Rakhshani dialect

Rakhshani, also termed Western Balochi, is a Balochi dialect. The dialect has several important subdialects and spoken predominantly in Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. The Ethnologue website has classified the dialect under the western Balochi.

Dialects

Elfenbein divides the Rakhshani dialect into three categories:

Kalati.
Panjguri.
Sarhaddi.
Phonology

Western Balochi has 21 consonant phonemes and 6 vowel phonemes.

Consonant vowels	p, t, t̥, č, k, b, d, d̥, ǰ, g,, s, š,, h, z, ž,, m, n, r, r̥, l, w, y
long vowels	aː, iː, uː
Short vowel	a, e, o
Compound vowel	ı͂, o͂, u͂

Vowles

three short and five long vowels for the Rakhshani dialect as ə, y, w, a, i, u, e, o. nasalized ones a͂, e͂, ı͂, o͂, u͂, “of which only a͂, e͂ are common in the Rakhshani dia-lects.

Scholars	Vowel systems	Dialects
Rzehak	ī, i, ē, a, ā, ō, u, ū	Rakhshani in Afghanistan
Axenov	ī, i, ē, a, ā, ō, u, ū	Rakhshani in Turkmenistan
Ahangar	ī, i, e, ē, a, ā, o, ō, u, ū	Sarhaddi in Iran

Consonants

The consonants /p/, /t/, /t̥/, /č/, /k/, /b/, /d/, /d̥/, /ǰ/, /g/, //, /s/, /š/, //, /h/, /z/, /ž/, //, /m/, /n/, /r/, /r̥/, /l/, /w/ and /y/ are articulated as alveolar in Western Balochi. The plosives /t/ and /d/ are dental in both dialects. The symbol ń is used to denote nasalization of the preceding vowel. The consonants /s/, /z/, /n/, /ɾ/ and /l/ are articulated as alveolar in Western Balochi. The consonants /f x ġ/ in the Rakhshani dialect often remain, but in Makrani they become /p/, /k/ or /h/, and /g/, respectively.
In addition, /f/ occurs in a few words in Southern Balochi. /x/ in some loanwords in Southern Balochi corresponding to /ʁ/ in Western Balochi.

IPA	Rakhshani Alphabet	Romanization	Example Word	Example Word	Notes
b	ب	b	بُرز borz	b in "bat"
p	پ	p	پیروک piroč	p in "pat"
t	ت	t	تَوار tawar	t in "tab"
d	د	d	دمان damān	d in "dab"
k	ک	k	کارچ karch	c in "cat"
g	گ	g	گوار go, ar	g in "got"
s	س	s	سوچن soochen	s in "sing"
z	ز	z	زاماس zamas	z in "zipper"
ʃ	ش	ş	شگال shagal	sh in "shoe"	-
ʒ	ژ	j	ژامب Žimb	ge in "beige"	sometimes romanized as
t͡ʃ	چ	ç	چاگرد Càgerd	ch in "cheap"
d͡ʒ	ج	c	جامگ jamag	j in "jump"	sometimes romanized as "j"
h	ھ	h	هال Hàl	h in "hat"
m	م	m	مَٹ Maťť	m in "map"
n	ن	n	نيمروچ nimroch	n in "none"
w	و	w	وهد Wahd	w in "water"
j	ى	y	یات Yàt	y in "yellow"
l	ل	l	لُنٹ Lònť	l in "let"

Syllable

In Western Balochi dialects the stress is on the last syllable of the word as a rule. The pronominal suffixes and the present copula, which are enclitic except for the individuation marker -e. For inflected forms of the interrogative pronouns č ē 'what' are stressed on the first syllable.
The negative prefix na- and the prohibitive prefix ma- attract the stress. Verb forms with the prefix b likewise have the stress on the first syllable thus on the first syllable of the stem if the vowel of the prefix is omitted, see and the nominal part of complex predicates takes the phrase stress. Inflected forms of the interrogative pronouns ce 'what' are stressed on the first syllable, however. There are also a few adverbs that are stressed on the first syllable.

