Vyacheslav v. Moshkalo_Language and Culture of the Baloch in Turkmenistan

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Language and Culture of the Baloch in TurkmenistanVyacheslav V. Moshkalo, Dept. of Iranian Languages, Institute of Linguistics,

Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow

Introduction

In the Republic of Turkmenistan a small national minority lives little known to others than a

narrow circle of scientists and specialists. This national minority is the Baloch. The Baloch are a

people which have a strong sense of unity, sharing a common origin, history, language,

traditions and religion. The Baloch of Turkmenistan are a part of this people which was divided

by the peculiar will of history mainly between three countries: Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan.

Outside these countries there are rather small Balochi communities in India, East Africa and

Oman. The Baloch are scattered over a vast territory. The Turkmenian Baloch live in the verynorth of this vast territory. Only Baloch in the diaspora, e.g. in Northern Europe live farther to

the north.

The Baloch in Turkmenistan

The first Baloch migrants in Russia appeared in the region of Mari in Turkistan, i.e. in the

territory which nowadays belongs to the Republic of Turkmenistan. The statistical report on

Turkmenistan for 1917 - 1920 mentions 936 Baloch living in the Bayram-Ali district. The

Baloch of Turkmenistan mostly came from Afghanistan, from the Chakhansur district located

in the province of Nimruz, in the Sistan area of Afghanistan. Apart from them there were also a

small group of Baloch who migrated to Turkistan from Iran (from Khurasan). In these

migrations there were also some Brahuis who came together with the Baloch.1

In the 1920s separate groups of the Baloch belonging to different Balochi tribes were united

by Kerim Khan. This Baloch chief was an extraordinary personality. He was a poor shepherd

from the beginning but managed to make a career and to become a famous, even legendary

chief of the Baloch in Turkmenistan. The Baloch of Turkmenistan, united under his power, at

the beginning supported the Soviet power and being very brave warriors, they helped the Soviet

authorities in their struggle against the Basmachis (counterrevolutionary movement in

Turkistan, which lasted actively from 1920 till the mid-30s). At the end of the 20s, because of

disagreement with the Soviet authorities, Kerim Khan together with the majority of his people

left Turkmenistan for Iran or Afghanistan. Nobody knows where he went. I tried to find it out

during my trips to Turkmenistan, but in vain. Kerim Khan's traces should be looked for outside

Turkmenistan, either in Iran or in Afghanistan. It would be very interesting to find out what

happened to him and his people afterwards.

1 See also Axenov's article in the present volume.


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At the present time the Baloch of Turkmenistan live mainly in the districts of Bayram-Ali

and Iolotan of the region of Mari (Mariyskiy velayat). According to the data of the 1959 census

in the USSR, 7 800 Baloch lived in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Turkmenistan, in the valley

of the Murghab river, in the districts of Bayram-Ali, Turkmen-Kala and Iolotan, and 94,9 % of

them considered Balochi to be their mother tongue. In the 1970 census there were 12 600

Baloch in Turkmenistan, and 91,8 % regarded Balochi as their native language. In the 1979census there were 18 997 Baloch in Turkmenistan, and 18 633 persons (98,1 %) stated that

Balochi was their native language. There are in 1997 probably approximately 38 000 - 40 000

Baloch in Turkmenistan, although some give a higher estimation of around 50 000 or even

more. The very strong loyalty among the Baloch to their mother tongue is quite remarkable,

and can at least to a certain degree be explained by their rural way of life. A thorough

investigation of the socio-economic conditions under which this strong retention of the Balochi

language has been possible would be very interesting to carry out.

The Turkmenian Baloch believe themselves to be a part of the big ethnos. For a long time,however, they were separated from the other Baloch by the "Iron Curtain", and had practically

no contacts with the Baloch of the other countries. In 1934 the Soviet border with Iran and

Afghanistan was closed and this event became a source of many personal tragedies and

disasters. It was unexpected, and those who were in Iran or Afghanistan making their earnings

or visiting relatives could not return to their families. Thus, parents were separated from

children, brothers from sisters etc. It was impossible for them to unite again. The only reason

for that was the "Iron Curtain" along all the Soviet borders. It was only at the end of the 1980s,

with the beginning of Gorbachov's perestroika and after the disintegration of the USSR thatmany Turkmenian Baloch got the opportunity to visit Iran and Afghanistan in order to find their

lost relatives and reunite with them after long years of separation.

The history of the Baloch is the history of constant migrations over vast territories. However,

the lack of a written literary tradition and written sources makes it difficult to study, not the

legendary, but the real history of the Baloch. The Baloch never had an independent state of

their own in the proper sense of the word. The Kalat State could not be considered a truly

independent Baloch state. In spite of the fact that the Kalat State united many Baloch tribes, it

did not exist long and it could not play a prominent part for the Baloch culture nor for the

establishment of a tradition of writing in the Balochi language.

