Khetrānī, or Khetranki, is an
Indo-Aryan language of north-eastern
Balochistan. It is spoken by the majority of the
Khetrans, a
Baloch
Baloch, also spelled Baloch, Beluch and in other ways, may refer to:
* Baloch people, an ethnic group of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan
* Baluch, a small itinerant community of Afghanistan
* Balouch, Azad Kashmir, a town in Pakistan
* Baloch (s ...
tribe that occupies a hilly tract in the
Sulaiman Mountains comprising the whole of
Barkhan District as well as small parts of neighbouring
Kohlu District to the south-west, and
Musakhel District to the north. The ethnic Khetran population found to the east in the Vehova Tehsil of
Taunsa Sharif District of Punjab instead speak Saraiki. Alternative names for the language attested at the start of the 20th century are ''Barāzai'' and ''Jāfaraki''.
Khetrani has grammatical features in common with both
Saraiki and with
Sindhi, but is not mutually intelligible with either. Khetrani has a relatively small number of
Balochi Balochi, sometimes spelt in various other ways, may refer to:
* Balochi language, a language of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan
* an adjective for something related to the Baloch people, an ethnic group of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan
* an adjecti ...
loanwords in its vocabulary. Khetrani was formerly a dialect continuum of both Sindhi and Saraiki.
It is likely to have been formerly spoken over a wider area, which has been reduced with the expansion of
Pashto
Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani ().
Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official languag ...
from the north and Balochi from the south-east. The earlier suggestion that Khetrani might be a remnant of a
Dardic language has been found "difficult to substantiate" by more detailed recent research.
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History
Footnotes
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External links
Worldview of Khetran
{{Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages
Languages of Balochistan, Pakistan
Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages