Brahvi language

Distribution

Brahvi 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 Brahvi. There are also an unknown (but very small) number of expatriate Brahvis in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and Turkmenistan.

History

There is no consensus as to whether Brahvi 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 Brahvi 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. However, some other scholars see it as a recent migrant language to its present region. They postulate that Brahvi could only have migrated to Balochistan from central India after 1000 CE.

This is contradicted by genetic evidence that shows the Brahvi population to be indistinguishable from neighbouring Balochi speakers, and genetically distant from central Dravidian speakers. Others claimed that Brahvi was a Dravidian language spoken by the indigenous people of Kalat valley, and was later adopted by Baloch tribes who spoke Balochi and Bravui tribes who at the time spoke a language known as Kurdgali. The main Iranian contributor to Brahvi vocabulary, Balochi, is a Northwestern Iranian language, and moved to the area from the west only around 1000 CE. One scholar places the migration as late as the 13th or 14th century.

The Brahvi lexicon is believed to be of: 35% Perso-Arabic origin, 20% Balochi origin, 20% Indo-Aryan origin, 15% Dravidian origin, and 10% unknown origin. The Brahvi language, with all dialects, was called Kurdi or Kurdgali, after the Kurd tribe, with Brahvi becoming used more after the British colonization.

Linguists David W. McAlpin and Franklin Southworth proposed that Brahvi 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.

Dialects

There are no major 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). Brahvi has been influenced by the Iranian languages spoken in the area, including Persian, Balochi, and Pashto.

Phonology

Brahvi vowels show a partial length distinction between long and diphthongs and short

. Brahvi 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. However, some older sources, such as by Denys Bray, claimed that Brahvi has had a short , in addition to its long counterpart.

Brahvi consonants show patterns of retroflexion but lack the aspiration distinctions found in surrounding languages and include several fricatives such as the voiceless lateral fricative , a sound not otherwise found in the region. Consonants are also very similar to those of Balochi, but Brahvi has more fricatives and nasals (Elfenbein 1993).

• 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'.
• and vary freely in many cases; contrast is limited to two or three items. Conditions for the emergence of are not clear.
• does not occur word-initially. → before in northern Brahvi (Elfenbein 1998: 394), e.g. xūrt → xūṛt 'tiny'.
• The consonants 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.
• occurs before velar stops .
• Brahvi preserves the PD laryngeal * as in some words e.g. PD. *caH- ~ *ceH- > Br. kah-.

Stress

Stress in Brahvi 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 Brahvi:

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").

Orthography

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

Arabic script

Brahvi has been written in the Arabic script since the second half of the 20th century. 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. Brahvi orthography is unique in having the letter "ڷ", representing the sound . Table below presents the letters adopted for Brahvi orthography:

Latin script

More recently, a Roman-based orthography named Brolikva (an abbreviation of Brahvi Roman Likvar) was developed by the Brahvi 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:

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

"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."

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."

Endangerment

According to a 2009 UNESCO report, Brahvi 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). This status has since been renamed to "vulnerable". In 2014, a constitution amendment bill was proposed in the National Assembly of Pakistan to make Brahvi, alongside other regional languages, as national languages of Pakistan.