Nuristani languages
| Nuristani | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Nuristan, Kunar, Afghanistan Chitral, Pakistan |
| Ethnicity | Nuristanis |
Native speakers | c. 214,000 |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
| Proto-language | Proto-Nuristani |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | nuri1243 |
 Nuristan region, located on southern range of Hindu Kush | |
 Nuristan Province in modern-day Afghanistan, where most speakers live | |
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The Nuristani languages are one of the three groups within the Indo-Iranian language family, alongside the Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages.[1][2][3] They have approximately 214,000 speakers primarily in Nuristan and Kunar provinces in northeastern Afghanistan and a few adjacent valleys in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Chitral District, Pakistan. The region inhabited by the Nuristanis is located in the southern Hindu Kush mountains, and is drained by the Alingar River in the west, the Pech River in the center, and the Landai Sin and Kunar rivers in the east. More broadly, the Nuristan region is located at the northern intersection of the Indian subcontinent and the Iranian plateau.
The Nuristani languages were not described in literature until the 19th century. The older name for the region was Kafiristan due to their pre-Islamic religious practices, but this term has been abandoned in favor of Nuristan ("land of light").
Languages
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Nuristani languages can be classified into:
- Katë, also called Kati, Kamviri or Kamkata-vari, is the most-spoken Nuristani language at 150,000 speakers. It includes the Western, Northeastern, and Southeastern dialects.
- Prasun, also called Vasi-vari, is spoken by 8,000 speakers. Prasun is considered as the most divergent member of the group, featuring a distinct grammar and phonology.
- Ashkun, also called Ashkunu or Sanu-viri, is spoken by 40,000 speakers. Although Ashkun shares commonalities with other Nuristani languages, there are some sound changes in Ashkun that are not shared by any other member.
- Nuristani Kalasha, formerly known as Waigali, is spoken by 12,000 speakers. It is rather closely related with Tregami and Zemiaki. Nuristani Kalasha is distinct from Kalasha-mun, which is an Indo-Aryan language.
- Tregami (lit. 'of three villages') is spoken by 3,500 speakers in the three villages of Gambir, Kaṭâr, and Devoz in the Watapur District of Kunar Province, Afghanistan.
- Zemiaki is spoken by 500 speakers. It is so far the smallest Nuristani language known to exist. Local traditions confirm a historical link with Nuristani Kalasha.
History
[edit]
Nuristani languages are Indo-European languages, ultimately descending from Proto-Indo-European. The prehistory of Nuristani is unclear, except that it apparently split off from the rest of the Indo-European languages as part of the Indo-Iranian branch.
The Proto-Indo-Iranian language of late 3rd millennium BCE represents the reconstructed ancestral language which the Nuristani languages share with Sanskrit and Avestan as their common origin. This makes Nuristani languages closely related to Indo-Iranian languages like Hindustani, Pashto, and Persian, and more distantly related to other Indo-European languages like Lithuanian, Albanian, and Icelandic. However, its classification within the Indo-Iranian branch was debated until recent scholarship settled its position as a third branch distinct from Indo-Aryan or Iranian, though extensive Indo-Aryan influence can be detected.
Proto-Nuristani is the reconstructed ancestral language of all the modern-day Nuristani languages, representing the latest point at which the languages were still unified as a single language. Proto-Nuristani began breaking off into distinct languages from around 8th century BCE. The influences from surrounding Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages onto early Nuristani languages have been highly complex, due to different patterns of migration and settlement by various Nuristani-speaking tribes through their history.[4]
The Nuristani languages continued their development as the primary languages of the Nuristani peoples, who maintained a history of interaction with surrounding Indo-Aryan peoples and later the Afghan people, who became dominant in the region. In the 1890s, the region of Nuristan was finally incorporated into Afghanistan due to geopolitical pressure.[5] Today, ethnic Nuristanis still comprise of 99% of the population of Nuristan. Nuristani languagesare spoken by 78% of the total Nuristani population, and by 84% in villages.[6]
Today, Indo-Aryan Dardic languages like Khowar, Pashai, and Kalasha-mun, and Eastern Iranian languages like Munji, Sanglechi, and Yidgha are natively spoken in the neighboring regions of Nuristan, leading to language contact. Dameli, a neighboring language, has a significant amount of vocabulary borrowed from Nuristani languages, and thus was previously classified as a Nuristani language. However, the morphology and the pronominal system of Dameli are charcteristically Indo-Aryan, leading to its re-classification as Dardic.[7]
Vocabulary
[edit]The most archaic layer of Nuristani lexicon is the common inheritance from Proto-Indo-European, shared with other Indo-European languages. For example, Tregami tre is cognate with English three and Spanish tres.
