ABSTRACT
Habitat and Speakers Brahui, the conventional spelling for brähöi (Persian/Urdu brähüi), designates both a tribal group and a language. The two are not coterminous: many Brahui tribesmen do not speak Brahui even as a second language; further, some Balochi tribes use Brahui as a second language. The main habitat of Brahui tribesmen, as well as the main area where Brahui is spoken, extends continuously over a narrow north-south belt in Pakistan from north of Quetta southwards through Mästung and Kalat (including Nushki to the west) as far south as Las Bela, just inland from the Arabian sea coast. This belt is approximately 100 miles wide (from 65 degrees 30 minutes to 67 degrees east longitude, roughly as in Grierson (1921:327)).
