Indo-European · ISO 639-3 bgn
Western Balochi Language رخشانین بلوچی
Western Balochi is an Indo-European language spoken by about 1.3 million people in 3 countries. It is written in the Perso-Arabic script.
Where Western Balochi is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Western 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
- Western Balochi
Writing system
Perso-Arabic script
Related languages
About the Western Balochi language
Western Balochi (رخشانین بلوچی) is spoken by about 1.3 million people, which makes it the 404th most spoken language in the world — just behind Avaric (1.3 million) and ahead of Northern Betsimisaraka Malagasy (1.3 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Southern-Western Balochi group within the Indo-Iranian branch.
Where is Western Balochi spoken?
Western Balochi is used in 3 countries. The largest communities live in Pakistan (1.4 million), Iran (494,966) and Afghanistan (252,766).
Share of the population that speaks Western Balochi: Pakistan 0.6% (1.4 million), Iran 0.6% (494,966) and Afghanistan 0.6% (252,766).
Western Balochi is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Western 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 Southern Balochi, Eastern Balochi, Northern Kurdish, Central Kurdish, Mazanderani, Gilaki and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 bgn.
Frequently asked questions about Western Balochi
How many people speak Western Balochi?
Where is Western Balochi spoken?
What language family does Western Balochi belong to?
What is Western Balochi called in Western Balochi?
Is Western 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.