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 fromSaraiki (Jaṭki)brāhō, referring to the prophetAbraham; the term perhaps served to distinguish the neo-Muslim nomadic pastoralists — who had migrated intoSindh from the Western Deccanc. a millennium ago and adopted Islam.[9]
Brahui is spoken in the central part of PakistaniBalochistan, mainly in theKalat,Khuzdar andMastung districts, but also in smaller numbers in neighboring districts, as well as inAfghanistan which borders Pakistani Balochistan; however, many members of the ethnic groupno longer speak Brahui.[8] There are also an unknown (but very small) number of expatriate Brahuis in the Arab States of thePersian Gulf, and Turkmenistan.[7]
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 aDravidian migration into north-western parts of thePakistan 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 fromcentral 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 aNorthwestern 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 theKurd tribe, with Brahui becoming used more after the British colonization.[18]
David W. McAlpin andFranklin Southworth proposed that Brahui is not a Dravidian language, but can be linked with the remaining Dravidian languages andElamite 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 onKhuzdar) and Sarawani (northern, centered onKalat) dialects are distinguished by the pronunciation of *h, which is retained only in the north (Elfenbein 1997).Brahui has been influenced by theIranian languages spoken in the area, includingPersian,Balochi andPashto.[21]
Brahui vowels show a partial length distinction between long/aːeːiːoːuː/ anddiphthongs/aɪ̯aʊ̯/ and short/aiu/. 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.
Brahui consonants show patterns of retroflexion but lack theaspiration distinctions found in surrounding languages and include severalfricatives such as thevoiceless 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).
[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/tdsz/ in northern Brahui (Elfenbein 1998: 394), e.g. xūrt → xūṛt 'tiny'.[24]
The consonants[ptk] 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]
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.
Brahui has been written in theArabic 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, namelyArabi-Tamil andArabi-Malayalam.In Pakistan, anUrdu basedNastaʿlīq 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 ofBrahui Roman Likvar) was developed by the Brahui Language Board of theUniversity of Balochistan in Quetta and adopted by the newspaperTalár.
Below is the new promoted Bráhuí Báşágal Brolikva orthography:[4]
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.
According to a 2009UNESCO report, Brahui is one of the 27languages 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).[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]
^abBráhuí Báşágal, Quetta: Brahui Language Board, University of Balochistan, April 2009, archived fromthe original on 3 January 2023, retrieved5 October 2023
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, retrieved29 June 2010
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.S2CID165751802.
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.ISBN978-0-19761-044-2.
