BALOCHISTAN is Pakistan’s largest province in terms of area, but it is the least populated one. In spite of being the most sparsely populated Pakistani province, it offers an interesting linguistic locale to study.

The indigenous major languages spoken in Balochistan include Balochi, Brahui and Pashtu. In Sibi and Naseerabad divisions, Sindhi and Saraiki are spoken in addition to Balochi and Brahui. Quetta city has a sizeable population that speaks Punjabi, Hindko and Urdu. An ethnic group living mostly in or around Quetta speaks Hazargi, which, some linguists say, is a dialect of Farsi Dari. In Kalat, Mastung and some other areas of Balochistan, Dehwari is spoken, which is said to be a dialect of Farsi. In Lasbela district, a minority of people speaks Lasi, said to be a dialect of Sindhi.

Some of the above-noted pieces of information are derived from a recently published work titled Brahui aur Balochi ke lisani ravaabit, or the linguistic connections between Brahui and Balochi. Written by Prof Dr Abdur Razzaq Sabir and published by Quetta’s Brahui Adabi Society, the work is a research study analysing certain linguistic features of the two languages.

The first chapter gives a thumbnail summary of history of Balochistan, which is considered one of the earliest cradles of human civilisation as Mehrgarh, an archaeological site found in Balochistan, is estimated to date back to circa 7,000 BC. Dr Sabir has briefly recounted different eras of Balochistan’s history, including the Greek period when different parts of Balochistan had different names. It describes phonetics, grammars, scripts, dialects and vocabularies of Balochi and Brahui languages.

Brahui language, says Dr Sabir, belongs to Dravidian family of languages. The family includes some languages spoken in South India, such as Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Kuvi, Konda and some others. Brahui is included in Northern Dravidian languages. Some experts believe that the scripts of Dravidian languages, including Brahui’s script, are derived from the inscriptions on Pillars of Ashoka who ruled India between 268 BC and 232 BC. Dr Sabir has also briefly described the morphological and syntactical rules governing Brahui language.

Balochi language, on the other hand, belongs to Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European family of languages. Dr Sabir says Balochi has similarities with Persian but it is a different language. He has discussed Balochi script, its phonology and dialects. In the third chapter, Dr Sabir describes phonology of both the languages and points out the phonetic similarities in the next chapter.

The morphological peculiarities of these two languages, their similarities and differences are discussed in next three chapters. Semantics and vocabularies come next. All in all, Dr Abdur Razzaq Sabir has sifted through the linguistic details of both the languages very minutely. The last chapter summarises the entire dissertation. The conclusions are:

Though Brahui has Dravidian elements, chances are Brahui may have some connections with Iranian and Turanian languages. Though Brahui is considered a Dravidian language, linguists cannot deny the fact that the common vocabulary shared by Brahui and other Dravidian languages does not go beyond a limited number. The Iranian etyma (plural of etymon, that is, a word or morpheme that is used to form further words at a later stage of a language) and other Iranian linguistic elements in Brahui prove that both Brahui and Balochi have influenced each other.

The Panjguri and Chaghi dialects of Balochi have many Brahui words. Similarly, all dialects of Brahui, especially Chaghi, Saravani and Jhalavani dialects of Brahui, have abundant Iranian words. So Brahui works as a bridge between two dialects of Balochi. Here Dr Sabir quotes Mansel Longworth Dames, a scholar of Balochi language and an official in British Indian government. As put by Dames, “Brahui has furnished a few words and has itself borrowed extensively from Balochi”.

Balochi and Brahui have many similarities, phonologically, semantically and grammatically.

However, these similarities are not because of the same ancestral roots but the result of common geographical, political and social circumstances.

At the end, Dr Sabir recommends that further research is required to ascertain the connection between Brahui and Iranian languages and Brahui’s possible connection with Altai and Turkic languages. He also suggests that to solve certain problems facing these two languages --- such as lack of a standard dialect and lack of a unified orthographic system --- separate academic bodies for Balochi and Brahui languages, on the lines of Sindhi Language Authority, may be established.

Prof Dr Abdur Razzaq Sabir, born on Aug 14, 1954, in Kirdgap, Balochistan, is a research scholar, poet, linguist and academic. Aside from teaching at Balochistan University, he has served as Pakistan Chair Scholar, at Amman’s University of Jordan. He was the founder vice chancellor of Turbat University and has just been appointed vice chancellor of Gawadar University.

The book is a labour of love and deserves kudos.

drraufparekh@yahoo.com

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2021