Kalasha-ala language

Nuristani Kalasha ('), also known as ''Waigali'', is a Nuristani language spoken by about 10,000 people in the Nuristan Province of Afghanistan. The native name is ''Kalaṣa-alâ'' 'Kalasha-language'. "Waigali" refers to the dialect of the Väi people of the upper part of the Waigal Valley, centered on the town of Waigal, which is distinct from the dialect of the Čima-Nišei people who inhabit the lower valley. The word 'Kalasha' is the native ethnonym for all the speakers of the southern Nuristani languages.

Nuristani Kalasha belongs to the Indo-European language family, and is in the southern Nuristani group of the Indo-Iranian branch. It is closely related to Zemiaki and to Tregami, the lexical similarity with the latter being approximately 76% to 80%.

It shares its name with the Indo-Aryan Kalasha language (''Kalaṣa-mun''), spoken in Pakistan's southern Chitral District, but the two languages belong to different branches of Indo-Iranian. Speakers of Nuristani Kalasha (''Kalaṣa-alâ'') are sometimes called "Red Kalasha", while the speakers of Indo-Aryan Kalasha are called “Black Kalasha.” The Kalash people are very close to the Nuristani people in terms of culture and historic religion. According to linguist Richard Strand the Kalasha of Chitral apparently adopted the name of the Nuristani Kalasha, who at some unknown time had extended their influence into the region of southern Chitral.

Name

The name ''Kalasha-ala'' comes from ''Kalaṣa'' , a term denoting the Kalash people, which also covers the distantly related Indo-Aryan Kalasha language ''(Kalaṣa-mun)'', hence the language is called "Nuristani Kalasha". The name "Waigali" comes from ''Vägal'' < ''Vâigal'' , from ''Vä'' < ''Vâi'' "Vai" and ''gal'' "valley".

Dialects

According to linguist Richard Strand, Nuristani Kalasha contains several dialects spoken among the Väi, Vai, or Vä peoples, the Čima-Nišei people, and the Vântä people. Within the Väi, the Väi-alâ, Ameš-alâ, and Ẓönči-alâ subdialects are spoken. Among the Čima-Nišei, the Nišei-alâ and Čimi-alâ subdialects are spoken. The exact dialect of the Vântä is unclear, but is most probably Nišei-alâ. For this article, most cited forms will be based on the Nišei dialect (Nišei-alâ).

Phonology

Symbols in brackets are foreign sounds.

# /ɳ/ becomes �̃intervocalically.
# /w/ becomes �before /ɹ, ɹ̃/ and next to front vowels.
# Post-consonantally, /ɽ/ retroflexes the following vowels in the word, sounding like a /ɹ/ before or after the vowel. Post-consonantally before a front vowel, /ɽ/ simply turns to /ɹ/.

Grammar

Nuristani Kalasha is an SOV language with a split ergative system:Degener, Almuth. (1998). ''Die Sprache von Nisheygram im afghanischen Hindukusch.'' Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
* There is a morphologically unmarked 'direct' case used for the subjects of all intransitive verbs and an 'oblique' case used for all indirect objects and benefactives and also for postpositions.
* For transitive verbs in the perfective ('preterite'), perfect, and pluperfect, the direct object is in the direct case and the transitive subject is in the oblique case. (These verb forms are all morphologically based off of the preterite stem and conjugate not only for person but for sex-based gender.)
* For transitive verbs in the present, future, imperfect, and subjunctive, the subject is in the direct case. The direct object is also in the direct case if it is indefinite, but it is in the oblique case if it is definite. (These verb forms are all morphologically based off of the present stem and conjugate only for person.)

Vocabulary

Pronouns

Numbers

# ''ev''
# ''dü''
# ''tre''
# ''čatâ''
# ''pũč''
# ''ṣu''
# ''sot''
# ''oṣṭ''
# ''nu''
# ''doš''

References

Bibliography

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External links

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Nuristani languages of Afghanistan
Nuristani languages

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