When human beings were created on this planet, languages were also created for communicating each other for fulfillment of their necessities and desires. Aristotle has said that human is a Social animal, therefore he can not live alone or in isolation. Existence of society invented different languages in different areas, words and sentences were framed and languages became an important tool of human communication, realization of their dreams, celebrations of cultural events and for performance of their religious rituals. Existence of Language invented literature(Adab) and preliminary literature was in shape of Folk Literature.
As I mentioned earlier that the importance of language is essential to every aspect and interaction in our everyday lives. language is used to inform the people around us of what we feel, what we desire, and question/understand the world around us. We communicate effectively with our words, gestures, and tone of voice in a multitude of situation. Would you talk to a small child with the same words you would in a business meeting. Being able to communicate with each other, form bonds, teamwork, and it’s what separates humans from other animal species. Communication drives our lives and better ourselves.7000 Languages are being spoken in the World and hundreds of Languages have been Perished due to linguistic reasons and UNESCO has conducted Survey about 3000 dying languages and 230 languages will diminish at the end of twenty first Century ,27 Pakistani regional languages are included in the same list, unfortunately Brahui has been included in the row of 27 those dying Pakistani Languages.
Brahui is one of the oldest languages of the Indian sub-continent. Brahui speaking people are found in Balochistan, Sindh, Afghanistan, Turkeministan and Iran. The 2013 edition of Ethnologue reports that there are some 4.2 million speakers; 4 million live in Pakistan, mainly in the province of Balochistan. It is isolated from the nearest Dravidian-speaking neighbor population of South India by a distance of more than 1,500 kilometers (930 mi). Kalat and Mastung districts of Balochistan are predominantly Brahui-speaking. Brahui is the only Dravidian language which has not been written in a Brahmi-based script in the recent past; instead, it is written in the Arabic script. More recently, a Roman-based orthography named Brolikva which is short form of Brahui Roman Likvar has been developed by the Brahui Language Board of the University of Balochistan in Quetta, and adopted by Talár.
Theories About Origin Of Brahvi Language
There are many theories about the origin of Brahui Language. Some people claim that Brahui is an Aryan Language ,others say that it is a Turko-Iranian language. Intellectuals and linguists also say that the traces of brahui language have been found I n the remainants of Mohenjo Daro and it has Dravadian origin and same language is being spoken in some parts of India and Sir Lanka.
Brahui is Turko-Aryan Or Turrani Language
Renowned Linguists and historians ,Meer Gul Khan Naseer,Agha Naseer Khan Ahmedzi,Haqil Khan Mengal, saleh Muhammad Lehri and Meer Khuda Baksh Marri have taken ideas from the books of some Arab geographers , Historians and tourists and claim that Brahui belongs to a Turko Aryan(Turrani) language family and Satheen, Babli and maid are also members of same family. Reason for considering brahui as Aryan language is that it contains words of Persian,Balochi,pushtho,sindhi, urdu and siraiki languages. This idea seems unreal and based on unsold grounds. The reasons for unreality of this theory are that the Syntax, sound moods, prepositions and alphabetical special items are altogether different among Brahui, Balochi, Pashto, Sindhi & Siraiki Languages.
Sir Dennis Bray (I.C.S) who served as civil servant in Balochistan had submitted some theories about the origin of brahvi language. One of the said theories was that when Greeks occupied the Khurasan and Balochistan, the brahui speaking people were living in the valley of Hilmand and brahuis were calling the same valley as “Baroyana” and same name was changed and transformed as ‘Brahui or Brohi’.
Renowned historians Mir Gul Khan Naseer and Malik Saleh Muhammad Lehri are of the view that Brahvis belong to a clan of those Balochs who migrated earlier than other Baloch clans. They were settled near the mountainous range of ‘Al-Burz’ accordingly ‘Al-Burz’ was renamed as “Burz Kohi” and with span of time same mountainous range was called “Brahui or Brohi”.
Professor Nadir Qambrani in an essay has written that some materials have been explored from Nadali and Baram (Afghanistan) which include coins and images of gods of mountains which are inscribed on the same and following words were written around those idols in “Khuroshthi Script” “Maha Rajasa, Raja Raja sa, Dawapothrasa Kajola, Kafuzasa”
If we change these words into brahvi definitly a brahvi speaking people understand these words.