From a political point of view, throughout history the Baloch were generally subdued by the

power of stronger and better organized conquerors, and as usual, they did not pay attention to

the Balochi language and culture. Anyway, in spite of all the complications and peculiarities in

the destiny of the Baloch, they have managed not only to create an enchanting, rich and original

culture, but also from many points of view very interesting and unique literary specimens. To

my profound regret, these have not up till now been described or studied to the extent that they

deserve to be. The masterpieces of the Balochi literature have not to any large extent been

translated into the main world languages.


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From this point of view the Turkmenian Baloch are not an exception. They are even in a

worse position in comparison with the others. Not very much has been done to study their

language and culture, even though some studies on the Balochi language and Balochi culture

were made in Moscow and Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg) during the Soviet period.

When it comes to the oral literature of the Turkmenian Baloch, for example, I. I. Zarubin

collected and published a number of folk tales with translations into Russian.2 It is, however,striking enough that in the twentieth century not a single book or monograph has been

published in Turkmenistan about the Baloch.

It should be said that the disintegration of the USSR has brought for the Baloch of

Turkmenistan more losses and disillusions than joys and achievements, especially in such fields

as education, culture and science. Moscow was always for the Turkmenian Baloch the force

which helped them to stand against the domination of the Turkmens, and in spite of all the

difficulties, they had some opportunities for education (there were special quotas in different

institutes for the Baloch students) and cultural progress. After the disintegration of the USSR,Moscow ceased to be the centre for Turkmenistan, and nowadays the Turkmen central

government does little for the national minorities living there.3

Attempts at developing the Balochi language in Turkmenistan

The first alphabet used by the Turkmenian Baloch was based on the Roman script. An attempt

to turn Balochi into a written language was made in the 1930s.A few books and a newspaper inRoman script were published in Mari and Ashkhabad. There was a mother tongue educationprogramme for the Turkmenian Baloch. But after switching to Cyrillic script for minor

languages of Turkistan, due to lack of special national policy towards the minorities, financial

problems and the switch of education at all levels to Russian and Turkmen etc., Balochi was not

further developed as a written language. During my trips to Turkmenistan I met several old men

who could still use that Balochi Roman script of the 30s.

Fifty years later, at the end of the 1980s, an enthusiast for his mother tongue, a modest

school teacher named Mammad Sherdil, together with his friends worked out an alphabet for

Balochi based upon Cyrillic script.They managed to publish several text books in Balochi forprimary schools and obtain the permission from the authorities to start an experiment with

mother tongue education in one or two schools. Besides that, Mammad Sherdil and Saidquli

Mammadnur initiated the publishing of one full page in Balochi twice a week in the Turkmenian

newspaper of the district called Taze durmush (New Life).4

These attempts coincide with the period of "perestroika" and disintegration of the USSR. An

independent Republic of Turkmenistan has since then appeared on the political scene. Thereby

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Zarubin, Beludkie skazki, I-II, see bibliography.3 Apart from the Baloch there are e.g. about 100 000 Kurds in Turkmenistan.4 See Axenov's article in the present volume for more details.


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a new life began also for the Turkmenian Baloch. But this new life is characterized by neglect of

the Baloch and their cultural life. It should be mentioned that the Baloch in Turkmenistan never

have had any political, social, or even cultural organizations which could defend their rights and

draw the attention of the authorities to their needs.

It seems that the Turkmenian Baloch are in great need of help from international

organizations and cooperation with Balochi scientific and cultural organizations in othercountries. Nowadays, as far as I know, there are no relations either on state level or on the level

of organizations. I know only of one incident in the past when there was an attempt at

establishing relations between the Turkmenian Baloch and the Baloch of Pakistan. In the mid

1980s the Union of the Soviet Societies for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign

Countries invited the Balochistan Provincial Assembly speaker Mr Muhammad Akram Baloch

to Moscow. The USSR - Pakistan Friendship Society organized a trip to Turkmenistan for him.

In Ashkhabad he met Baloch students and took part in one of their traditional gatherings. In

addition, he visited the town of Tejen, where only few Baloch families live nowadays. He was,however, unable to visit the Mari region where practically all the Turkmenian Baloch are

concentrated. After that there were no contacts on such a high level. Mr Muhammad Akram

Baloch's notes about this trip were published in one ofMhtk balo's editions.5Notes on the Balochi dialect spoken in Turkmenistan

The Baloch of Turkmenistan speak a dialect of the Balochi language which is very close to the

dialect of the Afghan Balochi. The dialect of the Turkmenian Baloch belongs to the WesternGroup of Balochi dialects, to the Rakhshndialects. The dialect of the Turkmenian Baloch

possesses a number of phonetical and grammatical characteristics, which are specific to this

dialect. Professor Ivan I. Zarubin was the first scientist who paid attention to these

characteristics. Zarubin was a pioneer of Balochi studies in Russia. In Turkmenistan he selected

a group of young talented people and took them to Petersburg to be educated there.

