The Baluchis and their Language

[Neal Robbins]

As I mentioned in another message, I have studied the Baluchi language. I used a two volume set of textbooks titled A Course in Baluchi. The authors are Abdul Abd-Al Rahman Barker and Aqil Khan Mengal. They point out in the introduction that there are various dialects of the Baluchi language. These are the dialects:

Rakshani dialects - They are subdivided into Kalati, Chagai-Kharani, Afghani, Sarhaddi, and Panjguri.

Eastern Hill dialects

Saravani

Kechi

Coastal or Makrani dialects

Lotuni

All of these have subdivisions. My textbooks are geared mainly toward the study of the Rakshani division, which is spoken in Pakistan.
In my other message I pointed out that Baluchi is an Indo-Iranian language. There are many Indo-Iranian languages. In this posting I will focus on the Iranian one, which are spoken not only in Iran, but also in some other countries.
Persian is the one most well known to Westerners. It is called Farsi in Iran, Dari in Afghanistan, and Tajik in Tajikistan. Other Iranian languages include:

Kurdish (Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and the Caucasus region)
Ossetic (Mostly in the Caucasus region)
Lur (Luristan, which is in the SW part of Iran)
Mazandarani (The Iranian province of Mazandaran)
Gilani (The Iranian province of Gilan)
Pashto (Afghanistan and Pakistan)

While I was in Turkey, I showed my Baluchi textbooks to a Kurdish friend named Yilmaz. He readily noticed the similarities between Baluchi and Kurdish and was able to read a substantial portion of the Baluchi writing in the books.

Neal Robbins

P.S. There are some Baluchis who live in countries of the Persian Gulf, including Oman. Communities of Baluchis also reside in eastern African countries, such as Kenya.

P.P.S. My textbooks have a number of poems by noted Baluchi poets, such as Jam Durrak, Shay Murid, and Mulla Shoran. The texts are in Baluchi, along with English translations.

[Norman Hartnell]

Neal,

I too have studied Baluchi and found it a very interesting yet frustrating language. Some dialects would use a certain sound as an object marker, then I'd see other dialects where the same sound is a subject marker.
Unfortuantely the lack of a proper written form of the language in many areas of Baluchestan, each dialect appears to be moving further and further away from each other.
Another unfortunate point for me is that many of the Baluchi texts I come across are poems and I know from my Farsi days, that I cannot get the willpower to translate poetry and much prefer the real llanguage as spoken amongst native speakers.
Due to my prior knowledge of Farsi I learned more of the Makrani (or Coastal) dialect and have only recently managed to find a copy of the Barker course. I hope to add any new vocabulary I find in there into my Baluchi-English and English-Baluchi glossaries.
It is my aim to find a copy of Sayad Ganj Baluchi-Baluchi dictionary, but I fear I may not succeed in this for some time.

[Anubis]

Hi to all, all, all


The dialect which is spoken by the BaluchiofTurkmenistan (Mari region) is called rahshani and runs to 50 thousand speakers. It greatly differs from other dialects of Baluchi language, used in Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. The last three have a written language based on Arabic Script. The Beluchi of Turkmenistan had their own writing as well, arisen in the beginning of 30ties and based on Roman alphabet. But unfortunately it didn’t endure for a long time, just till 1938. However during this short period some school textbooks and booklets of political nature were issued in the Beluchi language. Then in here, in Turkmenistan, Roman alphabet was replaced by Cyrillic alphabet, but in the time interval from 1938 to 1989 neither newspapers nor books were published in Beluchi. This language existed only as spoken language, being devoid of official status.

And surely I don’t say all this only for the sake of history, which you without me and doubt must know, I have another reason in mind. The problem is that Turkmenistan Beluchi as probably all of the nations want to have a Bible “of their own”, I mean translated in their language, but that appears to be a great problem. Multiple attempts to translate the Bible into the two important dialects, spread in Pakistan, were already made back in XIX century. One of such translation of New Testament was published in Coastal (Makrani) dialect, (whichNorman Hartnell have already mentioned) which is mainly spoken in Karachi. But the Beluchi of Turkmenistan don’t understand this dialect, that’s why they need translation in their own dialect. And they say that Institute of Bible Translation is handling the matter right now. Moreover The Gospel of Lucas has already been translated. The necessary stage of translation – probation – was conducted in unusual conditions. The Beluchi, settled around dostarhan* with pleasure listened the translation. In the course of reading they made remarks and observations as to the righteousness of the translation, and the assessment of clarity of the text didn’t remain subjective – the final judgment of translation quality was admited by the majority of voices. I’d say “speechless democracy”, who ever thought that democracy can have such a persistent power to survive even in the countries where there isn’t even a defined official language.

Sophisticated language is this Beluchi

*Table supported by short legs, nearly obligatory attribute oftea-drinking in the Middle East

[Neal Robbins]

I need to find a website where I can find a free download of Baluchi script. I have seen some websites where there is a fee, but I prefer to get a free one if at all possible.

Neal Robbins

[Cycling Man]

Neal, try www.fonttrader.com - actually the registration is free, but if you want to dowload many of the proposed stuff you'll have to upload Fonts in exchange. D)

[Norman Hartnell]

Neal,

I have been looking for a workable Baluchi script for some time without any luck.
My work around is to use my Farsi/Urdu word processor (ParsNegar) and to switch into Urdu for those letters which are used in Baluchi but not in Farsi.
It's very fiddly, but the best I have found up to now.

Norman

Norman Hartnell
I am doing my phd in russian language but i was done my master in Balochi , in the same time I am working on Balochi - English dictionary (using Roman ) and I have many books in Balochi including Syed Gang, what I can do for you please let me know.My address: russlanguage2002@yahoo.com
Gul

Originally Posted by Norman Hartnell

Neal,

I have been looking for a workable Baluchi script for some time without any luck.
My work around is to use my Farsi/Urdu word processor (ParsNegar) and to switch into Urdu for those letters which are used in Baluchi but not in Farsi.
It's very fiddly, but the best I have found up to now.

Norman

[Neal Robbins]

I downloaded some Urdu fonts to use in typing Baluchi. However, I cannot seem to get them installed on my word processing programs, for example, on microsoft word. How do I get them installed?

Sincerely,

Neal

Check the following site:
http://www.neshun.com/word.asp