Theories About Dravadian Origin Of Brahvi
Sir John Marshall, M.B Aimenio, Asko Parpola,T Bro, G.R Hunter, Buship Coldwell, MS Andronof, Dennis Brray, Ornist Middki, GR Girirson, Mark Kunnire, G.U Pope, Arnist Trump, Dr Ghulam Ali Allana, Ainu l haq Fareed Koti, Dr,Abul alees siddiqi, Muhammad Hassan Danni, Anwar Roman, Dr Inamul Haq kosar,Kamil ul Qadri, Dr Abdul Rehman Brahui, Noor Muhammad Perwana, Dr Abdul Razzaq Sabir, Professor Javeed Akhtar, Nazeer Ahmed Shakir Brahui are of the opinion that Brahui is a Dravadian Language. MB Amenio in his book Dravadian Etomological Dictionary has mentioned that there are 250 words which are common in brahui and other dravadian languages
- The Researchers of Brahui Language have disclosed that the Syntax(Serf O Nahoo) of Dravadian as well as Brahui Language have similarities.
- Dravadian as well as Brahui Language have Same Special Alphabetical items i-e Ta,Noon,Daal,Meem,Laam.
- Dravadian as well as Brahui Language have Same Sound moods e,ne,na,nuna.numa.kuna.aa,a,na ouna,ourkay.Oudhay.
- Dravadian as well as Brahui Language have Same Use of Preposition ( Herf Jar) in sentence o,a,on.
- Dravadian as well as Brahui Language have Words starting from S are active like scholar,school.student.
- Dravadian as well as Brahui Language have same Principles of changing from singular to plural.From dhoo(Hand)…dhook(Hands) use of k.
- Dravadian as well as Brahui Language have same Words of att (From).
- Dravadian as well as Brahui Language have same Words of Dhair (Who)
- Dravadian as well as Brahvi Language have same Use of RRa in feminine heerr,mussirr, bulghurr, mulghurr.
- Dravadian as well as Brahvi Language have about same type of words for Parts of body of human beings and animals.
- Dravadian as well as Brahvi Language have words with Similar structure for relations.
Father of Brahui Language Late Noor Muhammad Perwana has submitted his opinion in his essay “Brahui culture” whether Brahvi speaking people belong to Dravadian race or not but it is certain that they belong to different races than Baloch and Pashtun. In another para he says that Brahui language may belong to Dravadian languages but some Brahuis also speak Balochi. He has concluded that Brahvis have a compound civilization.
Dr. Trump, Dir Dennis Bray, Coldwell, and Kami-ul-Qadri are of the opinion that there are similarities among brahvi and Indian languages of Tilgo, Milyalam, Tamil, Gota Malyalam. English scholars support this idea on grounds that composition of words of Dravadian and brahvi language have similarities.
Sir Denys Bray who served in Sub Continent from 1898 to 1930 as I.C.S Officer and posted in 1904 on different administrative positions of kalat state as well as British Balochistan. He has thoroughly discussed the origin of brahui language in his book (the brahui language) chapter one page numbers (08 to 19). Sir denys bray has highlighted following resemblances between brauhi and Dravidian languages.
1. The argument of kinship rests on a surer foundation than a casual analogy of structure, the grammatical relations of the noun in brahui are shown, as in Dravidian, by means of suffixes, and most, if not all, of the suffixes, whether expressive of case relations are of plural number, are traceable to the same source as Dravidian.
2. Even more direct is the evidence of the pronoun, that faithful repository of the secret of a languages; origin. Of the personal pronouns, the pronoun of the second person in both numbers is in essentials the same as in Dravidian, and the first person, Dravidian relationship is discernible in the pronoun of the first person of the ravages wrought by phonetic decay.
3. As in Dravidian, the ordinals in Brahui are formed from the cardinals by means of suffixes.
4. The most striking example of the relationship of Brahui and Dravidian case suffixes is to be found in the conjunctive.
5. There can be but one verdict on this evidence. This verdict is not that caldwell, who summoned up his final positions in the words “the brahui language considered as a whole seems to be derived from the same source as the Punjabi and sindhi, but it evidently contains a Dravidian element”, but the converse, first suggested by lassen in the early days of the study of the language reasserted by Trumpp quarter of a century above. The brahui language is sprung from the same source as the Dravidian language; it has freely absorbed alien vocabulary of Persian, balochi, Sindh and other neighboring languages, but inspite of their inroads its grammatical system has preserved sturdy existence.
