Brahui language
From Freepedia
The Brahui language is mainly spoken in Balochistan, Pakistan, although also in Afghanistan and Iran by the Brahui. It reportedly [1] has about two million speakers in Pakistan (1998), and a tenth that number elsewhere. In Pakistan it is mainly spoken in the Kalat region of Balochistan.
Although it is a Dravidian language, it has been heavily influenced by other languages spoken in the area and shares few words with the Dravidian languages spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka.
It is debated whether Brahui is a remnant of a formerly more widespread Dravidian language family that was reduced during the Aryan expansion, or if it is a more recent migrant from northern or central India. It is also sometimes speculated that Brahui might be a legacy of the Indus Valley Civilisation.
External Links
- A site by Shafique-Ur-Rehman about Brahui language
- Useful Notes on Brahui by Elena Bashir
- A skeleton grammar
- gives Perso-Arabic Brahui alphabet
- partial bibliography of scholarly works on Brahui
- example page from a Roman Brahui-English dictionary
- a vocabulary teaching program
- English to Brahui word list
Categories: Dravidian languages | Languages of Afghanistan | Languages of Iran | Languages of Pakistan
