Khetrānī, or Khetranki, is an Indo-Aryan language of north-eastern Balochistan. It is spoken by the majority of the Khetrans, an ethnolinguistic tribe that occupies a hilly tract in the Sulaiman Mountains comprising the whole of Barkhan District as well as small parts of neighbouring Kohlu District to the south-west, and Musakhel District to the north. Alternative names for the language attested at the start of the 20th century are Barāzai and Jāfaraki. Khetrani has grammatical features in common with both Sindhi and with Saraiki, but is not mutually intelligible with either. Khetrani has a relatively small number of Balochi loanwords in its vocabulary. Khetrani was formerly a dialect continuum of both Sindhi and Saraiki. It is likely to have been formerly spoken over a wider area, which has been reduced with the expansion of Pashto from the north and Balochi from the south-east. The earlier suggestion that Khetrani might be a remnant of a Dardic language has been found "difficult to substantiate" by more detailed recent research.

History

The Khetrans. It is certain that the whole of the triangular block of hill now occupied by the Marris was in the possession of Indian tribes before the Baloch invasion. They were gradually destroyed or absorbed by the Baloch from the south and the Afghans from the north and such names as Shahdedja among the Marris and Haripal among the Afghans to the north indicate that fragments of these tribes remain among the Baloch and the Afghans. The Khetrans however between the Afghan and the Baloch have preserved their identity and their peculiar Indian dialect to the present day.

Footnotes