Balochi 
Xush amdeed! "welcome"
Xush amdeed! "welcome"
Introduction|
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Balochi (also called Baluchi) is a member of the 
people speak Balochi as their first or second language. They are spread over a vast area encompassing southeastern Iran, southwestern Pakistan, southwestern 
Balochi's origin is not know but it is thought to have evolved between 200-700 BC from a lost language spoken on the territory of the 
None of the countries in which Balochi is spoken give it official status or use it in their educational systems. Even though Balochi is the primary language of 
due to lack of teachers, lack of parental support (most parents want their children to learn 
Dialects |
Balochi has three main varieties, all fairly distinct from each other:
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Structure
Sound System
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The sound system of Balochi shares some basic features with other Iranian languages. Vowels
Consonants
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- 
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Balochi uses both prepositions and postpositions to mark grammatical relationships. Prepositions are more commonly used in Western Balochi, while Eastern Balochi tends to favor postpositions.
Word order |
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The vocabulary of Balochi dialects is influenced by the languages of the countries where these dialects are spoken. Thus, Southern Balochi contains many words of Arabic origin, whereas Eastern Balochi has a number of borrowings from Persian. Below is a list of basic words and phrases in the Southern Balochi dialects as spoken in Oman which is influenced by Arabic.
Below are the numerals 1-10 in Balochi.
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Writing
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Balochi was an unwritten language prior to the 19th century when the British developed a Latin-based Balochi alphabet. In the late 19th century, a group of Balochi scholars adopted the Arabic script, causing a split in the Balochi language community. Today, there is no standard orthography for writing Balochi. In Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan, it is written using the Perso-Arabic alphabet. Outside of these countries, it is written with the Latin script. There is an ongoing debate among Baloch scholars about the creation of a single standard literary language. However, since the language is spoken in several different countries, creating and enforcing a single standard has proven to be quite difficult.
Since 1951, many books in Balochi have been printed in eastern Balochistan. There are also many active literary associations working to promote Balochi literature and literacy. There are several regularly published monthly magazines in Quetta and in Karachi. |
Resources |
Balochi is not taught in any US institution. Online resources for the study of Baloch language and culture |
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How difficult is it to learn Balochi? Since Balochi is related to Persian, it belongs to Category II languages in terms of difficulty for speakers of English. |
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