Balochi language

Balochi
بلۏچی Balòci
Balochi in Balo-Rabi and Latin script
Native to	Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan
Region	Balochistan
Ethnicity	Baloch
Native speakers	3–5 million (2011)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Northwestern II Balochi
Writing system	Balochi Standard Alphabet
Official status
Regulated by	Balochi Academy, Quetta, Pakistan
Language codes
ISO 639-2	bal
ISO 639-3	bal – inclusive code Individual codes: bgp – Eastern Balochi bgn – Western Balochi bcc – Kachi dialect (Southern Balochi) ktl – Koroshi
Glottolog	balo1260
Linguasphere	58-AAB-a > 58-AAB-aa (East Balochi) + 58-AAB-ab (West Balochi) + 58-AAB-ac (South Balochi) + 58-AAB-ad (Bashkardi)
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A speaker of Eastern Balochi

Balochi (بلۏچی‎, Balòci) is a Northwestern Iranian language^[2] spoken primarily in the Balochistan region divided between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. It is spoken by 3 to 5 million people.^[3] In addition to Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan, it is also spoken in Oman, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Turkmenistan, East Africa and in diaspora communities in other parts of the world.^[3] According to Brian Spooner:^[4]

Literacy for most Baloch-speakers is not in Balochi, but in Urdu in Pakistan and Persian in Afghanistan and Iran. Even now very few Baloch read Balochi, in any of the countries, even though the alphabet in which it is printed is essentially identical with Persian and Urdu.

The original homeland of the Balochi language is suggested to be around central Caspian region.^[5]

Classification[]

Balochi is an Indo-European language, belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the family. As an Iranian language it is classified in the Northwestern group. Glottolog classifies 3 different varieties, namely Eastern Balochi, Koroshi and Southern-Western Balochi, under the "Balochic" group.^[6]

Morphology[]

Balochi, like many Western Iranian languages, has lost the Old Iranian gender distinctions.^[7]

Phonology[]

Vowels[]

The Balochi vowel system has at least eight vowels: five long and three short.^{[8][page needed]} These are /aː/, /eː/, /iː/, /oː/, /uː/, /a/, /i/ and /u/. The short vowels have more centralized phonetic quality than the long vowels. The variety spoken in Karachi also has nasalized vowels, most importantly /ẽː/ and /ãː/.^{[9][page needed]}

Consonants[]

The following table shows consonants which are common to both Northern and Southern Balochi.^{[10][page needed]} The consonants /s/, /z/, /n/, /ɾ/ and /l/ are articulated as alveolar in Western Balochi. The plosives /t/ and /d/ are dental in both dialects.

Notes

In addition, /f/ occurs in a few words in Southern Balochi. /x/ (voiceless velar fricative) in some loanwords in Southern Balochi corresponding to /χ/ (voiceless uvular fricative) in Western Balochi; and /ɣ/ (voiced velar fricative) in some loanwords in Southern Balochi corresponding to /ʁ/ (voiced uvular fricative) in Western Balochi.

In Eastern Balochi, it is noted that the stop and glide consonants may also occur as aspirated allophones in word initial position as [pʰ tʰ ʈʰ t͡ʃʰ kʰ] and [wʱ]. Allophones of stops in postvocalic position include for voiceless stops, [f θ x] and for voiced stops [β ð ɣ]. /n l/ are also dentalized as [n̪ l̪].^[11]

Grammar[]

The normal word order is subject–object–verb. Like many other Indo-Iranian languages, Balochi also features split ergativity. The subject is marked as nominative except for the past tense constructions where the subject of a transitive verb is marked as oblique and the verb agrees with the object.^[12]

Numerals[]

Much of the Balochi number system is identical to Persian.^[13] According to Mansel Longworth Dames, Bolochi writes the first twelve numbers as follows:^[14]

Notes

Dialects[]

There are two main dialects: the dialect of the Mandwani (northern) tribes and the dialect of the Domki (southern) tribes.^[15] The dialectal differences are not very significant.^[15] One difference is that grammatical terminations in the northern dialect are less distinct compared with those in the southern tribes.^[15] An isolated dialect is Koroshi, which is spoken in the Qashqai tribal confederation in the Fars province. Koroshi distinguishes itself in grammar and lexicon among Balochi varieties.^[16]

Writing system[]

Balochi was not a written language before the 19th century,^[17] and the Persian script was used to write Balochi wherever necessary.^[17] However, Balochi was still spoken at the Baloch courts.^{[citation needed]}

British colonial officers first wrote Balochi with the Latin script.^[18] Following the creation of Pakistan, Baloch scholars adopted the Persian alphabet. The first collection of poetry in Balochi, by Mir Gul Khan Nasir was published in 1951 and incorporated the Arabic Script. It was much later that Sayad Zahoor Shah Hashemi wrote a comprehensive guidance on the usage of Arabic script and standardized it as the Balochi Orthography in Pakistan and Iran. This earned him the title of the 'Father of Balochi'. His guidelines are widely used in Eastern and Western Balochistan. In Afghanistan, Balochi is still written in a modified Arabic script based on Persian.^{[citation needed]}

In 2002, a conference was held to help standardise the script that would be used for Balochi.^[19]

Orthography[]

The following alphabet was used by Syed Zahoor Shah Hashmi in his lexicon of Balochi Sayad Ganj (سید گنج) (lit. Sayad's Treasure).^[20][21]

آ، ا، ب، پ، ت، ٹ، ج، چ، د، ڈ، ر، ز، ژ، س، ش، ک، گ، ل، م، ن، و، ھ ہ، ء، ی ے

Kachi dialect (Southern Balochi) standarded Alphabets[]

The Balochi alphabet, standardized by Balochi Academy Sarbaz, consists of 29 letters.^[22]

Latin alphabet[]

The following Latin-based alphabet was adopted by the International Workshop on "Balochi Roman Orthography" (University of Uppsala, Sweden, 28–30 May 2000).^[23]

Alphabetical order

a á b c d ď e f g ĝ h i í j k l m n o p q r ř s š t ť u ú v w x y z ž ay aw (33 letters and 2 digraphs)

References[]

Bibliography[]

Further reading[]

External links[]

Wikivoyage has phrasebook for Balochi.

• Media related to Balochi language at Wikimedia Commons
• Collett, N. A. A grammar, phrase book and vocabulary of Baluchi: (as spoken in the Sultanate of Oman). 2nd ed. [Camberley]: [N.A. Collett], 1986.
• Dames, Mansel Longworth. A sketch of the northern Balochi language, containing a grammar, vocabulary and specimens of the language. Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1881.
• Mumtaz Ahmad. Baluchi glossary: a Baluchi-English glossary: elementary level. Kensington, Md.: Dunwoody Press, 1985.
• EuroBalúči online translation tool – translate Balochi words to or from English, Persian, Spanish, Finnish and Swedish
• iJunoon English to Balochi Dictionary
• EuroBalúči – Baluchi alphabet, grammar and music
• "Baluchi" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
• Jahani, C. 2019. A Grammar of Modern Standard Balochi