EASTERN BALOCHI PHONOLOGY IN AREAL PERSPECTIVE: A HISTORICAL HISTORY

Abstract

Balochi is an Iranian language, classified as historically belonging to the northwestern branch, but found today in the southeastern Iranian plateau as a consequence of a migration that may be dated to as early as the 8 th century C.E. Owing to this migration, the language has undergone several changes that can be described as Areal influences; an important phonological change for example being the development of retroflexion. Spoken as a language of a sizable minority in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Oman, it has three principle varieties known as Western, Southern and Eastern Balochi. This thesis, being a study in phonology, investigates one of the easternmost dialects of Balochi in use in Dera Ghazi Khan district and looks for the evidence of three features namely retroflexion, aspiration and ‘glottalicization’, which it is presumed developed due to the influence of the neighboring Indo-Aryan languages that in the present day include Khetrani, Sindhi and Siraiki. Employing primary data obtained in the form of conversational recordings from a locale extending from Choti Zareen to Choti Bala and secondary data from the available literature on Balochi dated roughly from 1890 to 2010, it is found that borrowings from these languages are a major factor that led to the proposed changes. Furthermore, using the related literature, it also traces the phonological development of the Eastern Balochi from the common parent of all the Balochi varieties.