Brahui[1] (Template:IPA, Template:IPA Template:Respell;[2] Template:Langx; also romanised as Brahvi or Brohi) 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 (around Merv).[3] Expatriate Brahui communities also exist in Iraq, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.[4] Brahui is geographically isolated from other Dravidian languages, with the nearest being over Template:Convert away in South India.Template:Sfn 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.[5] 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 Template:Circa ago and adopted Islam.[5]
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.Template:Sfn There are also an unknown (but very small) number of expatriate Brahuis in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, and Turkmenistan.[4]
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 (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.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] 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.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn One scholar places the migration as late as the 13th or 14th century.Template:Sfn 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.[9]Template:Sfn The Brahui language, with all dialects, was called Kurdi or Kurdgali, after the Kurd tribe, with Brahui becoming used more after the British colonization.[10]
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.[11][12]
Dialects
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.Template:Sfn
Phonology
Brahui vowels show a partial length distinction between long Template:IPA and diphthongs Template:IPA and short Template:IPA. 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.Template:Sfn However, some older sources, such as by Denys Bray, claimed that Brahui has had a short Template:IPA, in addition to its long counterpart.
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 Template:IPA, a sound not otherwise found in the region.Template:Sfn Consonants are also very similar to those of Balochi, but Brahui has more fricatives and nasals (Elfenbein 1993).
- Template:IPA 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'.Template:Sfn
- Template:IPA and Template:IPA vary freely in many cases; contrast is limited to two or three items. Conditions for the emergence of Template:IPA are not clear.Template:Sfn
- Template:IPA does not occur word-initially. Template:IPA → Template:IPA before Template:IPA in northern Brahui (Elfenbein 1998: 394), e.g. xūrt → xūṛt 'tiny'.Template:Sfn
- The consonants Template:IPA 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.Template:Sfn
- Template:IPA occurs before velar stops Template:IPA.Template:Sfn
- Brahui preserves the PD laryngeal *Template:IPA as Template:IPA in some words e.g. PD. *caH- ~ *ceH- > Br. kah-.Template:Sfn
Stress
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.
Morphology
Verbal morphology
Below is the paradigm of the simple verb uŧ "to be" in Brahui:
| Affirmative | Negative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| 1st person | uŧ | un | affaŧ | affan |
| 2nd person | us | ure | affés | affére |
| 3rd person | é | o | affak | affas |
| 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").
| Form | Example | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Future/Present | Σ-i/e-Template:Gcl/Template:Gcl-a | bar-e-v-a | "I come" |
| Future | Σ-o-uŧ | bar-o-ŧ | "will come" |
| Past | Σ.Template:Gcl-Template:Gcl/Template:Gcl | bass-uŧ | "I came" |
| Past Conditional | Σ-os-uŧ | bar-os-uŧ | "If I had come" |
| Imperfect | Σ.Template:Gcl-Template:Gcl/Template:Gcl-a | bass-uŧ-a | "I was coming" |
| Perfect | Σ.Template:Gcl-n-uŧ | bass-un-uŧ | "I have come" |
| Pluperfect | Σ.Template:Gcl-s-uŧ | bass-us-uŧ | "I had come" |
| Subjunctive | Σ-e/i-Template:Gcl/Template:Gcl | bar-e-v | "I shall come" |
Orthography
Brahui is the only Dravidian language which is not known to have been written in a Brahmi-based script.
Arabic script
Template:Infobox Writing system
Brahui has been written in the Arabic script since the second half of the 20th century.[13] 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 Template:IPAblink. Table below presents the letters adopted for Brahui orthography:
Latin script
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 in Quetta and adopted by the newspaper Talár.
Below is the new promoted Bráhuí Báşágal Brolikva orthography:[1]
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
Sample text
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
English
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.
Arabic script
Latin script
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.[14]
Endangerment
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).Template:Sfn This status has since been renamed to "vulnerable".[15]
Publications
Talár is the first daily newspaper in the Brahui language.[16] 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."[17]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bráhuí Báşágal. Brahui Language Board, University of Balochistan(April 2009).
- ↑ Template:OED
- ↑ A slice of south India in Balochistan(18 February 2017).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, Volumes 36-37" department of linguistics, University of KeralaTemplate:Full citation needed
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Template:Cite encyclopedia
- ↑ BRAHUI – Encyclopaedia Iranica. www.iranicaonline.org.
- ↑ An Ethnolinguistic and Genetic Perspective on the Origins of the Dravidian-Speaking Brahui in Pakistan. Man in India({Template:Date).
- ↑ E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936: Volume 1, 1987, pp. 680
- ↑ A contrastive analysis of Brahui and Urdu{{#if:Bashir|, Bashir}. Academy for Educational Development(1991)
- ↑ Two Essays on Baloch History and Folklore: Two Essays on Baloch History and Folklore, Sabir Badal Khan, pp. 115
- ↑ Modern Colloquial Eastern Elamite. Al-Burz({Template:Date).
- ↑ Rice in Dravidian and its linguistic implications. Rice({Template:Year).
- ↑ Бесписьменный язык Б.. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Brahui. Omniglot.
- ↑ Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. UNESCO Publishing(2010). ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2
- ↑ Evolution of Brahui Journalism. Al-Burz({Template:Date).
- ↑ Haftaí Talár. Talár Publications.
Sources
- [{{{url}}} South Asian Language Resource Center Workshop on Languages of Afghanistan and neighboring areas](December 2003).
- The Languages and Linguistics of South Asia{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}(2016). 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.
- The Baloch and Balochistan: A Historical Account from the Beginning to the Fall of the Baloch State{{#if:Dashti|, Dashti}. Trafford Publishing(2012). ISBN 978-1-4669-5896-8
- A Periplus of the 'Brahi Problem'. Studia Iranica({Template:Date).
- Bilingualism and Structural Borrowing. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society({Template:Date).
- The Dravidian Languages{{#if:Krishnamurti|, Krishnamurti}. Cambridge University Press(2003). ISBN 978-0-521-77111-5
- Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. UNESCO.
- Some comments on Brahui kinship terminology. Indo-Iranian Journal({Template:Year).
- [{{{url}}} Genèse de l'Inde]. Bibliothèque scientifique Payot.
- The Languages of Harappa: Early Linguistic Data and the Indus civilization{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}(2008)
Further reading
- The Oxford Handbook of Dravidian Languages{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Oxford University Press(2024). ISBN 978-0-19761-044-2
- Brahui Texts: Glossed and Translated Short Stories and Folktales{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA); Tokyo University of Foreign Studies(2024). ISBN 9784863375321
External links
- Handbook of the Birouhi language By Allâh Baksh (1877)
- Brahui Language Board Template:Webarchive
- Bráhuí Báşágal (Brahui Alphabet) Template:Webarchive
- Profile of the Brahui language
- Partial bibliography of scholarly works on Brahui
- Britannica Brahui language
- Brahui basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
Template:Dravidian languages Template:Languages of South Asia Template:Languages of Afghanistan Template:Languages of Pakistan