Editing Balochi language (section)

{{Short description|Western Iranian language}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Balochi
| nativename       = {{lang|bal|بلۏچی}} {{Clear}} {{transliteration|bal|Balòci}}
| pronunciation = {{IPA|bal|bəˈloːt͡ʃiː|}}
| image            = Balòci.png
| imagescale       = 0.6
| imagecaption     = ''Balòci'' (Balochi) written [[#Writing system|Balo-Rabi]] in [[Nastaliq]] style.
| states           = [[Pakistan]], [[Iran]], [[Afghanistan]]
| region           = [[Balochistan]]
| ethnicity        = [[Baloch people|Baloch]]
| speakers         = {{sigfig|8.784850|2}} million
| date             = 2017{{ndash}}2020
| ref              = e26
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]]
| fam3             = [[Iranian languages|Iranian]]
| fam4             = [[Western Iranian languages|Western Iranian]]
| fam5             = [[Northwestern Iranian languages|Northwestern]]
| nation           =
| minority         = 
| agency           = [[Balochi Academy]], Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan <br>[[Balochi Academy Sarbaz]], Sarbaz, Iran
| iso2             = bal
| iso3             = bal
| lc1              = bgp
| ld1              = Eastern Balochi
| lc2              = bgn
| ld2              = Western Balochi
| lc3              = bcc
| ld3              = Southern Balochi
| lingua           = 58-AAB-a > 58-AAB-aa (East Balochi) + 58-AAB-ab (West Balochi) + 58-AAB-ac (South Balochi) + 58-AAB-ad (Bashkardi)
| glotto           = balo1260
| glottorefname    = Balochic
| map              = Iranian_tongues_de.svg
| mapcaption       = The position of Balochi language among Iranian languages.<ref>{{cite web |title=worldhistory|url=https://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/didact/karteng/iran/irann.htm |access-date=2022-02-20 |website=titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de}}</ref>
| notice           = IPA
| script           = [[Balochi Standard Alphabet]]
}}
{{Contains special characters|Baluchi}}
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Malek speaking Eastern Balochi.webm|thumb|A speaker of Eastern Balochi]]
{{Baloch people}}

'''Balochi''' ({{lang|bal|بلۏچی|rtl=yes}}, romanized: {{Transliteration|bal|Balòci}}) is a [[Northwestern Iranian language]], spoken primarily in the [[Balochistan|Balochistan region]] of [[Balochistan, Pakistan|Pakistan]], [[Sistan and Baluchestan province|Iran]] and [[Balochistan, Afghanistan|Afghanistan]]. In addition, there are speakers in [[Oman]], the [[Arab states of the Persian Gulf]], [[Turkmenistan]], [[East Africa]] and in diaspora communities in other parts of the world.<ref name="Spooner2011">{{cite book |last1=Spooner |first1=Brian |editor1-last=Schiffman |editor1-first=Harold F. |title=Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors |date=2011 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004201453 |page=319 |chapter=10. Balochi: Towards a Biography of the Language |quote=It [Balochi] is spoken by three to five million people in Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Oman and the Persian Gulf states, Turkmenistan, East Africa, and diaspora communities in other parts of the world.}}</ref> The total number of speakers, according to ''[[Ethnologue]]'', is {{sigfig|8.750850|2}} million.<ref name=e26/> Of these, 6.28 million are in Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017 |title=Table 11 – Population by Mother Tongue, Sex and Rural/Urban |url=https://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/population/2017/tables/pakistan/Table11n.pdf |access-date=2023-11-25 |website=[[Pakistan Bureau of Statistics]]}}</ref>

Balochi varieties constitute a dialect continuum and collectively at least have 10 million native speakers. The main varieties of Balochi are Eastern (Soleimani), [[Makrani dialect|Southern]] (Makrani) and [[Rakhshani dialect|Western]] (Rakhshani).<ref name=":zone">{{cite book |last1= Donald L. Stilo, Haig, Schreiber, Mahand, Schiborr|first1= Geoffrey , Laurentia, Mohammad, Rasekh, Nils  |title=Language Science Press |date=2024|page=122|publisher= BoD – Books on Demand |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LRs3EQAAQBAJ|language=en|isbn=9783985541218}}</ref> The [[Koroshi dialect|Koroshi]] dialect is a dialect of the Balochi language, spoken mainly in the provinces of [[Fars province|Fars]] and [[Hormozgan province|Hormozgan]].<ref name=":Anousha">{{cite book |last= Sedighi |first=Anousha  |year=2023 |title=Iranian and Minority Languages at Home and in Diaspora|publisher= De Gruyter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ogGdEAAAQBAJ&dq=balochi+dialect&pg=PA22|isbn=9783110694314}}</ref><ref name=":zone" /><ref>{{cite book |last1= Asadpour, Jügel|first1= Hiwa , Thomas|title=Word Order Variation|date=2022|page=93,225|publisher= Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q0R6EAAAQBAJ|language=en|isbn=9783110790368}}</ref>

According to [[Brian Spooner (anthropologist)|Brian Spooner]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Spooner |first1=Brian |editor1-last=Schiffman |editor1-first=Harold F. |title=Language Policy and Language Conflict in Afghanistan and Its Neighbors |date=2011 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9004201453 |page=320 |chapter=10. Balochi: Towards a Biography of the Language}}</ref>{{blockquote|Literacy for most Baloch-speakers is not in Balochi, but in [[Urdu]] in Pakistan and [[Persian language|Persian]] in Afghanistan and Iran. Even now very few Baloch read Balochi, in any of the countries, even though the alphabet in which it is printed is essentially identical to Persian and Urdu.}}

Balochi belongs to the [[Western Iranian languages|Western Iranian]] subgroup, and its original homeland is suggested to be around the central [[Caspian Sea|Caspian]] region.<ref name="Elfenbein 1988">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/baluchistan-iii |title=Baluchistan iii. Baluchi Language and Literature |first=J. |last=Elfenbein |date=1988 |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Iranica]] |access-date=30 December 2014}}</ref>