Brahui language
Brahui is a Dravidian language which is primarily spoken in central and southern parts of the Pakistani province of Balochistan, with smaller communities in Iranian Baluchestan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan. Expatriate Brahui communities also exist in Iraq, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Brahui is geographically isolated from other Dravidian languages, with the nearest being over away in South India. The Kalat, Khuzdar, Mastung, Quetta, Bolan, Nasirabad, Nushki, and Kharan districts of Balochistan Province are predominantly Brahui-speaking.
Brahui is the only Dravidian language that is primarily written in the Arabic script. It is also written in the Latin script.
Etymology
The origin of the word "Brahui" is uncertain. Mikhail Andronov hypothesised a derivation from Dravidian. However, Josef Elfenbein found it unconvincing and hypothesised a derivation from Saraiki brāhō, referring to the prophet Abraham; the term perhaps served to distinguish the neo-Muslim nomadic pastoralists — who had migrated into Sindh from the Western Deccan ago and adopted Islam.Distribution
Brahui is spoken in the central part of Pakistani Balochistan, mainly in the 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. There are also an unknown number of expatriate Brahuis in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, and Turkmenistan.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, the most common theory is that the Brahui were part of a Dravidian migration into north-western parts of the Pakistan in the 3rd millennium BC, but unlike other Dravidians who migrated to the south, they remained in Sarawan and Jahlawan since before 2000 BC. 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. Others claimed that Brahui was a Dravidian language spoken by the indigenous people of Kalat valley, and was later adopted by Baloch tribes who spoke Balochi and Brahui tribes who at the time spoke a language known as Kurdgali. 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. One scholar places the migration as late as the 13th or 14th century. 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. The Brahui language, with all dialects, was called Kurdi or Kurdgali, after the Kurd tribe, with Brahui becoming used more after the British colonization.David W. McAlpin and Franklin Southworth proposed 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 and was widely distributed in South Asia and parts of eastern West Asia before the Indo-Aryan migration.
Dialects
There are no important dialectal differences. Jhalawani and Sarawani dialects are distinguished by the pronunciation of *h, which is retained only in the north.Brahui has been influenced by the Iranian languages spoken in the area, including Persian, Balochi and Pashto.
Phonology
Brahui vowels show a partial length distinction between long and diphthongs and short. 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. However, some older sources, such as by Denys Bray, claimed that Brahui has had a short, in addition to its long counterpart.| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | |||
| Mid | |||
| Open |
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, a sound not otherwise found in the region.
Consonants are also very similar to those of Balochi, but Brahui has more fricatives and nasals.
- 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, ʔust 'heart'.
- and vary freely in many cases; contrast is limited to two or three items. Conditions for the emergence of are not clear.
- does not occur word-initially. → before in northern Brahui, e.g. xūrt → xūṛt 'tiny'.
- The consonants 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.
- occurs before velar stops.
- Brahui preserves the PD laryngeal * as in some words e.g. PD. *caH- ~ *ceH- > Br. kah-.
Stress
Orthography
Brahui is the only Dravidian language which is not known to have been written in a Brahmi-based script.Arabic script
Brahui has been written in the Arabic script since the second half of the 20th century. Other Dravidian languages have also been historically written in the Arabic script by the Muslim minority speakers of each respective language, namely Arabi-Tamil and Arabi-Malayalam.In Pakistan, an Urdu based Nastaʿlīq script is used in writing. Brahui orthography is unique in having the letter 'ڷ', representing the sound. Table below presents the letters adopted for Brahui orthography:
| Letter | Latin equivalent | IPA |
| á, a, i, u | ,,, | |
| b | ||
| p | ||
| t | ||
| ŧ | ||
| j | ||
| c | ||
| x | ||
| d | ||
| đ | ||
| r | ||
| ŕ | ||
| z | ||
| ź | ||
| s | ||
| ş | ||
| ',,, | ,,, | |
| ģ | ||
| f | ||
| k | ||
| g | ||
| l | ||
| ļ | ||
| m | ||
| n | ||
| ń | ||
| v, o, ú | ,, | |
| h | ||
| y, í | , | |
| e |
Latin script
More recently, a Roman-based orthography named Brolikva 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:
The letters with diacritics are the long vowels, the post-alveolar or retroflex consonants, and the voiced velar or voiceless alveolar fricatives.
The native alphabetic order is: 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