4 



ALPHABET. 



[Extra No. 



THE ALPHABET. 



Balochi can hardly be called a written language. It is only within 

 the last few years that BalocMs have begun to write it, Persian being 

 the ordinary medium o£ written communication and the BalocMs consider- 

 ing their language to be merely a colloquial form of Persian. In writing, 

 uniformity of s^oelling is little attended to. As the Persian character is 

 the only one current in the countries where Balochi is spoken, I have 

 employed it in the Vocabulary, giving a transliteration of all words in the 

 Roman character. Short vowels ai'e not marked in the Persian character, as 

 the transliteration renders it unnecessary. The Arabic letters and i are 

 retained to represent certain Balochi sounds corresponding, or nearly so, 

 with their Arabic values, the representation of these sounds by ^ andj 

 being insufficient and misleading. The other Arabic letters ^, Js, 

 is, ^, and ^3 are. omitted as unnessary having no distinct value in Balochi. 

 In the borrowed Arabic words phonetic correctness is all that is aimed at. 

 Aspirates are represented by A* or A following the aspirated consonant. 

 The cerebrals are marked as in Urdu. 



TJie Persian Alphabet as applied to JBalocM. 

 Persian. Roman. Value. 



I a, i, u, a. As in Persian, an initial introducing all vowels. 



e, ai, o, au With the short vowel marks it forms 



«» 



a, i, u. With inadda f it forms a. With 

 1^ following it forms i, e, ai. With j follow- 

 ing it forms li, o, au. As a medial and final 

 it is always a. 





b 



As in English and Persian. 





bh 



Aspirated h. 





P 



As in Persian and English. 





ph 



Aspirated^. 





t 



Dental t as in Persian. 





th 



Aspirated t. 





th 



As in Arabic, English tli in ireatJi, Tiealth. 



& 



t 



Cerebral t pronounced as in Hindustani. 





th 



Aspirated t. 





3 



J as in English. 







Aspirated j. 





ch 



As in English church. 



