Balochi language

Balochi (بلۏچی, romanized: Balòci) is a Northwestern Iranian language, spoken primarily in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. In addition, there are speakers in Oman, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Turkmenistan, East Africa and in diaspora communities in other parts of the world.^[3] The total number of speakers, according to Ethnologue, is 8.8 million.^[1] Of these, 6.28 million are in Pakistan.^[4]

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Balochi
بلۏچی Balòci
Balòci (Balochi) written Balo-Rabi in Nastaliq style.
Pronunciation	[bəˈloːt͡ʃiː]
Native to	Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan
Region	Balochistan
Ethnicity	Baloch
Native speakers	8.8 million (2017–2020)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Northwestern Balochi
Writing system	Balochi Standard Alphabet
Official status
Regulated by	Balochi Academy, Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan Balochi Academy Sarbaz, Sarbaz, Iran
Language codes
ISO 639-2	bal
ISO 639-3	bal – inclusive code Individual codes: bgp – Eastern Balochi bgn – Western Balochi bcc – Southern Balochi
Glottolog	balo1260
Linguasphere	> 58-AAB-aa (East Balochi) + 58-AAB-ab (West Balochi) + 58-AAB-ac (South Balochi) + 58-AAB-ad (Bashkardi) 58-AAB-a > 58-AAB-aa (East Balochi) + 58-AAB-ab (West Balochi) + 58-AAB-ac (South Balochi) + 58-AAB-ad (Bashkardi)
The position of Balochi language among Iranian languages.[2]
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Balochi varieties constitute a dialect continuum and collectively at least have 10 million native speakers. The main varieties of Balochi are Eastern(Soleimani), Southern(Makrani) and Western(Rakhshani).^[5] The Koroshi dialect is a dialect of the Balochi language, spoken mainly in the provinces of Fars and Hormozgan.^[6][5][7]

According to Brian Spooner,^[8]

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 to Persian and Urdu.

Balochi belongs to the Western Iranian subgroup, and its original homeland is suggested to be around the central Caspian region.^[9]

Balochi is an Indo-European language, spoken by the Baloch and belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the family. As an Iranian language, it is classified in the Northwestern group.

Glottolog classifies four different varieties, namely Koroshi, Southern Balochi and Western Balochi (grouped under a "Southern-Western Balochi" branch), and Eastern Balochi, all under the "Balochic" group.^[10]

According to Carina Jahani research,^[11][12] ISO 639-3 groups Southern, Eastern, and Western Baloch under the Balochi macrolanguage, keeping Koroshi separate. Balochi, somehow near similarity with the Parthian and on the other hand, it has near kinship to the Avestan.^{[13][14][15][16][17]}

These dialects are broadly categorized into three main groups:^[18]

• Eastern group (the Soleimani dialect group): Found mainly in eastern Balochistan, covering parts of Pakistan, particularly in areas like Quetta, Kalat, and Khuzdar.

• Southern group (part of the Makrani dialect group): Spoken in the southern parts of Balochistan, including coastal areas like Gwadar, Chabahar, and southern Pakistan.^[18]

• Western group (part of the Rakhshani dialect group) : Predominantly spoken in western Balochistan, including parts of Iran and Afghanistan. Commonly spoken in Sistan and Balochestan province and Khorasan in Iran.^[6][18]

Koroshi is also classified as Balochi.^[19]

Elfenbein divides the dialects of the Balochi language into six categories: Rakhshani (subdialects: Kalati and Sarhaddi), Panjguri, Saravani, Lashari, Kechi, and Coastal Dialects.^[9]

Rakhshani ^[9]

• Kalati (areas between Las Bela in the north of Karachi to Mastung in the south of Quetta Chaghi and Kharan (northern areas of Balochistan, Pakistan, including Noshki, Dalbandin, Kharan, and Kalat).

• Panjguri(southern and southwestern areas of Afghanistan, mainly the areas around the Helmand River).

• Sarhadhi (an area that extends from the east to Dalbandin in Pakistan and from the northeast to Chahar Burjak in Afghanistan, and includes Merv in the Republic of Turkmenistan and Sistan in Iran, with Nosratabad in Balochistan, Iran, forming its southernmost part).

Panjguri^[20][11] It includes most of the Kharan region, with the kech River forming its southern border and the Rakhshan River its northern border, and Kolwa located to its east.^[9]

Saravani^[20] Saravan and its surrounding areas, with Khash as its northern border and Espidan as its western border. In later works, Elfenbein, Iranshahr, and Bampur are also considered to be within the Saravani dialect area.^[9][11]

Kechi^[20] Kich region in Balochistan, including Turbat.^[9][11]

Lashari^[9] centered on the village of Lashar , south of Iranshahr where Balochi close to Persian and Baskardi.^[11]

Coastal dialects^[21][22] Including Qasr-e Qand, Nikshahr, Rask and the southern coastal areas of Balochistan from near Bandar Abbas to Karachi Port, including the ports of Chahbahar, Gwadar, Pasni.^[9]

There are two main dialects: the dialect of the Mandwani (northern) tribes and the dialect of the Domki (southern) tribes.^[23] The dialectal differences are not very significant.^[23] One difference is that grammatical terminations in the northern dialect are less distinct compared with those in the southern tribes.^[23] 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.^[24]

The Balochi Academy Sarbaz has designed a standard alphabet for Balochi.^{[25][better source needed]}

Uppsala University offers a course titled Balochi A, which provides basic knowledge of the phonetics and syntax of the Balochi language.^[18] Carina Jahani is a prominent Swedish Iranologist and professor of Iranian languages at Uppsala University, deeply researching in the study and preservation of the Balochi language.^[26]

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.^[32] Balochi, like many Western Iranian languages, has lost the Old Iranian gender distinctions.^[9]

Balochi was not a written language before the 19th century,^[35] and the Persian script was used to write Balochi wherever necessary.^[35] However, Balochi was still spoken at the Baloch courts.^{[citation needed]}

British colonial officers first wrote Balochi with the Latin script.^[36] Following the creation of Pakistan, Baloch scholars adopted the Persian alphabet. The first collection of poetry in Balochi, Gulbang 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 standardize the script that would be used for Balochi.^[37]