Pashayi languages

Pashayi or Pashai (زبان پشه‌ای) is a group of languages spoken by the Pashai people in parts of Kapisa, Panjshir dara Baglan Laghman, Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Kabul (Surobi District) 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
Pashayi
Pashai
زبان پشه‌ای
Zabân Pašhây
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.

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 (ʐ) 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].
  • [ʐ] is more commonly heard among older speakers, but is lost among younger speakers, and is heard as a postalveolar [ʒ].
  • /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. Northeastern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Northwestern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Southeastern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Southwestern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  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 (PDF). Conference on language development, language revitalization and multilingual education in minority communities in Asia. 6–8 November 2003. Bangkok, Thailand. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 November 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
  4. 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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