Language of the Khetrans of Barkhan of Pakistani Balochistan: A preliminary description

•The paper presents a preliminary description of Khetrani language.•Khetrani language possesses distinct morphological and segmental features as compared to its neighbouring languages.•The morphological features and valence model of Khetrani language distinguish it as an independent language.

This paper presents the results of a preliminary investigation on the documentation of the language of Khetrans. The Khetrans, being one of the many Baloch tribes that speak a language apart from Balochi, primarily occupy the Barkhan district of Balochistan. Earlier observations describe their language as forming a part of Sindhi or being a type of Lahnda. Khetrani is undoubtably a northwestern Indo-Aryan language, and the evidence at the researcher's disposal shows that it does share features with both Sindhi and Siraiki. Historically Khetrani lay well on a dialect continuum that spanned both of these languages and has preserved features intermediate to each. Its adjectival morphology is nearly the same as Siraiki's but the pronominal one closer to Sindhi. Khetrani verb structure is largely similar to and at par with Siraiki for it lacks the “richness” of Sindhi, despite the forms of many cognate verbs being identical to Sindhi. The most salient features of the verbal morphology aligning Khetrani with Siraiki are a sigmatic future and the continuous aspect. The valence model, however, is similar to Sindhi and Khetrani has a Passive Participle peculiar to itself. These features distinguish Khetrani as an independent language.