Lasi dialect (Sindhi)

Lasi
لاسي
Native to	Pakistan
Region	Balochistan (Las Bela)
Ethnicity	Sindhi Lasi
Native speakers	15,000 (2020)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Northwestern Sindhic Jadgali–Lasi Lasi
Writing system	Arabic script (Naskh, Nastaliq)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lss
Glottolog	lasi1242

Lasi, or Lassi, also called Kohistani (Sindhi: لاسي) is a dialect of the Sindhi language spoken on the western frontier of Sindh and Balochistan in Pakistan.[3][4][5] It is spoken by the Sindhi Lasi people of Lasbela, Hub and Gwadar in Balochistan, and Lasi is also spoken in the Kohistan region of Karachi, Thatta and Jamshoro districts of Sindh.[6][7]

Loanwords

Lasi is known to use loanwords from other languages, primarily from Persian as well as Balochi.[6]

Orthography

Lasi uses the same orthography as Sindhi except an extra letter, ۏ, which has been added to the Balochi Standard Alphabet. Many educated Lasi speakers use the Latin alphabet in an effort to romanise the language.[8]

References

1. Lasi at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
2. "ScriptSource - Lasi written with Arabic script, Naskh variant".
3. Handbook of comparative and historical Indo-European linguistics ; Volume 1. Berlin Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. 2017. p. 433. ISBN 9783110393248. The five major dialects of Sindhi are Vicholi, Lari, Lasi, Thari, and Kachhi. Four dialects are spoken within the borders of Sindh itself. Siraiki, in Upper Sindh, is not to be confused with the Punjabi language of the same name. Vicholi, considered the standard dialect, is spoken in central Sindh, while Lari is the dialect in southern Sindh. Lasi is spoken on the western frontier of Sindh and in Balochistan. The Sindhi spoken in the Thar desert of the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan is called Thari. In Gujarat, Kachhi is spoken along the Rann of Kutch and in the Kathiawar peninsula.
4. Austin, Peter (2008). One thousand languages: living, endangered, and lost. Berkeley (Calif.): University of California press. p. 126. ISBN 9780520255609. Sindhi has six major dialects: Siraiki (Seraiki), Vicholi, Lari, Lasi, Thari (Thareli) and Katchhi (Kachchhi). However, other sources consider at least Katchhi to be a separate language. In addition, the name Siraiki is used to describe a different language variety, sometimes listed as a separate language and sometimes as a dialect of Punjabi.
5. "Linguistic Survey of India". dsal.uchicago.edu. p. 9. Retrieved 2023-06-15. two other dialects, Lasi and Kachchhi, have to be added to the list
6. Veesar, Zahid Ali; Aliani, Asadullah; Roonjho, Zafrullah (2020). "SUBSTITUTION OF IMPLOSIVES WITH ENGLISH LOANWORDS IN LASI". Pakistan Journal of Society, Education and Language.
7. "BALUCHISTAN i. Geography, History and Ethnography (cont.)". Encyclopedia Iranica. 2010.
8. Aliani, Asad Ullah; Ali, Zahid; Khan, Sami Ullah (2022). "English Loanwords Adaptation and Substitution Process in Lasi". University of Chitral Journal of Linguistics and Literature.