BALOCHI LANGUAGE, the speech of the Baloches of Baluchistan, is older than Old Persian, the court language of the Achaemenides, as shown by the close relationship between it and the language of the Avesta. It is not a bastard Persian dia lect. It has borrowed and is still borrowing numerous words from modern Arabic, modern Persian and from the modern Indian Prakrits.
The Grammar.—There are no articles and no genders. Males are masculine and females feminine. Lifeless objects possess no gender.
There is only one declension, and all nouns and pronouns may be said to be declined alike. The gen. case sing. may end in egh, egha, ena, or in i. Which is used depends on euphony and on the class of word. The dat. case sing. ends in rd, dr, ar, or in dra. The acc. case sing. is generally the same as the dat. Most nouns form their pl. by adding an to the sing. The gen. case pl. may end in ani, or in egh, the dat. in aura, anar or dr. The accusative case does not greatly differ from the Prepositions govern the noun in the oblique case (form a) and postpositions govern the noun in the genitive case.
The adjective generally precedes its noun but may follow it. The comparative is formed by adding -tir, superlatives by words such as sake (very).
The numerals are regular and follow the Persian closely. The ordinals are formed by the addition of the syllable mi to the cardinals e.g., chiar, four, chiar-umi, fourth.
The pronouns are defective and slightly irregular. Their de clension on the whole follows that of the substantive. Thus, ma, I ; ma-i, ma-igh, of me ; ma-na, to me : ma, we ; ma-igh, of us; ma-r, md-ra, to us. Thau, though; Ma-i, tha-igh, of thee; tha-ra, to thee : shwa, you ; shwa-i, shwa-igh, of you ; shwd-r, shwa-ra, to you. There is no personal pronoun of the third per son. The demonstratives esh and an take its place. Pronominal suffixes are used.
The particle kih takes the place of a rel. pronoun, just as it does in Persian.
The verb has two bases—the present or simple root and the past—formed from the present and usually ending in -agh. Some verbs are irregular in the past participles, which, in transitive verbs, are passive in signification, thus requiring the agent or oblique case. Consonantal changes accompany the past tenses.
All verbs except a very few end in agh. Thus : thashagh, to run; thash-an, I may run; thash-an. I shall run, thashagh-an, I am running ; thashagh-ethan, I was running ; thakhtagh-dn, I have run; thakhtagh-ethan, I had run; thakhtath-an, had I run; thash-okh, the runner. The verb substantive, used also as an auxiliary verb, is irregular.
The particles offer no difficulty.
There are slight differences to be expected among the numerous tribes. The literal translation shows the simplicity of the lan guage. Thais ba-kho ravagh-en, thou to—where going—art? Ma wath-i logh-a ravagh-an, I myself—of the—house—to going —am. Thai logh 'sh-edha dir en, thee—of the—house from— here far is? Jima, ma-i logh nazikh en no, me—of the—house near is. An mar azh kho akhta, that man from where came? Ma-na kal me—to information not—is. Tha-ra kal bi, thee —to information must—be. An pha chih edha akhta, he for why here came? Ma rav-an azh dn-hia pliol khan-an, I will go, from him enquiry will—make. An chih gushagh-e, he what saying—is? An hachi phasav nali deagh-e, he any reply not giving—is.
The student should consult the Linguistic Survey of India (1921), vol. x., pp. 327 sqq. for further details and specimens of the language and its dialects. (G. W. G1.)