There are no aspirated plosives at all in this dialect. There are no fricatives // and // either.

The fricatives /f/, // and /x/ are to be found only in late loanwords. The pharyngeal fricative /h/

is never pronounced, e.g. Asan (Hasan).

The indicative mood of the verb in Balochi has got a rich system of tense forms which areunited by a common modal meaning (i.e. a real action in the present, past or future), and are

opposed to each other on the one hand by aspect and temporal meaning and on the other hand

by person and singular/plural forms. The number of these tense forms are different in the

different dialects of Balochi. The simplest system of the tenses (with less number of innovated

forms) is presented in the dialect of the Baloch of Turkmenistan. There are only five tense

forms to be found in this dialect:

5Note also that there are several articles on the Baloch in Turkmenistan in the May 1957 issue ofMhtk balo.


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1) Present-future tense (man kr-a kann 'I work', man-a ran 'I go')

2) Preterite (simple past) (man kr kurtun 'I worked', man utun 'I went')

3) Past continuous (man kr-a kurtun 'I was working', man-a utun 'I was going')

4) Present perfect (man kr kurt un 'I have worked', man ut un 'I have gone')

5) Past perfect (man kr kurt-tun 'I had worked', man ut-tun 'I had gone')

There is another indicative tense system in most other Balochi dialects, where there are no

preterite versus past continuous forms. On the other hand continuous forms are formed with

auxiliary verbs, e.g. man rawag-y-un 'I am going' and man rawag-y-atun 'I was going'

(RakhshnBalochi).6However, also in the dialect of Zahidan, Iran, this preterite - pastcontinuous distinction is retained.7

Temporal meaning of the verbal forms is closely connected with aspect, or manner, of the

verbal action. In general, judging by the material I have studied, the tendency to further

distinctions of aspectual and temporal relation in the indicative is very characteristic to Balochidialects, especially by means of new descriptive forms such as the present continuous and past

continuous tense forms in Rakhshndialects. This process has progressed more in Rakhshn

than in any other Balochi dialect group. This may be one of the reasons why Rakhshnis of

increasing importance as a literary vehicle nowadays and why it also potentially could develop

into a standard literary language of the Baloch in the future.

The great importance of a standard literary language cannot be underestimated for the

Baloch. The need of a universally accepted standard to be employed by all Baloch is urgently

felt. The Baloch intelligentsia, intellectuals and literary men are indeed concentrating more andmore effort on this important problem.

In the dialect of the Turkmenian Baloch there is a special inclusive pronoun mm 'we and

you'.8It is declined in the following way:

Nominative: mm

Genitive: mmay

Accusative/dative: mmr

A three case system governs the declension of nouns and pronouns in this dialect. The oblique

case which is usual for the agent in the ergative construction is not used in the Turkmenian

Balochi dialect, because there is no ergative construction left there. Past transitive verbs are

constructed actively: man tr dstun 'I saw you', brs-sarandent'his brother nodded his

6 For a thorough description of the tense forms occurring in a variety of Rakhshnspoken in Pakistan, see Barker-

Mengal, vol. I.7 Information obtained from Carina Jahani.8 Also found in other Northern Rakhshndialects.


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head', murd watkitb pa amm wnt-'Murad read his book to us', duman dast-u-

pdn batant'the enemies tied his hands and feet' etc.The ergative construction has been eliminated from the dialect, but there are still traces of it.

The enclitic pronoun (or suffixed pronoun) of the 3rd person singular - is very often used with

transitive (and even sometimes with intransitive) verbs: gut-'he/she said', kurt-'he/she did'

ut-'he/she went', jist-'he/she ran away', zarbk ham dawle ki ms-gut kurt-'Zarbik didthe way her mother told her' etc. It should be pointed out that enclitic (suffixed) pronouns are

not commonly used in the dialect of Turkmenian Balochi as in most Balochi dialects. (Cf.

Persian where they are very common.)

The vocabulary of the Turkmenian Balochi dialect has not been studied properly up till now.

But it is indisputable that the main Balochi lexicon is of Iranian origin, as in all Balochi dialects.

Certainly there are a large number of loanwords. The largest number of loanwords definitely

come from Persian and Arabic (through Persian). The Baloch of Turkmenistan also borrowed

some words form Russian and Turkmen during the Soviet period of their history. It is difficultto estimate the number of loanwords, because up till now there is no comprehensive Balochi

dictionary. However, based on Zarubin's collection of Balochi folk tales, Josef Elfenbein

compiled A Vocabulary of Marw Baluchi, where he also gives etymological information for

most of the entries.

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Vyacheslav v. Moshkalo_Language and Culture of the Baloch in Turkmenistan