Brahui language (original) (raw)

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Dravidian language spoken in Pakistan

Brahui
براہوئی
The word Brahui written in the Nastaliq script
Pronunciation	[bɾaːhuiː]
Native to	Pakistan
Region	Balochistan
Ethnicity	Brahui[1]
Native speakers	2.7 million (2023)[2]
Language family	Dravidian NorthernBrahui
Writing system	Arabic (Brahui alphabet)Latin script (Brolikva)
Official status
Regulated by	Department of Brahui, University of Balochistan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	brh
Glottolog	brah1256
Brahui is geographically isolated from other Dravidian languages, spoken in Balochistan[3]
Brahui is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Brahui (براہوئی, Brāhū'ī, [braːhu.iː])[a] is a Dravidian language primarily spoken by the Brahui people native to the central and southern parts of the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It is geographically isolated from other Dravidian languages, with the nearest being over 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) away in South India.[6] Brahui constitutes a majority in the districts of Kalat, Khuzdar, Mastung, Quetta, Bolan, Nasirabad, Nushki, and Kharan.

It is also spoken by smaller communities in Iranian Baluchestan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan (around Merv).[7] Expatriate Brahui communities also exist in Iraq, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).[8] Brahui is the only Dravidian language that is primarily written in the Arabic script. It is also written in the Latin script.

The origin of the word "Brahui" is uncertain.[9] Mikhail Andronov hypothesised a derivation from Dravidian (lit. Northern hillmen). However, Josef Elfenbein found it unconvincing and hypothesised a derivation from Saraiki (Jaṭki) 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 c. a millennium ago and adopted Islam.[9]

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.[6] There are also an unknown (but very small) number of expatriate Brahuis in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and Turkmenistan.[8]

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 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.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13][14] One scholar places the migration as late as the 13th or 14th century.[15]

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.[16][17] The Brahui language, with all dialects, was called Kurdi or Kurdgali, after the Kurd tribe, with Brahui becoming used more after the British colonization.[18]

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 (southern Iran) and was widely distributed in South Asia and parts of eastern West Asia before the Indo-Aryan migration.[19][20]

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.[[[Wikipedia:Citing%5Fsources|page needed]]]-22" title="null">[21]

Brahui as a first, second, and third largest mother tongue by district.

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.[22] However, some older sources, such as by Denys Bray, claimed that Brahui has had a short /e/, in addition to its long counterpart.

Vowels

| | Front | Central | Back | | | --------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Close | i iː | | u uː | | Mid | (e) 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.[23]Consonants are also very similar to those of Balochi, but Brahui has more fricatives and nasals (Elfenbein 1993).

Consonants | | Labial | Dentalalveolar | 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'.[24]
• [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.[24]
• /ɽ/ does not occur word-initially. /r/ → /ɽ/ before /t d s z/ in northern Brahui (Elfenbein 1998: 394), e.g. xūrt → xūṛt 'tiny'.[24]
• 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.[24]
• [ŋ] occurs before velar stops /k, g/.[25]
• Brahui preserves the PD laryngeal */H/ as /h/ in some words e.g. PD. *caH- ~ *ceH- > Br. kah-.[22]

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.

Below is the paradigm of the simple verb uŧ "to be" in Brahui:

Present

| | Affirmative | Negative | | | | | -------------- | -------- | -------- | ------- | -------- | | | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | | | 1st person | uŧ | un | affaŧ | affan | | 2nd person | us | ure | affés | affére | | 3rd person | é | o | affak | affas |

Past

| | Affirmative | Negative | | | | | -------------- | -------- | ------------ | --------- | ---------- | | | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | | | 1st person | assuŧ | assun | allavaŧ | allavan | | 2nd person | assus | assure | allavés | allavére | | 3rd person | ass | assur/asso | allav | |

Similarly, regular finite verbs exhibit two paradigmatic series affirmative vs negative. Below is the schematic overview of fully finite, non-negated paradigm of the verb bar ("to come").

