Indo-European · ISO 639-3 bcc
Southern Balochi Language بلوچی
Southern Balochi is an Indo-European language spoken by about 3.8 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Perso-Arabic script.
Where Southern Balochi is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Southern Balochi
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Indo-Iranian
- Iranian-Nuristani
- Iranian
- Central Iranian PBS
- Central Iranian PB
- Northwestern Iranian
- Balochic
- Southern-Western Balochi
- Southern Balochi-Koroshi
- Southern Balochi
Writing system
Perso-Arabic script
Related languages
About the Southern Balochi language
Southern Balochi (بلوچی) is spoken by about 3.8 million people, which makes it the 216th most spoken language in the world — just behind Lombard (3.9 million) and ahead of Bosnian (3.8 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Southern Balochi-Koroshi group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Southern Balochi spoken?
Southern Balochi is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Pakistan (3.8 million).
Southern Balochi is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Southern Balochi is written in the Perso-Arabic script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Western Balochi, Eastern Balochi, Northern Kurdish, Central Kurdish, Mazanderani, Gilaki and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 bcc.
Frequently asked questions about Southern Balochi
How many people speak Southern Balochi?
Where is Southern Balochi spoken?
What language family does Southern Balochi belong to?
What is Southern Balochi called in Southern Balochi?
Is Southern Balochi an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.