Makrani dialect

After conducting phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and lexical studies, Elfenbein, first divided the Balochi dialects into six branches.^[8][9]

• 1. Eastern Hill Balochi
• 2. Rakhshani dialects (including Kalati, Chagai-Kharani, Afghani, Sarhaddi and Panjguri)
• 3. Saravani
• 4. Kechi
• 5. Latuni or Lashari

But after further and more detailed research, he himself proposed another division, based on which the Balochi dialects were:

• 1. Rakhshani (with 3 main sub-branches: Kalati, Panjguri, and Sarhaddi)
• 2. Saravani
• 3. Lashari
• 4. Kechi
• 5. Coastal dialects
• 6. Eastern Hill Balochi.

Carina Jahani considers the division of Balochi into two main branches, eastern and western, more acceptable. In his opinion, the western branch is itself divided into two sub-branches, Makrani and Rakhshani. The Makrani sub-branch includes the coastal, Kechi and Lashari dialects, and the Rakhshani sub-branch includes the Rakhshani and Saravani dialects.^[10]

• Western Balochi
  • 1.Rakhshani(Rakhshani and Saravani dialects)
  • 2.Makrani^[11](the coastal, Kechi and Lashari dialects)
• Eastern Balochi(which is not a unified dialect, but rather a conglomerate of dialects often referred to by the tribal names of the speakers as the Marrī, Bugṭī, Leghārī, Mazārī, etc.)^[3]

In general, after numerous studies, the Balochi language has three main dialects. The main dialect split is between Western, Southern, and Eastern Balochi.^{[12][13][9][3][14][15]}

Makrani is the main branch of Southern Balochi.

Southern Balochi dialects include Lashari, Sarbazi, Kechi, Karachi and Coastal dialect. They are spoken in the Makran region, which is why all these dialects are generally called Makrani.^[16][12]

It's Spoken in the southern parts of Balochistan, including coastal areas like Gwadar, Chabahar, and southern Pakistan,^[3] Persian Gulf states, expanding up to Iranshahr in Iran and Kech valley and Karachi in Pakistan.^[15][8]

Kechi^[12] Kich region in Balochistan, including Turbat.^[8][5]

Lashari^[8] centered on the village of Lashar , south of Iranshahr where Balochi close to Persian and Baskardi.^[5] The Lashari dialect, which is one of the conservative Balochi dialects, is the only dialect that is spoken only in Iran.^[8]

Coastal dialects^[17][18] Including Qasr-e Qand, Nikshahr, Rask and the southern coastal areas of Balochistan from near Bandar Abbas to Karachi Port, including the ports of Chahbahar, Gwadar, Pasni.^[8]

It is similar to that of Koroshi dialect spoken in Iran.^[19] Nasalization, which is common in Southern Balochi dialects, is phonetically less salient in Koroshi.

The consonants /b/ ، /d/ ، /ḍ/ ، /g/ ، /p/ ، /t/ ، /ṭ/ ، /k/ ، /P/ /h/ ،/tʰ/ ،/ṭʰ/ ، /k/ /h/ ،/s/ ،/z/ ،/ʃ/ ،/ȝ/ ،/h/ ،/ʤ/ ، ʧ ،/ʧʰ/ ،/m/ ،/n/ ،/ŋ/ ،/r/ ،/ṛ/ ،/l/ ،/w/ ،/j/ are articulated as alveolar in Southern Balochi.^[20]

The consonants /f x ġ/ in the Rakhshani dialect often remain, but in Makrani they become /g/, /k/ or /h/, and /p/, respectively.^[17]

Makrani dialect, the presence of minimal pairs such as [iehd] - [iḳd] or [suek] - [suk] easily shows that each compound vowel can be placed as a single, independent phoneme in the center of a syllable and create new word with semantic distinction.^[20]

Southern dialects as in Lashari Balochi the place of stress depends on the weight of the syllable.^[10]

Makrani dialect uses both head-marking and dependent-marking structures. In this dialect, the verb group can take four types of complements: the noun group, the adjective group, the prepositional group, and the complement clause. The Balochi Makrani dialect uses the adverb of quantity and the prepositional group as descriptors of the core adjective in the adjectival group. The prepositional group is described by adverbs. These adverbs come before the core preposition.^[21]

• Rakhshani dialect