6. Professor Trotman has wrote in his Book Dravadian Kinship that about two lac Brahui living in areas of Pakistan i-e Kalat, Kairpur, Hyderabad districts are settled in the center of Turko-Iranian languages, although Brahui have similarities with Dravadian languages settled thousands of miles away from Brahui speaking areas.
Dr. Abdul Razaq Sabir in his book Daravistan has minutely discussed the relation of Brahui with south indian Dravidian languages after his tour of South Indian Dravidian populated cities. Dr Abdul Razzaq Sabir says when we check the structure and roots of Brahui Words ,it is clearly a Dravadian Language.According to researchs and facts of linguists Brahui has been proved as Dravadian Language.If someone does not agree with said theory then he has to present logics,proofs,evidences otherwise he has to accept the theory that Brahui is a Dravadian Language.
He further says that about 160 million people speak Dravidian language in the world and 10% of Dravidian speaking population are multi lingual i.e speak more than one language. Dravidian languages were declared as one language family in 1816 for the first time.Brahui language is being spoken not only in Balochistan but also in upper Sindh, provinces of hilmand and namroz in Afghanistan and Irani Balochistan. Four larger Dravidian family languages are being spoken in the province of tamil nado (india) and sri lanka as well. Linguists have concluded that there are 26 Dravidian languages and only brahui is away for not less than 800 miles from its sister Dravidian languages.
He further says that according to information available in the different quarters of Dravidian north indian areas that Brahui is the oldest Dravidian language, the other Dravidian languages are godaba or ollari, gondi, kannada, kodagu, kalami, konda, kota, koya, kui, kurur, kuwim malyalum, malto, monad, naiki, parji, pengu, tamil, toda, tulau.
That many similarities were discussed between Dr. Abdul Razaq sabir and Professor Panikera as under:
Professor Javed Akhthar states in his book “Brahvi Zuban Ke Haqeeqath” that the Civilization of Moen Jo Darro which was comprising not only areas of Sind but also whole of Sub Continent,some areas of Balochistan were located on west bank of River Indus.When Aryans appeared in this area the Dravadians were living in this region and their language was also Dravadian.Attempts have been made to read and understand the writings /Inscriptions on Coins recovered from Harrapa,Moen Jo Darro,Chaoon Jo Darro and other places but results are unsatisfactory.Dr Askopar Polla,Samyo Parpolla and their assistantants belonging to Denmark have tried their best to read these inscriptions although they have not succeeded but reached at a conclusion that this language is mother of all the Dravadian Languages called PROTO DRAVADIAN and Brahvi is also like a language derived from Proto Dravadian Language.
Sindhi Linguists have claimed that one inscriptions found on remanents of Moen Jo Darro is the first poem of Sindhi Language while the composition, root and structure of words and sentences do not support their theory.The Poem (Arra Barra Kunkarra, Karrakari Mandharra) has simieliraties and meaningful words in Brahui Language,A Brahui Speaking person may easily understand the meanings of these words while sindhi speaking person can not understand it and their claims only on the bases of hypotheses not facts.Now I would like to translate these words into Brahui Language as under:
(Arra Barra Kunkarra,Karrakari Mandharra): recoverd version
Arra (Array/ oh man) Barra (Barrak/Come), Kunkarra (Kunkay/towards me), KarraKarri (KarraKarra / Slowly) Mundharra (Mundarri/ used in Brahui folk poetry as beloved person or who is smart and beautiful girl/lady/female).
Fossil Language Brahui Gets Recognition
Brahui, a Dravidian language spoken in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been listed as one of the ancient languages of the world.
Leading linguists from all over the world declared Brahui an ancient language during a seminar called International Conference on Brahui Language and Culture, held at Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad. The language is now considered the parent language of 7,000 Dravidian languages spoken in the Deccan in India. Brahui is spoken in a small isolated pocket deep in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Brahui is a language isolate. This means that it is isolated from other languages of its family, i.e. Dravidian. Brahui is located at least 1,500 kilometres from its closest Dravidian cousin. So far, there has been no consensus on whether Brahui is a relatively recent language introduced into Balochistan or the remnant of an ancient language that was at some point widespread in the region but subsequently died down in surrounding areas. Some scholars believe it to be an ancient language that migrated from its place of origin to where it is now found. The seminar concluded that Brahui is an ancient language but did not say anything decisive about its migratory status.