Much of Nuristani lexicon traces back to the Proto-Indo-Iranian language of the late 3rd millennium BCE. Due to the relative isolation of the Nuristan region until the turn of the 20th century, the Nuristani languages were thought to have retained some inherited words from the ancient Indo-Iranian religion, predating Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. However, recent research on Nuristani theonyms shows robust semantic and linguistic correspondences with Indo-Aryan religious terminologies, which points to a significant post-Vedic Hindu influence on Nuristani theology and religious vocabulary, though remnants of inherited Indo-Iranian elements may survive in Prasun theonyms.[8] In contrast, there is no trace of any Zoroastrian influence on Nuristani vocabulary, suggesting that Nuristani languages were not widely spoken in areas where Zoroastrianism was practiced.[9]
Nuristani-speaking peoples have since long participated in enduring social contact with Indo-Aryan speakers, leading to a large number of early Indo-Aryan loanwards and relative semantic closeness among the shared cognates between Indo-Aryan and Nuristani languages.[10] There have been important historical exchanges between the Nuristani religious practices and earlier forms of Hinduism. For instance, Katë Indrë may be linked to the Hindu deity Indra, from which it derives Katë indrõ "rainbow" (Indra-bow) and indrëṣ "earthquake" (Indra-impulse).[11][12]
Middle Indo-Aryan languages like Gandhari shared a broader cultural and linguistic milieu with Nuristani languages for more than two millennia in the Gandhara region. In addition, Nuristani languages borrowed words for "law" and "judge" from the Iranian Bactrian language around the 1st century CE, suggesting some degree of contact with Bactrian-speaking state institutions, possibly the Kushan empire.[13]
The most recent influx of loanwords into Nuristani is from Persian and Pashto since the incorporation Nuristan into Afghanistan in the mid-1890s.
The chart below compares some basic vocabulary among the modern-day Nuristani languages.
| English | Prasun | Katë | Ashkun | Nuristani Kalasha | Tregami |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| one | upün | ew | ac̣ | ew | yo |
| two | lü | dyu, dü | du | dü | du |
| three | ćši | tre | trë | tre | tre |
| four | čpu | štëvo, što | ćatā | čatā | čātā |
| five | vuču | puč | põć | pũč | põč |
| six | vuṣ | ṣu | ṣo | ṣu | ṣu |
| seven | sëtë | sut | sōt | sot | sut |
| eight | astë | uṣṭ | ōṣṭ | oṣṭ | voṣṭ |
| nine | nu | nu | no | nu | nũ |
| ten | lezë | duć | dos | doš | dåš |
| eye | ižĩ | ačẽ | aćĩ | ačẽ | ac̣ĩ |
| tongue | luzuk | diz | žū | jip | jip |
| gut | vu | řu | ẓo | vřu | |
| name | nom | num | nām | nām |
Syntax
[edit]Many Nuristani languages have subject–object–verb (SOV) word order, like most of the other Indo-Iranian languages, and unlike the nearby Dardic Kashmiri language, which has verb-second word order.
Sample sentences
[edit]Prasun
[edit]lust
lēnjǝwógnī
oyinī́g
naḍǝm
rē-s
"Eating (a ritual dish) without having raised the hands (in pre-Islamic prayer) was unlawful/improper."[14]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ SIL Ethnologue [1]
- ^ Morgenstierne, G. (1975) [1973]. "Die Stellung der Kafirsprachen" [The position of the Kafir languages]. In Morgenstierne, G. (ed.). Irano-Dardica (in German). Wiesbaden: Reichert. pp. 327–343.
- ^ Strand, Richard F. (1973). "Notes on the Nûristânî and Dardic Languages". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 93 (3): 297–305. doi:10.2307/599462. JSTOR 599462.
- ^ Strand, Richard F. (2023). "Kâmboǰâs and Sakas in the Holly-Oak Mountains: On the Origins of the Nûristânîs." In Cacopardo, Alberto M., and Augusto S. Cacopardo, eds., Roots of Peristan: The Pre-Islamic Cultures of the Hindukush/Karakorum. Serie Orientale Roma, n.s. 37, Part II: 781-808. Roma.
- ^ Strand, R. (2010). Nurestâni Languages. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition
- ^ "Nurstan Provincial Profile" (PDF). Archived from the original on 7 October 2010. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Bashir, Elena (2007). Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George (eds.). The Indo-Aryan languages. p. 905. ISBN 978-0415772945.
'Dardic' is a geographic cover term for those Northwest Indo-Aryan languages which [..] developed new characteristics different from the IA languages of the Indo-Gangetic plain. Although the Dardic and Nuristani (previously 'Kafiri') languages were formerly grouped together, Morgenstierne (1965) has established that the Dardic languages are Indo-Aryan, and that the Nuristani languages constitute a separate subgroup of Indo-Iranian.
