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Balochi alphabet
Written right to left. Each row is one letter with its sound; the other columns hold related forms: آ is alif with madda, ۆ and ێ mark o and e (mostly in Iran), ے is the bari ye of Pakistani spelling.
Vowel marks (harakat)
Combining marks written above or below a letter. Everyday text leaves them out; dictionaries, primers and poetry add them.
Balochi punctuation
Arabic-script punctuation, turned to read right to left.
Balochi numbers
Extended Arabic-Indic (Persian and Urdu) digits, written left to right inside right-to-left text.
Currency where Balochi is spoken
Where Balochi is spoken
Largest CLDR speaker estimate first; Afghanistan, which the CLDR figures do not include, last.
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The Balochi alphabet letters
Balochi is written right to left in the Arabic script. Its core letters are ا ب پ ت ٹ ج چ د ڈ ر ڑ ز ژ س ش ک گ ل م ن و ه ی ے, with آ (alif with madda) for a long ā at the start of a word and ئ in the written combinations ائو (aw) and ائی (ay). Like every Arabic-script alphabet it has no capitals; instead most letters change shape depending on whether they join the letter before or after them, which your keyboard and font handle automatically.
The letters come in three layers. The Arabic base gives ب ت ج د ر ز س ش ل م ن و ه ی. Persian adds پ (p), چ (ch), ژ (zh) and گ (g). Urdu supplies the shapes for sounds Balochi shares with the languages of South Asia: ٹ, ڈ and ڑ, the retroflex t, d and r, said with the tongue curled back, and ے, the bari ye, for the vowel e. Spellings from Iran add ۆ for o and ێ for e, two letters also used by Central Kurdish, so that those vowels are not confused with ū and ī.
Counts of the alphabet therefore differ by convention. The set CLDR lists for Balochi has 28 letter forms; leave out آ, ئ, ۆ and ێ and 24 basic letters remain. Words taken from Arabic, especially religious ones, often keep their original spelling, so you will also meet letters such as ع, ق and ف in Balochi text, as in عید مبارک.
Vowels and vowel marks in Balochi
Long vowels are written with letters: ا for ā, ی for ī, و for ū and o, and ے (or ێ in Iranian spelling) for e. Short vowels are normally not written at all, and readers supply them from the word, as in Urdu, Persian and Arabic.
When a writer wants to be exact, as in dictionaries, primers and printed poetry, the short vowels go on as marks: َ (zabar, a) above, ِ (zer, e) below, ُ (pesh, o) above. ّ (shadda) doubles a consonant and ْ (sukun) shows that no vowel follows. These are combining characters: paste them straight after the letter they belong to and they sit on it.
Balochi punctuation, numbers and look-alike letters
Writers in Pakistan end sentences with the Urdu full stop ۔, a short dash on the line; in Iran the Persian dot is common. Both use the turned Arabic comma ،, semicolon ؛ and question mark ؟, and « » for quotes, as Persian does.
Numbers are written with the Extended Arabic-Indic digits ۰ ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹, the same characters used for Persian and Urdu (some, such as ۴ and ۷, are drawn differently in Urdu fonts, but the codes are the same). Digits run left to right even inside right-to-left text. Many people, especially online, simply use 0–9.
Three pairs of letters look alike but are different characters, and mixing them breaks searching and sorting. Balochi uses ک (keheh, U06A9), not the Arabic ك ; ی (Farsi yeh, U06CC), not the Arabic ي , which keeps two dots below even at the end of a word; and the round ه , where Urdu text uses ہ . The letters on this page are the Balochi ones, so copying from here is safe.
How to type Balochi on a keyboard and phone
Computers: Windows and macOS have no layout named Balochi, so a common solution is to add the Urdu keyboard, which already has ٹ ڈ ڑ ژ ک گ ی ے and the Arabic-script punctuation, or the Persian keyboard for Iranian spelling, in the language settings of Windows or under System Settings › Keyboard › Input Sources on a Mac. For a single missing letter, copy it from this page; in Microsoft Word you can also type its code and press Alt X, for example 06C6 then Alt X for ۆ and 06CE then Alt X for ێ.
