Brahui language

The proportion of people with Brahui as their mother tongue in each Pakistani District as of the 2017 Pakistan Census

Brahui is spoken in the central part of Pakistani Balochistan, mainly in Kalat, Khuzdar and Mastung districts, but also in smaller numbers in neighboring districts, as well as in Afghanistan which borders Pakistani Balochistan; however, many members of the ethnic group no longer speak Brahui.[2] There are also a very small unknown number of expatriate Brahuis in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, and Turkmenistan.[6]

There is no consensus as to whether Brahui is a relatively recent language introduced into Balochistan or the remnant of a formerly more widespread Dravidian language family. According to Josef Elfenbein (1989), the most common theory is that the Brahui were part of a Dravidian migration into north-western India in the 3rd millennium BC, but unlike other Dravidians who migrated to the south, they remained in Sarawan and Jahlawan since before 2000 BC.[7] However, some other scholars see it as a recent migrant language to its present region. They postulate that Brahui could only have migrated to Balochistan from central India after 1000 AD. This is contradicted by genetic evidence that shows the Brahui population to be indistinguishable from neighbouring Balochi speakers, and genetically distant from central Dravidian speakers.[8] The main Iranian contributor to Brahui vocabulary, Balochi, is a Northwestern Iranian language, and moved to the area from the west only around 1000 AD.[9][10] One scholar places the migration as late as the 13th or 14th century.[11] The Brahui lexicon is believed to be of: 35% Perso-Arabic origin, 20% Balochi origin, 20% Indo-Aryan origin, 15% Dravidian origin, and 10% unknown origin.[12][13]

Franklin Southworth (2012) proposes that Brahui is not a Dravidian language, but can be linked with the remaining Dravidian languages and Elamite to form the "Zagrosian family," which originated in Southwest Asia (southern Iran) and was widely distributed in South Asia and parts of eastern West Asia before the Indo-Aryan migration.[14]

There are no important dialectal differences. Jhalawani (southern, centered on Khuzdar) and Sarawani (northern, centered on Kalat) dialects are distinguished by the pronunciation of *h, which is retained only in the north (Elfenbein 1997). Brahui has been influenced by the Iranian languages spoken in the area, including Persian, Balochi and Pashto.[15]

Brahui vowels show a partial length distinction between long /aː eː iː oː uː/ and diphthongs /aɪ̯ aʊ̯/ and short /a i u/. Brahui does not have short /e, o/ due to influence from neighbouring Indo-Aryan and Iranic languages, the PD short *e was replaced by a, ē and i, and ∗o by ō, u and a in root syllables.[16]

Brahui consonants show patterns of retroflexion but lack the aspiration distinctions found in surrounding languages and include several fricatives such as the voiceless lateral fricative [ɬ], a sound not otherwise found in the region.[17] Consonants are also very similar to those of Balochi, but Brahui has more fricatives and nasals (Elfenbein 1993).

• [h] of north corresponds to a glottal stop of south initially and intervocalically. Before a C in word-final position it is lost. Non-phonemic glottal stop before word-initial vowels, e.g. hust (N), ʔust (S) 'heart'.[18]
• [ɬ] and [l] vary freely in many cases; contrast is limited to two or three items. Conditions for the emergence of [ɬ] are not clear.[18]
• /ɽ/ does not occur word-initially. /r/ → /ɽ/ before /t d s z/ in northern Brahui (Elfenbein 1998: 394), e.g. xūrt → xūṛt 'tiny'.[18]
• The consonants [p t k] freely alternate with aspirated counterparts in the northeast. Aspirated stops word-initially occur in loanwords in the south, where they freely vary with unaspirated stops.[18]
• [ŋ] occurs before velar stops /k, g/.[19]
• Brahui preserves the PD laryngeal */H/ as /h/ in some words e.g. PD. *caH- ~ *ceH- > Br. kah-.[16]

According to a 2009 UNESCO report, Brahui is one of the 27 languages of Pakistan that are facing the danger of extinction. It was classified as "unsafe", the least endangered level out of the five levels of concern (Unsafe, Definitely Endangered, Severely Endangered, Critically Endangered and Extinct).[21] This status has since been renamed to "vulnerable".[22]

Brahui language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Online Brahui Dictionary
• Handbook of the Birouhi language By Allâh Baksh (1877)
• Brahui Language Board Archived 2012-06-07 at the Wayback Machine
• Bráhuí Báşágal (Brahui Alphabet) Archived 2012-11-14 at the Wayback Machine
• Profile of the Brahui language
• Partial bibliography of scholarly works on Brahui
• Britannica Brahui language
• Brahui basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database