Brahui Language - Classification

Classification

Brahui belongs, with Kurukh (Oraon) and Malto, to the northern and Kannada, to the sourthern subfamily of the Dravidian family of languages. It has been influenced by the Iranian languages spoken in the area, especially Balochi.

Brahui language is seen as a recent migrant language to its present region. Scholars accept that Brahui could only have migrated to Balochistan from central India after 1000 AD. The absence of any older Iranian (Avestan) loanwords in Brahui supports this hypothesis. The main Iranian contributor to Brahui vocabulary, Balochi, is a Northwestern Iranian language, and moved to the area from the west only around 1000 AD. One scholar places the migration аs late as the 13th or 14th century. However, a few scholars have hypothesised that Brahui is a remnant of a formerly widespread Dravidian language family that is believed to have been reduced or replaced during the influx of Iranian/Indo-Aryan languages upon their arrival in South Asia.