Ever since humans became the dormant species on the planet, and many would argue even before that, languages were additionally made for imparting each other for satisfaction of their necessities and wants. Aristotle has said that human is a social animal, subsequently he cannot live alone or in isolation, that is to say he needs to communicate, he needs to be heard and he needs to hear from others. The societal disparities across the world required various languages to be made, in order for this purpose of communication to be made easier, words and sentences were encircled and languages turned into an essential device of human correspondence, acknowledgment they had always wanted, festivals of social occasions and for execution of their religious customs. We have evidence in the form of fossils and cave drawings which date back to millennia. Some of these are older, much older. And hence, one could argue, more interesting.
Brahui is one of those distinct languages, in addition to being one of the oldest languages in the world, it is one of the most established languages of the Indian sub-continent. Brahui speaking individuals are found in Balochistan, Sindh, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Iran. The 2013 version of “Ethnologue” reports that there are somewhere in the range of 4.2 million speakers; 4 million live in Pakistan, mostly in the Pakistani province of Balochistan, particularly in Kalat and Mastung region of the province. Though it is a Dravidian-language but it has only 15% of Dravidian in its vocabulary due to living far away from the people of South India and it is generally written in Perso-Arabic script instead of ancient Brahmi-based script.
Brahui, a Dravidian language is spoken in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been recorded as one of the oldest languages of the world. This statement was made by the leading etymologists in an international conference on Brahui language held at Allama Iqbal Open Univeristy, Islamabad. The language is currently viewed as the parent language of 7,000 Dravidian languages spoken in the Deccan in India. In other words, Dravidians and their languages, of which there are roughly 7,000 dialects, all stem from Brahui. This language is considered as one of the few gems of culture and history in Balochistan’s crown. Furthermore, the recent data has further shown that the Dravidians used to inhabit the Northern and Western regions of the sub-continent which today constitutes Balochistan and were only driven away by the invading Aryans. Hence, not only does Balochistan represent a pillar of the entire sub-continent’s history, it is also the foundation of the ancient civilizations that inhabited in this region.
Efforts need to be put, both by the public and private sectors to ensure that the language is preserved. More funding needs to be granted to educational institutes across Balochistan to ensure ample literature is published on and in Brahui to keep this ancient gem alive and thrive.
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