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According to the census of 1911, the number
of speakers of Brahui is 170, 998.
“Brahui
has no written literature..........Alla Bux and Captain Nicolson made
use of the Persian alphabet for Brahui. The system of noting the various
sounds of the language introduced by them was afterwards slightly modified
by Dr. Trumpp.”
“The various letters are, in most cases,
pronounced as in Hindostani.”
“Nouns
do not differ for gender. Brahui has accordingly given up the common Dravidian
distinction between rational and irrational nouns. This state of affairs
is certainly due to Eranian influence. There are, however perhaps some
traces of the neuter, i.e., the irrational, gender in the conjugation
of verbs. When it is necessary to distinguish the natural gender the Persian
words nar, man, and mƒdah mother, are prefixed.”
“There
is no separate oblique base in the singular. Brahui in this respect agrees
with Kurukh and Malto. A similar state of affairs is also met with in
some Tamil dialects such as Kaikadi and Burgandi.
“The
dative and the accusative have the same form, as is also the case in some
dialects of Tamil such as Kaikadi and Burgandi, and in Gondi, Naiki, and
Kolami.”
The
first three numerals are distinctly Dravidian, and the higher ones are
Aryan loan-words. Musi-, three, can be compared with Tulu m‡ji,
(three) etc.
“The
ordinals are formed by adding mik† or vik†;
Thus, Ira—-mik†,
second; musi—-mik†,
mus-vik†, third; chƒr-vik†,
fourth; etc. ‘First’ is muhiko. munhƒ, or
avvalk†.”
Dr.Caldwell says: “The number of nouns and
verbs in Brahui which can with certainty be identified with Dravidian
roots is not considerable, but it is equal to the number found in the
Orƒon vocabulary.”
The
degree of corruption Brahui words have undergone is discernible from the
following list:
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