Southern Baluchi language

Balochi
بلوچی‎
Balochi in Perso-Arabic script (Nastaʿlīq style)
Native to	Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Oman, Turkmenistan
Ethnicity	predominantly Baloch, some Brahui and Sheedis
Native speakers	30 million (2007)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Northwestern II Balochi
Dialects	Koroshi
Official status
Official language in	Balochistan
Recognised minority language in	Iran Provincial in Balochistan  Pakistan Provincial in Balochistan  Afghanistan Provincial in Nimroz province
Regulated by	Balochi Academy, Quetta, Pakistan
Language codes
ISO 639-2	bal
ISO 639-3	– inclusive code Individual codes:  – Eastern Balochi  – Western Balochi  – Southern Balochi  – Koroshi
Glottolog	balo1260
Linguasphere	58-AAB-a > 58-AAB-aa (East Balochi) + 58-AAB-ab (West Balochi) + 58-AAB-ac (South Balochi) + 58-AAB-ad (Bashkardi)
Geographic distribution of Balochi (yellow) and other Iranian languages
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Balochi (Balochi: Balócí‎‎) is a Northwestern Iranian language. It is the principal language of the Baloch people, and is spoken in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Oman.

The Balochi vowel system has at least eight vowels: five long vowels and three short vowels. The long vowels are /aː/, /eː/, /iː/, /oː/, and /uː/. The short vowels are /a/, /i/ and /u/. The short vowels have more centralized phonetic qualities than the long vowels.

Southern Balochi (at least as spoken in Karachi) also has nasalized vowels, most importantly /ẽː/ and /ãː/.

The following consonants are common to both Western Balochi and Southern Balochi. The place of articulation of the consonants /s/, /z/, /n/, /ɾ/ and /l/ is claimed to be alveolar in Western Balochi, while at least the /ɾ/ is claimed to be dental in Southern Balochi. The stops /t/ and /d/ are claimed to be dental in both dialects.

Notes

In addition, /f/ is listed for Southern Balochi, but is found in few words. /x/ (voiceless velar fricative) in some loanwords in Southern Balochi corresponding to /χ/ (voiceless uvular fricative) in Western Balochi; and /ɣ/ (voiced velar fricative) in some loanwords in Southern Balochi corresponding to /ʁ/ (voiced uvular fricative) in Western Balochi.