| Dehwari | |
|---|---|
| دهواری Dehwārī | |
 | |
| Native to | Pakistan |
| Region | Balochistan province: Kalat and Mastung |
| Ethnicity | Dehwar |
Native speakers | 19,000 (2018)[1] |
Indo-European
| |
Early forms | |
| Persian alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | deh |
| Glottolog | dehw1238 |
Dehwari (دهواری, Dehwārī) is a southwestern Persian language spoken by 19,000 Dehwar people in Balochistan, Pakistan as of 2018.[1] Most of the Dehwari speakers are concentrated in Mastung, Khuzdar, Nushk, Kharan, Sarlath District, Dalbandin, and Kalat.
Dehwari was introduced to the Brahui in the seventeenth century and the modern-day language uses many Dehwari loanwords in its vocabulary.[2]
In turn, Brahui has heavily influenced the language, which has made Dehwari a Persian dialect under heavy Brahui influence.[3] This has made Dehwari speakers bilingual in both Dehwari and Brahui, and some in Balochi, Urdu, and even English.[4]
The drop of speakers in Dehwari was recorded in the 1921 Indian Census, with Pashto facing the same consequences in Kalat and Mastung.[5] And in the 1931 Indian Census, the Dehwari population outside of Kalat and Mastung was only 1,795.[6]