Grammar

In the Rakhshani dialect, the infinitive noun is often formed from the past participle and ends in -tin. The active adjective, the future passive adjective and the active noun are formed by adding the suffixes ān-, -agī and -ōk to the present participle, respectively, and the passive adjective is formed by adding the suffix -a to the past participle.
In some dialects of Balochi spoken in Western Balochistan the construction employs the verb twánag ‘to be able to’ + present-future subjunctive forms of the main verb. Twánag ‘to be able to’ is conjugated as a transitive verb.
The western balochi dialects have -ay for the Genitive and -ârā or -ānā for the Object.
Western Balochi dialects are moving from a split ergative toward a nominative - accusative system. 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. Balochi, like many Western Iranian languages, has lost the Old Iranian gender distinctions.

Sentence	Meaning
ما توانین بیاین Má twánén byáén.	We can come
آیان نتوانت اِدا لوگے ادّ بکننت Áyán natwánt edá lógé addh bekanant.	They could not build a house here.

Pronouns

Sarhaddi

One of the sub-dialects of Rakhshani is the Sarhaddi dialect, which is more influenced by the Persian language and in which words, compounds and even grammatical structures of the Persian language are more commonly seen; that is, words from Modern Persian have been used after phonetic changes, as well as a number of Persian grammatical structures in this dialect. For example, words from Persian that end in "unvoiced ha" are considered after converting "e" to "g" and "e" is converted to "g" and used in the Sarhaddi. Sarhaddi includes infinitive, adverbial and infinitive noun, all of which are made from the verb stem and certain suffixes.

Northern Rakhshani

Northern Rakhshani has similarities with Sarhaddi, and Turkmen Rakhshani also originated from Balochi Rakhshani. The difference between Northern Rakhshani and Sarhaddi is that: In the past tense, the letter "g" has been removed from Northern Rakhshani, but it is still present in Sarhaddi.

Sarhaddi	Northern	Persian	English
نشته‌گون/نشتگ اون	نشته‌اون	نشسته‌ام	I am sitting.
شته اون/شتگ اون	شوته‌اون	رفته‌ام	I am gone.
وانته‌گون/وانتگ اون	وانته‌اون	خوانده‌ام	I have read.
دیسته گون/دیستگ اون	دیسته‌اون	دیده‌ام	I have seen.
زانته‌گون/زانتگ اون	زانته‌اون	دانسته‌ام	I have known.

Northern Rakhshani is spoken in the provinces of Nimroz, Farah, Helmand, Kandahar, Herat, and some northern provinces of Afghanistan.

Rakhshani of Turkmenistan

speak a dialect of the Balochi language that is very close to the Balochi dialect of the Baloch people of Afghanistan. The Balochi dialect of Turkmenistan belongs to the Rakhshani dialect.

Tenses	Rakhshani	Persian	English
Present-future	man kār-a kanīnman-a raīn	من کار می‌کنممن می‌روم	I am working I am going
Simple past	man kār kurtunman šutun	من کار کردممن رفتم	I worked I went
Past continuous	man kār-a kurtunman-a šutun	من داشتم کار می‌کردممن داشتم می‌رفتم	I was working I was leaving
present perfect	man kār kurtá unman šutá un	من کار کرده‌اممن رفته‌ام	I have worked I have gone
Past perfect	man kār kurt-átunman šut-átun	من کار کرده بودممن رفته بودم	I had worked I had gone

Some verb constituents have gradually been eliminated from this dialect, but traces of them still exist. The third-person singular indefinite pronoun is often used with transitive verbs, and sometimes without transitive verbs.

Rakhshani	Persian	English
man rawagā-y-un	من دارم می‌روم	I am leaving.
man rawagā-y-atun	من داشتم می‌رفتم	I was leaving.

Rakhshani	Rakhshani	Persian	English
gušt-ī	ā gušt	او گفت	He said
kurt-ī	ā kurt	او انجام داد	He did
šut-ī	ā šut	او رفت	He left
jist-ī	ā jist	او فرار کرد	He ran away

Vocabulary

Following are comparing the vocabulary of the Makrani and Sarhaddi dialects.

English	Rakshani	Southern Balochi
Look	sayl kanag	čârag
Child	zahg	čokk
Cradle	juṭṭ	Gwânzag
River	rôd	kawr
Miserly	morr	muzz
Breakfast	nâštâ	nahâri
thin	nâzork	nâzorok
Cotton	pammag	Pamba
Sarcasm	šegân	šagâm
Salt	šôr	sôr
Shadow	syâheg	sâheg
Yogurt	bastag	mastag