Balochi language

Encyclopedia : B : BA : BAL : Balochi language

ə This article contains nonstandard pronunciation information which should be rewritten using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Please see [Manual of Style] for help.

Balochi (also Baluchi, Baloci or Baluci) is a Northwestern Iranian language. It is the principal language of the Baloch of Balochistan, a region in western Pakistan, eastern Iran and southern Afghanistan. It is also spoken as a second language by some Brahui.It is designated as one of nine official languages of Pakistan in the near coming future for government officials and Balochi politcians.

Contents

1 Dialects
2 Sound System

2.1 Vowels
2.2 Diphthongs
2.3 Plosives
2.4 Affricates
2.5 Fricatives
2.6 Nasals
2.7 Trills
2.8 Lateral Approximants
2.9 Approximants

3 History
4 Writing system
5 External links

Dialects

Balochi has several dialects. The Ethnologue lists three major dialects: Eastern Balochi, Western Balochi and Southern Balochi while the Encyclopedia Iranica (from Elfenbein) lists six major dialects: Rakhshani (subdialects: Kalati, Panjguri and Sarhaddi), Saravani, Lashari, Kechi, Coastal Dialects, and Eastern Hill Balochi.

Sound System

Vowels

a, i, u, ā, ī, ē, ū, ō

Diphthongs

ay, aw, āy

Plosives

p, b, t, d, ṭ, ḍ, k, g

Affricates

č, j

Fricatives

s, z, š, ž, h

Allophones for syllable final -b, -t, -d -> -v, -θ, -ð (Eastern Hill Balochi only)
Fricatives in unassimilated loanwords: f, x, ġ

Nasals

m, n, ṇ

Trills

r, ṛ

Lateral Approximants

Approximants

w, y

History

Balochi is closely related to other Northwestern Iranian languages such as Persian and Kurdish.

Writing system

Before the 19th century, Balochi was an unwritten language. The official written language was Persian although Balochi was still spoken at the Baloch courts. British linguists and political historians wrote form with the Roman script, but following independence of Pakistan, Baloch scholars adopted Nasta'liq Arabic script. In Afghanistan, Balochi is written in a modified Arabic script based on what is used for Pashto.

External links

Indo-Iranian languages
Indo-Aryan	Varieties of Sanskrit: Vedic Sanskrit - Classical Sanskrit \| Angika \| Assamese \| Bengali \| Bhojpuri \| Dhivehi \| Dogri \| Gujarati \| Hindi \| Hindustani \| Konkani \| Magadhi \| Mahl \| Maithili \| Marathi \| Nepali \| Oriya \| Pāli \| Prakrit \| Punjabi \| Romani \| Sindhi \| Sinhala \| Urdu
Iranian languages>Iranian	Avestan \| Varieties of Persian: Old Persian - Middle Persion (Pahlavi) - Modern Persian (Fārsī) - Darī (Afghanistan) - Tājikī \| Bactrian \| Balochi \| Dari (Zoroastrianism) \| Gilaki \| Kurdish \| Mazandarani \| Ossetic \| Pamiri \| Pashto \| Saka \| Scythian \| Sogdian \| Talysh \| Tat \| Yagnobi
Dardic languages>Dardic	Dameli \| Domaaki \| Gawar-Bati \| Kalasha \| Kashmiri \| Khowar \| Kohistani \| Nangalami \| Pashayi \| Palula \| Shina \| Shumashti
Nuristani languages>Nuristani	Ashkun \| Kamviri \| Kati \| Prasuni \| Tregami \| Waigali

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.