Fully finite, non-negated, first person singular of the root bar ("to come")

| | Form | Example | Meaning | | | ---------------- | ------------------ | ---------- | --------------- | | Future/Present | Σ-i/e-PERS/NUM-a | bar-e-v-a | "I come" | | Future | Σ-o-uŧ | bar-o-ŧ | "will come" | | Past | Σ.PST-PERS/NUM | bass-uŧ | "I came" | | Past Conditional | Σ-os-uŧ | bar-os-uŧ | "If I had come" | | Imperfect | Σ.PST-PERS/NUM-a | bass-uŧ-a | "I was coming" | | Perfect | Σ.PST-n-uŧ | bass-un-uŧ | "I have come" | | Pluperfect | Σ.PST-s-uŧ | bass-us-uŧ | "I had come" | | Subjunctive | Σ-e/i-PERS/NUM | bar-e-v | "I shall come" |

Brahui
Brahui has the rare letter "ڷ" and is written in Nastaliq script.
Script type	Abjad
Period	20th century - present
Languages	Brahui language
Related scripts
Parent systems	Proto-SinaiticPhoenicianAramaicNabataeanArabicPersian alphabetUrdu alphabetBrahui
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Brahui is the only Dravidian language which is not known to have been written in a Brahmi-based script.

Brahui has been written in the Arabic script since the second half of the 20th century.[26] 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 Nastaliq script is used in writing. Brahui orthography is unique in having the letter "ڷ", representing the sound [ɬ]. Table below presents the letters adopted for Brahui orthography:

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 (UoB) in Quetta and adopted by the newspaper Talár.

Below is the new promoted Bráhuí Báşágal Brolikva orthography:[4]

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 (w) 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

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

[edit]

"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."

"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."[27]

"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."[27]

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).[[[Wikipedia:Citing%5Fsources|page needed]]]-29" title="null">[28] This status has since been renamed to "vulnerable".[29]

Talár is the first daily newspaper in the Brahui language.[30] 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".[31]

1. ^

   • English: /bɹəˈhuːi/ brə-HOO-ee[4][5]
   • also romanised as Brahvi (pronounced [braːhʋiː]) or Brohi (pronounced [broːhiː])

2. ^ James B. Minahan (2012). Ethnic groups South Asia and the Pacific. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-59884-660-7. Retrieved 22 October 2025.

3. ^ "POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE, SEX AND RURAL/URBAN, CENSUS-2023" (PDF). pbs.gov.pk. Pakistan Bureau Statistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 December 2024.

4. ^ Dashti 2012, p. 129.

5. ^ a b Bráhuí Báşágal, Quetta: Brahui Language Board, University of Balochistan, April 2009, archived from the original on 3 January 2023, retrieved 5 October 2023

6. ^ "Brahui". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)

7. ^ a b Parkin 1989, p. 37.

8. ^ "A slice of south India in Balochistan". 18 February 2017.

9. ^ a b "International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, Volumes 36-37" department of linguistics, University of Kerala[_full citation needed_]

10. ^ a b Elfenbein, Josef (1989). "BRAHUI". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. IV, Fasc. 4. pp. 433–443.

11. ^ "BRAHUI – Encyclopaedia Iranica". www.iranicaonline.org.

12. ^ Pagani, Luca; Colonna, Vincenza; Tyler-Smith, Chris; Ayub, Qasim (2017). "An Ethnolinguistic and Genetic Perspective on the Origins of the Dravidian-Speaking Brahui in Pakistan". Man in India. 97 (1): 267–278. PMC 5378296. PMID 28381901.

13. ^ E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936: Volume 1, 1987, pp. 680

14. ^ Witzel 2008, p. 1.

15. ^ Elfenbein 1987.

16. ^ Sergent 1997, pp. 129–130.

17. ^ Bashir, Elena (1991). A contrastive analysis of Brahui and Urdu. Academy for Educational Development. OCLC 31900835.

18. ^ Krishnamurti 2003, p. 27.

19. ^ Two Essays on Baloch History and Folklore: Two Essays on Baloch History and Folklore, Sabir Badal Khan, pp. 115

20. ^ McAlpin, David (2022). "Modern Colloquial Eastern Elamite". Al-Burz. 14 (1): 64–123. doi:10.54781/abz.v14i1.370.

