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Brahui[3] (/brəˈhuːi/;[4] Brahui: براہوئی; also known as Brahvi or Brohi) is a Dravidian language spoken by some of the Brahui people. The language is spoken primarily in the central part of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan, with smaller communities of speakers scattered in parts of Iran, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan[5] and by expatriate Brahui communities in Iraq, Qatar and United Arab Emirates.[6] It is isolated from the nearest Dravidian-speaking neighbour population of South India by a distance of more than 1,500 kilometres (930 mi).[2] The Kalat, Khuzdar, Mastung, Quetta, Bolan, Nasirabad, Nushki, and Kharan districts of Balochistan Province are predominantly Brahui-speaking.

Brahui
براہوئی
The word Brahui written in the Nastaliq script
Pronunciation	[bɾaːhuiː]
Native to	Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan
Region	Balochistan
Ethnicity	Brahui and Baloch
Native speakers	2,640,000 in Pakistan (Total users in all countries 2,864,400) (2017 Census)[1]
Language family	Dravidian Northern Brahui
Writing system	Arabic script (Nastaʿlīq), Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	brh
Glottolog	brah1256
Brahui (far upper left) is geographically isolated from all other Dravidian languages.[2]
Brahui is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Distribution

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 an unknown very small number of expatriate Brahuis in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, and Turkmenistan.[6]

History

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% other 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]

Dialects

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]

Phonology

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]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i⠀iː		u⠀uː
Mid	eː		oː
Open		a⠀aː

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).

Consonants

	Labial		Dental alveolar		Retroflex		Palato- alveolar		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m		n		ɳ				(ŋ)
Stop	p	b	t	d	ʈ	ɖ	t͡ʃ	d͡ʒ	k	ɡ	ʔ
Fricative	f		s	z			ʃ	ʒ	x	ɣ	h
Lateral			ɬ	l
Rhotic				ɾ		ɽ
Glide								j		w

• [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]

Stress

Stress in Brahui follows a quantity-based pattern, occurring either on the first long vowel or diphthong, or on the first syllable if all vowels are short.

Orthography

Perso-Arabic script

Brahui is the only Dravidian language which is not known to have been written in a Brahmi-based script; instead, it has been written in the Arabic script since the second half of the 20th century.[20] In Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, an Urdu based Nastaʿlīq script is used in writing:

Letter	Latin equivalent	IPA
ا	á, a, i, u	/aː/, /ə/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/
ب	b	/b/
پ	p	/p/
ت	t	/t/
ٹ	ŧ	/ʈ/
ث	(s)	/s/
ج	j	/d͡ʒ/
چ	c	/t͡ʃ/
ح	(h)	/h/
خ	x	/x/
د	d	/d/
ڈ	đ	/ɖ/
ذ	(z)	/z/
ر	r	/ɾ/
ڑ	ŕ	/ɽ/
ز	z	/z/
ژ	ź	/ʒ/
س	s	/s/
ش	ş	/ʃ/
ص	(s)	/s/
ض	(z)	/z/
ط	(t)	/t/
ظ	(z)	/z/
ع	', (a), (i), (u)	/ʔ/, /ə/, /ɪ/, /ʊ/
غ	ģ	/ɣ/
ف	f	/f/
ق	(k)	/k/
ک	k	/k/
گ	g	/g/
ل	l	/l/
ڷ	ļ	/ɬ/
م	m	/m/
ن	n	/n/
ں	ń	/ɳ/
و	v	/w~ʋ/
ہ	h	/h/
ھ	(h)	/h/
ی	y, í	/j/, /iː/
ے	e	/eː/

Latin script

More recently, a Roman-based orthography named Brolikva (an abbreviation of Brahui Roman Likvar) was developed by the Brahui Language Board of the University of Balochistan in Quetta and adopted by the newspaper Talár.

Below is the new promoted Bráhuí Báşágal Brolikva orthography:[3]

b

á

p

í

s

y

ş

v

x

e

z

ź

ģ

f

ú

m

n

l

g

c

t

ŧ

r

ŕ

d

o

đ

h

j

k

a

i

u

ń

ļ

The letters with diacritics are the long vowels, post-alveolar and retroflex consonants, the voiced velar fricative and the voiceless lateral fricative.

Sample text

English

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Arabic script

مُچَّا اِنسَاںک آجو او اِزَّت نَا رِد اَٹ بَرےبَر وَدِى مَسُّنو. اوفتے پُهِى او دَلِىل رَسےںگَانے. اَندَادے وفتے اَسِ اےلو تون اِىلُمِى اے وَدِّفوئِى اے.

Latin script

Muccá insáńk ájo o izzat ná rid aŧ barebar vadí massuno. Ofte puhí o dalíl raseńgáne. andáde ofte asi elo ton ílumí e vaddifoí e.

Endangerment

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]

Publications

Talár is the first daily newspaper in the Brahui language.^{[citation needed]} It uses the new Roman orthography and is "an attempt to standardize and develop [the] Brahui language to meet the requirements of modern political, social and scientific discourse."[23]

References

Sources

External links

• Online Brahui Dictionary
• Handbook of the Birouhi language By Allâh Baksh (1877)
• Brahui Language Board
• Bráhuí Báşágal (Brahui Alphabet)
• Profile of the Brahui language
• Partial bibliography of scholarly works on Brahui
• Britannica Brahui language
• Brahui basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

На других языках

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[de] Brahui (Sprache)

Brahui (brāhōī) ist eine in Pakistan, Afghanistan und Iran gesprochene Sprache aus der Sprachfamilie der dravidischen Sprachen. Sie wird zusammen mit Kurukh und Malto zum norddravidischen Zweig dieser Sprachfamilie gezählt.

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- [en] Brahui language

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[es] Idioma brahui

El brahui (en brahui, براہوئی) es una lengua drávida que se habla principalmente en Beluchistán (Pakistán) y en zonas limítrofes de Afganistán e Irán. Es la lengua del pueblo brahui, pero también es hablada por muchos miembros del pueblo baluchi. Es la quinta lengua dravídica por número de hablantes, y es la única que no se habla en la India; se estima un total de algo más de cuatro millones de hablantes.

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[fr] Brahoui

Le brahoui (brahui en transcription anglaise, بروہی en alphabet arabe) est une langue parlée principalement dans le Baloutchistan au Pakistan, mais aussi en Afghanistan et en Iran. Au Pakistan, elle est principalement utilisée sur le plateau du Kalat dans la région de Balouchistan. La plupart des locuteurs ne savent ni lire ni écrire la langue. Beaucoup sont bilingues et parlent aussi le baloutchi.

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[it] Lingua brahui

La lingua brahui o brahui è una lingua prevalentemente parlata nella regione del Belucistan, tra Iran, Pakistan, India e Afghanistan. Appartiene al ramo settentrionale della famiglia linguistica dravidica.

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[ru] Брауи

Бра́уи (брагуи, брахуи, брагуйский язык) — язык брагуев. Распространён в сопредельных областях Пакистана, Ирана и Афганистана. Число говорящих на брауи не поддаётся точному определению, так как этнические брагуи тесно контактируют с белуджами, владеют белуджским языком и при опросах нередко называют себя белуджами. По наиболее вероятным оценкам, в начале XXI в. на брауи говорят не менее 1,5—1,6 млн человек в Пакистане, 150—200 тыс. человек в Иране и Афганистане. Предположительно несколько сотен брахуи проживает в Марыйской области[2] Туркмении; правда, неясно, насколько они сохранили свой язык.

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