Western Katë dialect

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Western Katë
Native toAfghanistan
RegionNuristan, Kunar
Native speakers
140,000 (2017)[1]
Arabic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3bsh
Glottologkati1270

Western Katë is a dialect of the Katë language spoken by the Kata in parts of Afghanistan. The most used alternative names are Kata-vari or Kati. Together with the Northeastern dialect, it is spoken by approximately 40,000 people (mostly in Afghanistan, just over 3,700 in Pakistan), and its speakers are Muslim. Literacy rates are low: below 1% for people who have it as a first language, and between 15% and 25% for people who have it as a second language. There are several subdialects spoken in the Ramgal, Kulam, Ktivi and Paruk valleys of Nuristan.

Innovations

According to Halfmann (2024), the primary innovations of the Western dialect include loss of nasalization, a progressive suffix -n-, and a past copula stem st-.

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Dental/
Alveolar
Palato-
alveolar
Retroflex Palatal Velar
Plosive voiceless p t ʈ k
voiced b d ɖ ɡ
Affricate voiceless t͡s t͡ʃ t͡ʂ
voiced d͡ʒ d͡ʐ
Fricative voiceless (f) s ʃ ʂ (x)
voiced v z (ʒ) ʐ (ɣ)
Nasal m n ɳ ŋ
Tap ɾ (ɽ)
Approximant lateral l
central ɻ (j)
  • Sounds /ʒ ɽ ɣ/ occur from neighboring languages. /f x/ are borrowed from loanwords.
  • /ʈ/ can also be heard as an allophone [ɽ].
  • [j] is heard as an allophone of /i/.
  • /v/ can also be heard as bilabial [β] or a labial approximant [w].

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i ə u
Mid e o
Low a
  • Mid /ə/ can be heard as a close central [ɨ].

Vocabulary

Pronouns

Person Direct Oblique
1st sg. vúze, vúzë (Ktivi) ye, yéme
pl. yimó, yimú (Ktivi)
2nd sg. tyu tu
pl. šo

Numbers

  1. e, ev
  2. dyu
  3. tre
  4. štëvó
  5. puč
  6. ṣu
  7. sut
  8. vuṣṭ
  9. nu
  10. duċ
  11. yaníċ
  12. diċ
  13. triċ
  14. šturéċ, štruċ (Ktivi)
  15. pčiċ
  16. ṣeċ
  17. stiċ
  18. ṣṭiċ
  19. neċ
  20. vëċë́

Further reading

  • Halfmann, Jakob (2024). A Grammatical Description of the Katë Language (Nuristani) (PhD thesis). Universität zu Köln.

References

  • Grjunberg, Aleksandr L. (1980). Jazyk Kati: Teksty, Grammatičeskij Očerk. Moskva: Glavnaya Redaktsija Vostočnoj Literatury.
  • Strand, Richard F. (1973). Notes on the Nūristāni and Dardic Languages. Journal of the American Oriental Society.
  • Strand, Richard F. (2010). "Nurestâni Languages". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Archived from the original on 6 November 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
  • Strand, Richard F. (2011). "Kâtʹa-vari Lexicon". Retrieved 22 November 2020.

External links