- ^ Halfmann, Jakob (2023). "Nuristani Theonyms in Light of Historical Phonology". Roots of Peristan, Rome, Italy: 350.
- ^ Halfmann, Jakob (2023). "Nuristani Theonyms in Light of Historical Phonology". Roots of Peristan, Rome, Italy: 320.
- ^ Strand, Richard F. (2022). "Ethnolinguistic and Genetic Clues to Nûristânî Origins". International Journal of Diachronic Linguistics and Linguistic Reconstruction. 19: 267–353.
- ^ Strand, Richard F. (2016). "inrʹo˜" in Nûristânî Etymological Lexicon.
- ^ Strand, Richard F. (2016). "inrʹaṣ" in Nûristânî Etymological Lexicon.
- ^ Halfmann, Jakob (2023). "Lād 'law' – a Bactrian loanword in the Nuristani languages". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (BSOAS).
- ^ Buddruss, G.; Degener, A. (2017). Materialien zur Prasun-Sprache des afghanischen Hindukusch. Vol. 2: Grammatik. Harvard Oriental Series 80. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA. pp. 437–438.
Bibliography
[edit]- Decker, Kendall D. (1992). Languages of Chitral. In: Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan 5. Islamabad: National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University and Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 4-87187-520-2.
- Grjunberg, A. L. (1971). K dialektologii dardskich jazykov (glangali i zemiaki). Indijskaja i iranskaja filologija: Voprosy dialektologii. Moscow.
- Jakob Halfmann (2023). Lād "law": a Bactrian loanword in the Nuristani languages, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, United Kingdom.
- Morgenstierne, Georg (1926). Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan. Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, Serie C I-2. Oslo. ISBN 0-923891-09-9.
- Jettmar, Karl (1985). Religions of the Hindu Kush ISBN 0-85668-163-6
- Mallory, J. P. In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology and Myth. Thames and Hudson, 1989.
- Mallory, James P.; Adams, Douglas Q. "Indo-Iranian Languages". In: Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
- Strand, Richard F. "NURESTÂNI LANGUAGES" in Encyclopædia Iranica
- Strand, Richard F. "- Kâmboǰâs and Sakas in the Holly-Oak Mountains.pdf"
Further reading
[edit]- Degener, Almuth (2002). "The Nuristani Languages". In Sims-Williams, Nicholas (ed.). Indo-Iranian Languages and Peoples. Proceedings of the British Academy. Vol. 116. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 103–117.
- Fries, Simon; Halfmann, Jakob; Hill, Eugen; Hübner, Denise (2023). "From noun to future tense: The functional diachrony of the l-future in the Nuristani languages and its typological background". STUF – Language Typology and Universals. 76 (1): 53–85. doi:10.1515/stuf-2023-2002.
- Hegedűs, Irén; Blažek, Václav (2010). "On the position of Nuristani within Indo-Iranian". Paper presented at the conference Sound of Indo-European 2 (Opava, Oct 2010).
- Hegedűs, Irén (2022). "Two plant-based numeral classifiers in Nuristani languages: grain and branch". Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics. 9 (1–2): 69–95. doi:10.1515/jsall-2023-1001.
- Kuz’Mina, E.E.; Mallory, J.P. (2007). "The genesis of the dards and nuristani". The Origin of the Indo-Iranians. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. pp. 307–320. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004160545.i-763.90.
- Rybatzki, V. (2013). "Vocabularies from the middle of the 20th century from Afghanistan Part one: Iranian, Nuristani and Dardic materials I.". Acta Orientalia. 66 (3): 297–348. doi:10.1556/aorient.66.2013.3.4. JSTOR 43282518.
- Rybatzki, Volker (2013). "Vocabularies from the middle of the 20th century from Afghanistan Part one: Iranian, Nuristani and Dardic materials II". Acta Orientalia. 66 (4): 443–469. doi:10.1556/aorient.66.2013.4.6. JSTOR 43282530.
- Strand, Richard F. (2022). "Ethnolinguistic and Genetic Clues to Nûristânî Origins". International Journal of Diachronic Linguistics and Linguistic Reconstruction. 19: 267–353.
- Halfmann, Jakob (2024). A Grammatical Description of the Katë Language (Nuristani) (PhD thesis). Universität zu Köln.
External links
[edit]- Reiko and Jun's Kalash Page
- Hindi/Urdu-English-Kalasha-Khowar-Nuristani-Pashtu Comparative Word List
- Richard Strand's Nuristân Site This site is the primary source on the linguistics and ethnography of Nuristân and neighboring regions, collected and analyzed over the last forty years by the leading scholar on Nuristân.
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