Balochi Langauge

By Nadil Shah Noor, Turbat

Balochi has a vague history and this language has a very deep-rooted in history. In this present time, scholars and linguistic are in deep water to say that how, when by whom and by what this language started or came into existence. Balochi, tongue of Baloch nationality, is one of the ancient living languages of the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European languages. It has own three dialects ‘’ Makurani, Rakshani, Koi selemani’’. But on the other side if we focus that Balochi language is divided into eastern, southern, and western dialect groups. Eastern Balochi has been influenced by Sindhi; Western Balochi has been influenced by Persian. One the other side it is said that in the modern times, Balochi is to contact with Persian, Arabic, Pashto, Turkmen, Sindhi, Punjabi, Saraiki, English and other European and African languages.

Karlos Zurutuza who is a freelance journalist covering off-the-radar conflict regions in the Caucasus and Central Asia said in a Interview that Balochi is an Indo-European language, hence close to English, Russian or Pushtun, just to mention a few. The closest language to Balochi is Kurdish, as ours also belongs to the Iranian family. Moreover, many scholars claim that Balochi has kept Sanskrit’s original pronunciation. Balochi is written in the Arabian-Farsi alphabet, even though several diasporas intellectuals use the Latin alphabet, which also matches the needs of our tongue. Unfortunately, we still haven’t agreed on a common standard for all of us.

Actually, it is hard to estimate the total number of speakers of Balochi but according to the research it is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken by more than 20 million people in present world. Most Balochi speakers live in Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, but there is also speakers in India, Arab Gulf States, Turkmenistan and East Africa. It is also said that the existence of Baloch is started in Iran that’s why the most scholars think that Balochi is a Northwestern Iranian language. It is classified as a member of the Iranian group of the Indo-European language family which includes Kurdish, Persian, Pashto, Dari, Tajik, Ossetian. Balochi is closely related to Kurdish and Persian. It first, at the time of Alien British, Balochi was used just like orally because that time the communities of Baloch nation were not that much in power to use it generally and in writing. The Balochi literary movement got fully under way only after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, and still in Pakistan Balochi is being spoken as a second language.

In this world, there were many languages which come and gone actually, those were not feed well but if we turn the pages of history, then we can see that from begging language did not let itself dead because of its enrichment and nomadic environment and it has been interested by the nation of Baloch Nationality and the scholars and linguistic. At that time, Iranian governments showed that the government and Iranian nationalists are worried about the fact that the Balochi language can become a symbol of the Baloch people’s national identity. Because before in history a language named Basque (euskera) was keen to avoid in Iran rather it got birth there grow there when it was next to nothing and not that much in power. However, this reaction is not beneficial for the Iranian government because if a culture and its people are suppressed, it will change into a dangerous nationalism, and that is why some Baloch literate were acting secretly to develop their language and culture.