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BALOCHI LANGUAGE

Submitted by M. Abdullah Shaikh

Submission Date: 13th April 2021

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Balochi is spoken in Pakistan's south-west, Iran's south-east, Afghanistan's south, the

Gulf States, and Turkmenistan. Baloch cultures can also be found in East Africa and India and in

many Western countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. It's difficult to

estimate the total number of Baloch speakers, particularly because central governments seldom

mention ethnicity in census records. Still, available data suggests that at least five to eight

million Baloch speak the language. Balochi is strongly linked to Kurdish and Persian and

belongs to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages.

Eastern, southern, and western dialects are the three major dialect groups. Eastern

Balochi dialects are primarily impacted by Indian languages, such as Sindhi and Lahnda. They

are spoken in frontier regions of Indian languages in Punjab, Sind, and the northeastern parts of

Pakistani Balochistan. Southern Balochi is spoken in the southern parts of Iran and Pakistan,
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particularly Karachi and the Gulf States. Western Balochi is spoken in Iran and Pakistan (except

in the northeast), Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan in the northern Balochi-speaking province.

Balochi is a northwestern Iranian language spoken in the Iranian linguistic area's

southeastern corner. According to the Baloch's own historical background, they are of Arabic

descent and moved from Aleppo in Syria after the Battle of Karbala, where they fought on the

side of Shi'a Muslim imam and martyr Hussein while mainly being Sunni Muslims. Even if the

integrity of these legends may be strongly doubted, they may contain some facts. The Baloch's

initial home was likely in the central Caspian region. They were forced to move south-east by

Turkic peoples occupying the Iranian plains from Central Asia. It's also expected that different

ethnic groups, such as Indo-European, Semitic, Dravidic, Turkic, and others, have been absorbed

into the Baloch ethnic community, which is highly diverse.

The Balochi language has long been considered a Persian dialect, and it was not used as a

literary language until recently. Balochi, on the other hand, has thriving oral poetry and prose

tradition. Balochi can be separated into two periods as a written language: India's colonial-era

under British control and the post-independence period in Pakistan. The majority of the existing

literary literature was developed due to British dominance during the first period. The literature

on and in Balochi at this period consists of grammar books and specimens of oral poetry and

stories, which were compiled to provide examples of the language and allow British military and

civil officials to learn Balochi.

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Following the British withdrawal and Pakistan's independence in 1947, the Baloch

became deeply anxious about their language's growth. Baloch poets began writing poetry in their

mother tongue after previously composing in Persian and Urdu. In Balochi, literary circles were

established, and the publishing of magazines and books began. Balochi has been chiefly used as

a written language in Pakistan, with Quetta and Karachi emerging as the two major centers of

Balochi literary activity. Despite occasional writing and publishing attempts, Balochi remains

primarily an oral language in Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and the Gulf States.

As a result, Balochi has a minimal writing history. The works were written by

Englishmen in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are written in Roman script. The

Baloch orthography in Pakistan today is based on the Arabic script with Persian-Urdu

conventions. There is no fixed alphabet, and there is no regular written script. The number of

letters in a suggested alphabet which vary depending on which dialect is written. However, the

entire Arabic alphabet has been adapted for Persian/Urdu, and thus also for Balochi, and Arabic
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loanwords in Balochi are commonly spelled as they are in Arabic. Consonant phonemes are

overrepresented as a result of this. Vowel phonemes, on the other hand, are underrepresented.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Balochi was more commonly spoken than it is now.

Many people today, particularly in Punjab and Sind, identify as Baloch when speaking Indian

languages. Baloch has also moved from speaking Balochi to communicating (and writing)

Arabic and Swahili in the Gulf States and East Africa, respectively. Many other Brahui tribes in

Iran and Pakistan, on the other hand, have moved from speaking Brahui to speaking Balochi.

In the Balochi-speaking countries, schooling is always in a second language, such as

Urdu/English in Pakistan, Persian in Iran and Afghanistan (if there is any education in modern-

day Afghanistan), Arabic in the Gulf States, and Turkmen/Russian in Turkmenistan

(Turkmenistan). This suggests that Balochi is only used in specific language domains, and for the

majority of its speakers, it is only spoken, not written. Baloch from Iran, for example, uses

Persian among themselves to address aspects such as science and politics, which are taught in

school or learned by reading Persian and other languages. Balochi is, therefore, mainly a

domestic and cultural language. Other languages are used in school, government, and urban

environments, as well as at work.

Following the Islamic Revolution, Baloch was also present in the Iranian diaspora. As a

result, a small number of primarily well-educated Baloch live in Europe, the United States,

Canada, and other countries where Iranians have sought asylum.

Balochi is populated by people who speak languages from at least five different families.

Other Iranian languages, such as Persian (Farsi and Dari) in the west and north-west, and Pashto

in the north and north-east, and Indian languages, such as Punjabi, Lahnda, and Sindhi in the

north-east and east, are spoken on the Balochi mainland. These languages are all members of the
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Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Balochi interacts with Arabic

(Semitic) in the Gulf States and Bantu languages in East Africa (e.g., Swahili). For decades, the

Dravidian language Brahui has coexisted with and been ruled by Balochi in Pakistan's

Balochistan, and in Turkmenistan, Balochi encounters the Turkic language Turkmen. Balochi

engages modern languages, most of the Indo-European family, in the diaspora in Europe and

North America.

Balochi is not an official language of any of the countries spoken, which means it is not

used in schooling or administration. Attempts to preserve and encourage the language are thus

primarily led by people who lack the legitimacy that official decisions may have conferred. This

is clearly seen, for example, in the language's absence of a standard written tradition.

However, since the 1950s, several educated Baloch, mainly in Pakistan, have conserved

their language by writing literature and promoting it as a literary vehicle and educational tool.

The major centers of these operations are Quetta and Karachi. In Quetta, a Balochi Academy was

established in 1961 and received some government funding. Its primary literary activities are

publishing novels, primarily in Balochi, and the organization of literary events. Many

"Academies," publishing houses, and individuals are also involved in these areas. For a shorter or

longer period, a variety of periodicals have been published in Balochi. Some Baloch in the

diaspora is also interested in preserving and promoting Balochi culture, publishing magazines,

organizing literacy courses, cultural evenings, and other activities.

In Balochi, there have been several attempts to begin primary education. A state program

for mother tongue education was developed in the Pakistani province of Balochistan in 1991.

Still, it did not last long and did not result in any official language standardization decisions.

Private measures have also been undertaken to teach Baloch, specifically in Lyari, Karachi's
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main Baloch residential area. Balochi can also be studied for an M. A. at the University of

Balochistan in Quetta.

Young Baloch intellectuals, notably in the 1960s and early 1970s, debated a Latin-based

script for Balochi. During this time, a substantial majority of neologisms were invented to

describe modern social trends and to replace loanwords.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Josef Elfenbein outlines a self-directed effort to develop a Latin-

based script for Balochi. Serge Axenov also addresses the question of language, describing the

various Balochi scripts that have been used in Turkmenistan. The presence of the Baloch and

their language in Turkmen society is also characterized by Vyacheslav Moshkalo. Abdulaziz

Lodhi's article discusses the position of the Baloch in another border region, namely East Africa.

Tim Farrell and Eunice Tan address the subject of mother tongue education in Balochi. Carina

Jahani mentions it when she discusses language attitudes and language preservation among the

Baloch in Sweden. Jan Muhammad Dashti's contribution examines the relationship between

Balochi poetry and culture from the start of the literary revolution until 1985.