21. ^ Southworth, Franklin (2011). "Rice in Dravidian and its linguistic implications". Rice. 4: 142–148. doi:10.1007/s12284-011-9076-9.

22. [[[Wikipedia:Citing%5Fsources|page needed]]]%5F22-0" title="null">^ Emeneau 1962, p. [_page needed_].

23. ^ a b Krishnamurti 2003, p. 118.

24. ^ Bashir 2016, p. 274.

25. ^ a b c d Krishnamurti 2003, p. 77.

26. ^ Krishnamurti 2003, p. 58.

27. ^ "Бесписьменный язык Б." Archived from the original on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2015.

28. ^ a b Ager, Simon. "Brahui". Omniglot.

29. [[[Wikipedia:Citing%5Fsources|page needed]]]%5F29-0" title="null">^ Moseley 2009, p. [_page needed_].

30. ^ Moseley, Christopher, ed. (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Memory of Peoples (3rd ed.). Paris: UNESCO Publishing. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2. Retrieved 11 April 2015.

31. ^ Yousaf, Muhammad; Ali Sani, Liaqat (2017). "Evolution of Brahui Journalism" (PDF). Al-Burz. 9: 234–245. doi:10.54781/abz.v9i1.114. ISSN 2071-9477. Retrieved 19 February 2025 – via web.uob.edu.pk.

32. ^ Haftaí Talár, Talár Publications, archived from the original on 24 June 2013, retrieved 29 June 2010

• Bashir, Elena (December 2003), "Brahui - Notes" (PDF), South Asian Language Resource Center Workshop on Languages of Afghanistan and neighboring areas, archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022, retrieved 29 June 2010

• Bashir, Elena (2016). "Contact and convergence". In Hock, Hans Henrich; Bashir, Elena (eds.). The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia. pp. 241–374. doi:10.1515/9783110423303-004. ISBN 978-3-11-042330-3.

• Bray, Denys. The Brahui Language, an Old Dravidian Language Spoken in Parts of Baluchistan and Sind: Grammar. Gian Publishing House, 1986.

• Dashti, Naseer (2012). The Baloch and Balochistan: A Historical Account from the Beginning to the Fall of the Baloch State. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4669-5896-8.

• Elfenbein, J. (1987). "A Periplus of the 'Brahi Problem'". Studia Iranica. 16 (2): 215–233. doi:10.2143/SI.16.2.2014604.

• Emeneau, M. B. (1962). "Bilingualism and Structural Borrowing". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 106 (5): 430–442. JSTOR 985488.

• Krishnamurti, Bhadriraju (2003). The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77111-5.

• Moseley, Christopher, ed. (2009), Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, UNESCO, OCLC 435877932

• Parkin, Robert (1989). "Some comments on Brahui kinship terminology". Indo-Iranian Journal. 32 (1): 37–43. doi:10.1163/000000089790082944. JSTOR 24654607. S2CID 161638780.

• Sergent, Bernard (1997), Genèse de l'Inde, Bibliothèque scientifique Payot, ISBN 9782228891165, OCLC 38198091

• Witzel, Michael (2008). The Languages of Harappa: Early Linguistic Data and the Indus civilization. Kleine Schriften von Michael Witzel. Vol. 13. doi:10.11588/xarep.00000120. S2CID 165751802.

• Kobayashi, Masato; Ali, Liaquat (2024). "Asyndetic Conditional Clauses in Brahui". In Amritavalli, R.; Narasimhan, Bhuvana (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Dravidian Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197610411.013.33. ISBN 978-0-19761-044-2.

• Ali, Liaquat; Kobayashi, Masato (2024). Brahui Texts: Glossed and Translated Short Stories and Folktales. Asian and African Lexicon (in Brahui and English). Vol. 66. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA); Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. ISBN 9784863375321.

• Handbook of the Birouhi language By Allâh Baksh (1877)
• Brahui Language Board Archived 7 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine
• Bráhuí Báşágal (Brahui Alphabet) Archived 14 November 2012 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