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Nuristani languages

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The Nuristani languages are a subgroup of the Indo-Iranian language family, spoken in Afghanistan and parts of modern Pakistan.

History

The Nuristani languages were not described in the literature until the 19th century. The older name for the region was Kafiristan and the languages were termed Kafiiri or Kafiristani, but the terms have been replaced by the present ones as being less pejorative, for kafir means "infidel", while NUR means "light". In other words Nuristan is "Land of the Light" or "Enlightened Land. And Nuristani means "...of Land of the Light or ... of Enlightened Land." Here it refers to the Language(s) of the Land of the Light.

The recent view is to classify Nuristani as an independent branch of the Indo-Iranian superstock, but a few would class it with the Indic group, while another would characterize it as originally Iranian, but greatly influenced by the nearby Dardic languages. In any event, it would seem they arrived in their present homeland at a very early date, and unlike the Indo-Aryans, never entered the Punjab.

The languages are spoken by tribal peoples in an extremely isolated mountainous region of the Hindukush, one that has never been subject to any real central authority in modern times. This area is located along the northeastern border of Afghanistan and adjacent portions of northwest Pakistan. These languages have not received the attention Western linguists would like to give them. Considering the very small number of peoples estimated to speak them, they must be considered endangered languages.

There are five Nuristani languages, each spoken in several dialects. Major dialects include Kata-vari, Kamviri, and Vai-ala. Most of the Nuristanis in Pakistan speak Kamviri. These are influenced by, and sometimes classified as, Dardic languages; but this is more of a geographical classification than a linguistic one.

The Norwegian Iranist Georg Morgenstierne wrote that Chitral is the area of the greatest linguistic diversity in the world. Although Khowar is the predominant language of Chitral, more than ten other languages are spoken here. These include Kalasha-mun, Palula, Dameli, Gawar-Bati, Nuristani, Yidgha, Burushaski, Gujar, Wakhi, Kyrgyz, Persian and Pashto. Since many of these languages have no written form, letters are usually written in Urdu or Persian.

List of Nuristani languages

Literature

External links

See also



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Last updated on Monday February 25, 2008 at 19:23:49 PST (GMT -0800)
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