Khetrani language
{{Short description|Indo-Aryan language}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Khetrani
| image = کھیترانی.svg
| states = Pakistan
| speakers = over 100,000
| date = 2017
| familycolor = Indo-European
| fam2 = Indo-Iranian
| fam3 = Indo-Aryan
| fam4 = Northwestern
| iso3 = xhe
| glotto = khet1238
| glottorefname = Khetrani
| notice = Indic
| map = Minor languages of Pakistan as of the 1998 census.png
| mapcaption = Khetrani is a minor language of Pakistan which is mainly spoken in Barkhan District, it is given a space in this map.
}}
Khetrānī, or Khetranki,{{sfn|Grierson|1919|p=372}} is an Indo-Aryan language of north-eastern Balochistan. It is spoken by the majority of the Khetrans,{{sfn|Birmani|Ahmed|2017|pp=4–5}} an ethnolinguistic tribe that occupies a hilly tract in the Sulaiman Mountains comprising the whole of Barkhan District as well as small parts of neighbouring Kohlu District to the south-west, and Musakhel District to the north.{{sfn|Birmani|Ahmed|2017|p=3, 5}} Alternative names for the language attested at the start of the 20th century are Barāzai and Jāfaraki.{{sfn|Minchin|1907|p=71}}
Khetrani has grammatical features in common with both Sindhi and with Saraiki,{{sfn|Birmani|Ahmed|2017}} but is not mutually intelligible with either.{{sfn|Elfenbein|1994|pp=71–72}} Khetrani has a relatively small number of Balochi loanwords in its vocabulary.{{sfn|Elfenbein|1994|p=73}} Khetrani was formerly a dialect continuum of both Sindhi and Saraiki.{{sfn|Birmani|Ahmed|2017}}
It is likely to have been formerly spoken over a wider area, which has been reduced with the expansion of Pashto from the north and Balochi from the south-east.{{sfn|Birmani|Ahmed|2017|p=5}} The earlier suggestion that Khetrani might be a remnant of a Dardic language{{sfn|Masica|1991|p=443}} has been found "difficult to substantiate" by more detailed recent research.{{sfn|Birmani|Ahmed|2017|p=21}}
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History
{{cquote|The Khetrans. It is certain that the whole of the triangular block of hill now occupied by the Marris was in the possession of Indian tribes before the Baloch invasion. They were gradually destroyed or absorbed by the Baloch from the south and the Afghans from the north and such names as Shahdedja among the Marris and Haripal among the Afghans to the north indicate that fragments of these tribes remain among the Baloch and the Afghans. The Khetrans however between the Afghan and the Baloch have preserved their identity and their peculiar Indian dialect to the present day.E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936 By M. Th. Houtsma, A. J. Wensinck page 631}}
Footnotes
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{Cite journal| last1 = Birmani| first1 = Ali H.| last2 = Ahmed| first2 = Fasih| date = 2017| title = Language of the Khetrans of Barkhan of Pakistani Balochistan: A preliminary description| journal = Lingua| volume = 191-192| pages = 3–21| issn = 0024-3841| doi = 10.1016/j.lingua.2016.12.003}}
- {{Cite journal| last = Elfenbein| first = Joseph H.| date = 1994| title = Notes on Khetrāni phonology| journal = Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik| volume = 19| pages = 71–82| issn = 0341-4191}}
- {{Cite LSI|8|1}}
- {{Cite book| last = Masica| first = Colin P.|author-link = Colin Masica| title = The Indo-Aryan languages| series = Cambridge language surveys| date = 1991| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-0-521-23420-7}}
- {{cite book| last = Minchin| first = C.F.| title = Loralai District| series = Baluchistan district gazetteers| volume = 2| date = 1907| place = Allahabad| publisher = Pioneer Press}}
External links
{{Incubator|xhe}}
- [http://www.savap.org.pk/journals/ARInt./Vol.1%283%29/2011%281.3-10%29.pdf Worldview of Khetran]
{{Languages of Pakistan}}
{{Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages}}
{{Authority control}}