Balochi alphabets ( Balochi: بلۏچی سیاھگ; Balòci Siyàhag) consist of the Balòrabi script, based on the

Perso-Arabic script The Persian alphabet (), also known as the Perso-Arabic script, is the right-to-left script, right-to-left alphabet used for the Persian language. It is a variation of the Arabic script with four additional letters: (the sounds 'g', 'zh', ' ...

, and the Balòtin script, based on the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

. Both scripts are used for the

Balochi language Balochi (, romanized: ) is a Northwestern Iranian language, spoken primarily in the Balochistan region of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. In addition, there are speakers in Oman, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Turkmenistan, East Afr ...

spoken in the Balochistan region of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

and

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Alphabet

The Balochi alphabet, standardized by Balochi Academy Sarbaz, consists of 32 letters. The Romanized version is called Balòtin, and the Arabic version is called Balòrabi.

Script Correspondence Table

Some digraphs in Balochi writing

Balochi also has 3 digraphs set by Balochi Academy Sarbaz in Standard Alphabets:

Arabic diacritics in Balochi writing

Arabic

diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...

s are used in Balochi, as with other scripts derived from Arabic:

Use of Hamza

One of the aspects that distinguishes Balochi orthography from other orthographies derived from

Perso-Arabic Script The Persian alphabet (), also known as the Perso-Arabic script, is the right-to-left script, right-to-left alphabet used for the Persian language. It is a variation of the Arabic script with four additional letters: (the sounds 'g', 'zh', ' ...

is the use of stand-alone

Hamza The hamza ( ') () is an Arabic script character that, in the Arabic alphabet, denotes a glottal stop and, in non-Arabic languages, indicates a diphthong, vowel, or other features, depending on the language. Derived from the letter '' ʿayn'' ( ...

(), which, depending on its function within a sentence, is always written with one of three vowel

diacritics A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...

. Stand-alone Hamza without diacritic is also used similar to other Perso-Arabic Scripts, to indicated glottal stop at end of words The use of Hamza in such a way was first used in Balochi by poet ''Husayn Anqa'', and officially adopted into Balochi as a result of decisions made in a convention in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

on 22 July 1959, attended by prominent Balochi poets and literaturists. Below are the forms that stand-alone Hamza is used:

Balochi Numbers

Notes

Some dialects of Balochi very infrequently use the

voiced retroflex flap The voiced retroflex flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a letter ''r'' with tail, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r`. Featu ...

, meaning ڑ. Due to its immense rarity in Balochi, most orthographies of the language leave out glyphs for the phoneme. When written however, it is usually represented with ر. This alphabet uses two completely separate and new glyphs to represent the long

close front unrounded vowel The close front unrounded vowel, or high front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound that occurs in most spoken languages, represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by the symbol i. It is similar to the vowel sound in the Englis ...

(/iː/). For the initial and medial forms, ݔ is used. This glyph is based on the initial/medial form of the Perso-Arabic "Ye":
(یـ/ـیـ), the difference being the dot above it. Meanwhile, for the final form, ے is used, which is also based on ی and is called " Bari ye"; it is from

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

. Sometimes there is خ, meaning /x/.

Vowels

in standard alphabets have 11 vowels,

The difference in writing between old Balochi and standard Balochi

In standardized Balochi, letters from old Balochi have been removed and some new letters have been added, The added letters are: * ݔ‍ Cappi Yà or Arabic yā letter with a dot on it, which is the same at the beginning and middle of the word, and at the end of the word, the letter ے is used only, which existed in old Balochi. * ۏ Cappi Wà or Wāw letter with a dot added on it And also in standard Balochi, the letter ڑ is merged with the letter ڈ In the table below, you can see the difference between old and standard writing:

"ݔ‍" Letter using

Cappi Yà (ݔ‍ ے ࢩ) is one of the standard letters of the Balochi language, which was added to the standard Balochi alphabets by the

Balochi Academy Sarbaz Balochi alphabets (Balochi language, Balochi: بلۏچی سیاھگ; Balòci Siyàhag) consist of the Balòrabi script, based on the Persian alphabet, Perso-Arabic script, and the Balòtin script, based on the Latin script. Both scripts are used ...

. In the old Balochi alphabet, this letter is given as ی‍ْ, but in some others, it is also given as ڃ and یٚ.

References

{{Arabic script Arabic alphabets Balochi language Arabic alphabets for South Asian languages