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Pashayi languages

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Pashayi
Pashai
زبان پشه‌ای zabân Pashhay
Native toAfghanistan
EthnicityPashayi people
Native speakers
400,000 (2000–2011)[1]
Persian alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
aee – Northeastern
glh – Northwestern
psi – Southeastern
psh – Southwestern
Glottologpash1270
Linguasphere59-AAA-a
Linguistic map of Afghanistan; Pashayi is spoken in the purple area in the east.

Pashayi or Pashai is a group of languages spoken by the Pashai people in parts of Kapisa, Laghman, Nuristan, Kunar, and Nangarhar provinces in Northeastern Afghanistan. It belongs to the Dardic branch of the Indo-Aryan languages.[2] The Pashayi languages had no written form prior to 2003.[3] There are four mutually unintelligible varieties, with only about a 30% lexical similarity:[1]

  • Northeastern: Aret, Chalas (Chilas), Kandak, Korangal, Kurdar dialects
  • Northwestern: Alasai, Bolaghain, Gulbahar, Kohnadeh, Laurowan, Najil, Nangarach, Pachagan, Pandau, Parazhghan, Pashagar, Sanjan, Shamakot, Shutul, Uzbin, Wadau dialects
  • Southeastern: Damench, Laghmani, Sum, Upper and Lower Darai Nur, Wegali dialects
  • Southwestern: Ishpi, Isken, Tagau dialects

A grammar of the language was written as a doctoral dissertation in 2014.[4]

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Dental Alveolar Palato-
alveolar 		Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɳ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t ʈ k
voiced b d ɖ ɡ
Affricate voiceless t͡ʃ
voiced d͡ʒ
Fricative voiceless s ʃ (ʂ) x (h)
voiced z ʒ ɣ
lateral ɬ
Rhotic tap ɾ ɽ
trill r
Approximant lateral l
central ʋ ~ w j
  • [h] is only phonemic in the Amla dialect.
  • Sounds [f] and [q] can also occur, but only in loanwords and among Dari speakers.
  • [ʂ] is more commonly heard among older speakers, but is lost among younger speakers, and is heard as a postalveolar [ʃ].
  • /ʋ/ is heard before front vowels /i e/. When occurring before or after central or back vowels /a u o/, it is heard as [w].

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e eː o oː
Low a aː
  • Only mid or low vowels have lengthened equivalents.
  • /e/ can be heard as [ɛ] and /a/ can be heard as [ə] or [æ], in certain environments.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Northeastern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Northwestern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Southeastern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Southwestern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Masica, Colin P. (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 440.
  3. ^ Yun, Ju-Hong (2003). "Pashai Language Development Project: Promoting Pashai language, literacy and community development" (Document). {{cite document}}: Cite document requires |publisher= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |access-date= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |archive-date= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |archive-url= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |conference= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |url-status= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |url= ignored (help)
  4. ^ a b Lehr, Rachel. 2014. A descriptive grammar of Pashai: The language and speech of a community of Darrai Nur. Phd dissertation, University of Chicago.


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