1880.] 



VOWELS. 



11 



Persian. Baloclu. 

 z medial ) i , 



final \ 



h medial ") 



final ) 



initial occasionally omitted 



It will be noticed tbat the aspirates o£ the surd row (kh, chh, th) 

 are very common, replacing the corresponding unaspirated Persian conso- 

 nants, while those of the sonant row (gh, jh, dh, bh) seem to be entirely 

 confined to words o£ Indian and Brahui origin. 



The letters /c/*, t/Ji, tli, dh, and f are usually medials or finals, re- 

 presenting the Persian letters, shown in the above table. Th and dh are 

 never initials, and Ich, gh and f, when they occur in borrowed words of 

 modern introduction as initials, are usually pronounced kh, g and ph. 



An initial h is occasionally lost altogether ; e. g., 

 B. astew P. hastand 



B. am P. ham 



II. VOWELS. 



The vowel sounds in Balochi generally agree with those of j^^urasani 

 Persian. They may be arranged as foUews : — 



Long a, i, li 



Short a, i, u 



Diphthongs e, ai, o, au 



The most noticeable point of difference from Persian is the frequent 

 substitution of the palatal series i, i, e for the labial series li, u, o ; e.g., 



B. sith P. Slid 



B. dir P. dur 



B. seshin P. sozan 



B. gandim P. gandum 



B, bii/ia P. biida 



B. hikh P. khxxk 



B. wasi P. hh-asvL 



B. sirmu^/f P. surma 



A similar change sometimes affects borrowed Arabic words ; e. g., 



B. malim A. maliim 



B. hir A. hiir 



In a few cases the change is reversed ; e. g., 



B. osht-a^A P. ist-adan 



B. suf P. sev 



Other variations from the Persian vowel system are rare. 