Phones: dedicated Balochi keyboard apps exist for Android and iPhone, and the Urdu keyboard on Android or iPhone covers the Pakistani letter set. Fonts: Balochi writers use both Nastaliq and Naskh styles; choose a font that supports the Balochi characters.
HTML: use numeric codes such as ٹ for ٹ, ڈ for ڈ, ڑ for ڑ, ے for ے, ۆ for ۆ and ێ for ێ, and put dir="rtl" on the element that holds the text.
Where Balochi is spoken
Balochi is the language of the Baloch people, spoken across the region of Balochistan, which is divided between Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. Pakistan's 2023 census counted about 8.1 million people who reported Balochi as their mother tongue. In Afghanistan, Balochi is spoken in the south-west, around Nimruz.
Balochi is an Iranian language, a relative of Persian and Kurdish, and shares many words with them. Its Perso-Arabic script also shares letters with theirs; its retroflex sounds are probably a result of contact with Indo-Aryan languages. Many Baloch also speak Urdu, Persian, Pashto or Brahui, each of which has its own collection here, as do the countries: Pakistan , Iran , the United Arab Emirates and Oman .
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5 situationsKlik for at kopiereBalochi Alphabet & Letters combos
10Godt at vide
- Balochi writes its retroflex sounds with ٹ ڈ ڑ, letter shapes it took from Urdu, which uses them for the same sounds; Persian has no letters for them.
- Afghanistan's 2004 constitution names Balochi among the languages that become a third official language in the areas where most people speak it.
- English spells the name Baluchi, Balochi or Baloochi; the people's own word is بلوچ, and "Balochi" is a widely used spelling.
- ک and ك, and ی and ي, look identical in the middle of a word but are different characters, so Balochi typed on an Arabic keyboard can fail to match the same words typed on an Urdu or Persian one.
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7How many letters are in the Balochi alphabet?
It depends on the convention. CLDR lists 28 letter forms for Balochi; without آ (alif with madda), ئ (hamza on a seat) and the Iranian-spelling vowels ۆ and ێ, 24 basic letters remain: ا ب پ ت ٹ ج چ د ڈ ر ڑ ز ژ س ش ک گ ل م ن و ه ی ے.
What script is the Balochi language written in?
The Arabic script, right to left, with the Persian letters پ چ ژ گ and the Urdu letters ٹ ڈ ڑ ے added. Pakistan usually prints it in the Nastaliq style, Iran in Naskh. Some people also write Balochi in Latin letters online.
How do I copy and paste Balochi letters?
Click or tap any letter in the grid above to copy it, then paste with CtrlV, CmdV or a long-press and Paste. Paste vowel marks such as َ ِ ُ right after the letter they belong to.
How do I type Balochi on a PC?
There is no built-in Balochi layout, so add the Urdu keyboard (Pakistani spelling) or the Persian keyboard (Iranian spelling) in your system's language settings. Letters they lack, such as ۆ and ێ, can be copied from this page or typed in Word as 06C6 or 06CE followed by Alt X.
Is Balochi the same as Urdu or Persian?
No. Balochi is a language of its own from the Iranian branch, related to Persian and Kurdish, while Urdu belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch. Its script borrows letters from both, so Balochi text looks like Urdu or Persian but reads differently.
What numbers are used in Balochi?
The Extended Arabic-Indic digits ۰ ۱ ۲ ۳ ۴ ۵ ۶ ۷ ۸ ۹, shared with Persian and Urdu and written left to right. Western digits 0–9 are common online and on prices.
Why are my Balochi letters not joining?
The app or font has to support right-to-left Arabic shaping. Text shown in a font without Arabic support, or made of isolated presentation-form characters, falls apart into separate shapes; copy the letters from this page and use an Urdu or Persian font.
