Dehwari (, Dehwārī) is a southwestern
Persian language
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken an ...
spoken by c. 14,000
Dehwar people in
Balochistan
Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
. Most of the Dehwari speakers are concentrated in
Mastung,
Khuzdar
Khuzdar ( Brahui/ bal, ; ur, , ), historically known as Qusdar ( ar, قصدار, quṣdār), is the capital city of Khuzdar District in the central part of Balochistan Province, Pakistan. Khuzdar is the 2nd-largest city of Balochistan provin ...
,
Nushk,
Kharan, Sarlath District,
Dalbandin
Dalbandin ( Urdu and bal, ) is a city and the headquarter of District Chagai in the province of Balochistan near the Iran and Afghanistan border. It has a population of 16,319, and the remainder of the entire Dalbandin Tehsil has a populatio ...
, and
Kalat.
Influence on Brahui
Dehwari was introduced to the
Brahui in the seventeenth century and the modern-day language uses many Dehwari loanwords in its vocabulary.
Brahui influence
In turn,
Brahui has heavily influenced the language, which has made Dehwari a Persian dialect under heavy Brahui influence. This has made Dehwari speakers bilingual in both Dehwari and Brahui, and some in
Balochi,
Urdu
Urdu (;["Urdu"](_blank)
'' English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
.
Drop in Speakers
The drop of speakers in Dehwari was recorded in the
1921 Indian Census, with Pashto facing the same consequences in Kalat and Mastung. And in the
1931 Indian Census, the Dehwari population outside of Kalat and Mastung was only 1,795.
References
Languages of Balochistan, Pakistan
Persian language
Persian language in Pakistan
{{Asia-stub