Brahui
Facts
- Language: Brahui
- Alternate names: Birahui, Brahuidi, Brahuigi, Kur Galli
- Language code: brh
- Language family: Dravidian, North Dravidian
- Number of speakers: 4220000
- Script: Arabic script, Nastaliq style.
More information:
Introduction
Brahui is a Dravidian language spoken primarily by the Brahui people in Pakistan. It is isolated from the nearest Dravidian-speaking neighbour population of South India by a distance of more than 1,500 km.
The Brahui Verb
- Verbs agree with their subjects in person and number.
- Finite verbs are inflected for tense: present, past, and future; (past/preterit/pluperfect, present, future).
- The present/future tense is formed by adding person and number endings to the base stem.
- There are several forms of the past tense: simple past, past continuous, past perfective, past anterior. All have a special set of endings.
- Verbs are marked for aspect: imperfective and perfective.
- There are four moods: indicative, imperative, potential, and conditional.
- The potential mood is not overtly marked, but the imperative and conditional moods both have a specific set of endings.
- In the indicative mood verbs are marked for person (first, second, third), number (singular and plural), and tense.
- There are two sets of verb forms: one set is used for positive forms, and another parallel set is used for negative verbs.
- Negative conjugation has a set of specific markers which are added to the stem and followed by person/number endings.
- There are two sets of participles, both of which have invariable forms.
Verblist
- to bite -- gaʈ halliŋg
- to burn -- huš-iŋg ~ uš-iŋg
- to come -- ba-nn-iŋg
- to die -- kah-iŋg
- to eat -- kun-iŋg
- to fly -- baːl kann-iŋg
- to give -- ti-n-iŋg
- to kill -- kas-f-iŋg ~ kas-if-iŋg
- to know -- ɕaː-iŋg
- to lie -- tamm-iŋg
- to say -- paː-iŋg ~ paː-n-iŋg
- to see -- xan-iŋg
- to sit -- tuːl-iŋg
- to sleep -- tuɣ
- to go -- hin-iŋg; kaː-