Lasi, or Lassi, also called Kohistani () is a dialect of the Sindhi language spoken on the western frontier of

Sindh Sindh ( ; ; , ; abbr. SD, historically romanized as Sind (caliphal province), Sind or Scinde) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, southeastern region of the country, Sindh is t ...

and

Balochistan Balochistan ( ; , ), also spelled as Baluchistan or Baluchestan, is a historical region in West and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. This arid region o ...

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# ...

. It is spoken by the Sindhi Lasi people of Lasbela, Hub and

Gwadar Gwadar (, ) is a Port, port city on the southwestern coast of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Balochistan, Pakistan, Balochistan. The city is located on the shores of the Arabian Sea, opposite Oman and has a populati ...

, and Lasi is also spoken in the

Kohistan Kohistan (, , ), also transliterated Kuhistan, Kuhiston, Quhistan, may refer to: In Afghanistan *Kohistan District, Kapisa, Kapisa Province ** Kohistan Hesa Awal District, a district in Kapisa Province, created within the former Kohistan Distr ...

region of

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 ...

Thatta Thatta is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh. Thatta was the medieval capital of Sindh, and served as the seat of power for three successive dynasties. Its construction was ordered by Jam Nizamuddin II in 1495. Thatta's historic signif ...

and

Jamshoro Jamshoro (, ) is a city and the capital of Jamshoro District, in Sindh, Pakistan. It is on the right bank of the Indus River, approximately northwest of Hyderabad and northeast of the provincial capital of Sindh, Karachi. This city is popula ...

districts of

Loanwords

Lasi is known to use loanwords from other languages, primarily from

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

as well as Balochi.

Orthography

Lasi uses the same orthography as Sindhi except an extra letter, ۏ, which has been added to the

Balochi Standard Alphabet Balochi alphabets ( Balochi: بلۏچی سیاھگ; Balòci Siyàhag) consist of the Balòrabi script, based on the Perso-Arabic script, and the Balòtin script, based on the Latin script. Both scripts are used for the Balochi language spoken in ...

. Many educated Lasi speakers use the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

in an effort to romanise the language.

References

Languages of Balochistan, Pakistan Languages of Pakistan Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages Sindhi language Dialects of Sindhi {{IndoAryan-lang-stub