Research scholars from the United States, Spain, Germany, Iraq, Mexico, Canada, the Czech Republic, Pakistan and other countries presented papers at the conference. It was noted that the indigenous languages of Pakistan were suffering due to the government's policy of promoting education only in Urdu and English.
According to the researchers, further study into the origins of Brahui could help to solve the problems associated with the Harappan, Mohenjo Daro and Mehrgarh languages.
The 2013 edition of Ethnologue reports that there are about 4.2 million speakers of Brahui with 4 million living in Pakistan, mainly in the province of Balochistan.
According to Wikipedia
The Dravidian languages are a language family spoken mainly in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in northeastern Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and overseas in other countries such as Malaysia andSingapore. The Dravidian languages with the most speakers are Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada. There are also small groups of Dravidian-speaking scheduled tribes, who live beyond the mainstream communities, such as the Kurukh andGond tribes. It is often speculated that Dravidian languages are native to India. Epigraphically the Dravidian languages have been attested since the 2nd century BCE. Only two Dravidian languages are exclusively spoken outside India, Brahui inPakistan and Dhangar, a dialect of Kurukh, in Nepal. Dravidian place-names along the northwest coast, in Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, and to a lesser extent in Sindh, as well as Dravidian grammatical influence such as clusivity in the Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, Marwari, and to a lesser extent Sindhi languages, suggest that Dravidian languages were once spoken more widely across the Indian subcontinent.
There is no consensus as to whether Brahui is a relatively recent language introduced into Balochistan or remnant of an older widespread Dravidian language family. Some scholars see it as a recent migrant language to its present region. They postulate, that Brahui could only have migrated to Balochistan from central India after 1000 CE. The absence of any older Iranian (Avestan) loanwords in Brahui supports this hypothesis. The main Iranian contributor to Brahui vocabulary, Balochi, is a Northwestern Iranian language, and moved to the area from the west only around 1000 CE. One scholar places the migration аs late as the 13th or 14th century. However, a few scholars have hypothesized that Brahui is a remnant of a formerly widespread Dravidian language family that is believed to have been reduced or replaced during the influx of Iranian/Indo-Aryan languages upon their arrival in South Asia.
Conclusion
Although Sir Denys Bray, Dr. Abdul Rehman Brahui, Dr. Abdul Razzaq Sabir, Dr Javed Akhtar and Dr Nazeer Ahmed Shaker support the ideas that brahui is a Dravadian language and there is no doubt in this theory but I would like to present the conclusion about origin and developing of Brahui Language as under:
According to historians, Brahui and Balochi belong to same race. Balochi speaking people entered Mekran while Brahui speaking people entered from Chagi ,defeated the Dravadian rulers of Kalat and entered into matrimonial relationship with the Dravadian people of Kalat. Accordingly Dravadian and Balochi languages were mixed up and a new language of “Brahui” was born due to same relationship.Brahui and Balochi Speaking people belonging to same race have distinct languages.People belonging to Brahui tribes speak different languages in different areas of Balochistan,i-e Muhammad Hassani,Saoli,Mullazi,Sumalani and Mengals of Kharan,Washuk and Mekran Speak Balochi while same tribes living in areas of Nushki,Besima,Neemurgh,kalat and Surab Speak Brahui.This type of factual position is evidence of the fact that Brahui was born from mixture of Balochi, Persian and Dravadian Languages about one thousand years ago and Dravadian being language of newborn children of newly migrated people replaced majority words of prevous language of Balochs of Kalat and Chagi on the same principles of change of dialects after every forty kilometers and due to presence of distinct civilized Dravadians in kalat.
References & Bibliography:
1. Brahvi aur Urdu ka taqabulli Muttaliha by Dr Abdul Rehman Brahvi.
2. The Brahvi Language by Sir Denys Bray
3. Hand Book of Brahvi Language By Allah Baksh.
4. Brahvi Na Hindi O Sanskurath Thun Sanghati By Professor Aziz Mengal.
5. Elum Ikhbar Mastung.
6. Koch o Baloch By Meer Gul Khan Naseer.
7. Darawisthan By Dr Abdul Razzaq Sabir.
8. Quetta sa Kanya Kumarri Tuk By Dr.Abdul Razzaq Sabir & translated by Neelum Moomal.
9. Sindhi Adab Je Mukhtasar Tarikh By Dr Nabi Baksh Baloch.
