of the Arabic alphabet. Hindus use a form of Devanāgarī writing. Little Sindhi literature was printed before 1920.