Dehwari (, Dehwārī) is a southwestern

Persian language Persian (), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision of th ...

spoken by c. 14,000 Dehwar people in Balochistan,

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Most of the Dehwari speakers are concentrated in Mastung,

Khuzdar Khuzdar ( Brahui/ bal, ; ur, , ), historically known as Qusdar ( ar, قصدار, quṣdār), is the capital city of Khuzdar District in the central part of Balochistan Province, Pakistan. Khuzdar is the 2nd-largest city of Balochistan provin ...

, Nushk, Kharan, Sarlath District, Dalbandin, and Kalat.

Influence on Brahui

Dehwari was introduced to the Brahui in the seventeenth century and the modern-day language uses many Dehwari loanwords in its vocabulary.

Brahui influence

In turn, Brahui has heavily influenced the language, which has made Dehwari a Persian dialect under heavy Brahui influence. This has made Dehwari speakers bilingual in both Dehwari and Brahui, and some in

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 ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

, and even English.

Drop in Speakers

The drop of speakers in Dehwari was recorded in the

1921 Indian Census The Census of India prior to independence was conducted periodically from 1865 to 1941. The censuses were primarily concerned with administration and faced numerous problems in their design and conduct ranging from the absence of house numbering ...

, with Pashto facing the same consequences in Kalat and Mastung. And in the

1931 Indian Census The Census of India prior to independence was conducted periodically from 1865 to 1941. The censuses were primarily concerned with administration and faced numerous problems in their design and conduct ranging from the absence of house numbering ...

, the Dehwari population outside of Kalat and Mastung was only 1,795.

References

Languages of Balochistan, Pakistan Persian language Persian language in Pakistan {{Asia-stub