Lasi, or Lassi, () is an
Indo-Aryan language of Pakistan belonging to the
Sindhi group and commonly counted as a dialect of
Sindhi itself. It is spoken by the
Lasi people of
Lasbela District in
Balochistan.
Dispute
Lasi has been disputed whether it is a language or a dialect of Sindhi. Most linguists agree that it is part of the wider
Sindhi languages, not to be confused with the
Sindhi language itself, which includes many languages that used to be dialects of Sindhi, such as
Jadgali
Jaḍgālī is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Jadgal, an ethno-linguistic group of Pakistan and Iran. It is one of only two Indo-Aryan languages found on the Iranian plateau. It is a dialect of Sindhi most closely related to Lasi.
The ...
and
Kutchi.
Loanwords
Lasi is known to be using loanwords from other languages, primarily
Persian as well as
Balochi Balochi, sometimes spelt in various other ways, may refer to:
* Balochi language, a language of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan
* an adjective for something related to the Baloch people, an ethnic group of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan
* an adjecti ...
. More recently, many
English and
Urdu words have entered the language.
Orthography
Lasi uses the same orthography as Sindhi except an extra letter,
ۏ, which has been added to the
Balochi Standard Alphabet. Many educated Lasi speakers use the
Latin alphabet in an effort to
romanise the language.
References
Languages of Balochistan, Pakistan
Languages of Pakistan
Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages
Sindhi language
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