Pashayi or Pashai (زبان پشهای) is a group of
Indo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily ...
spoken by the
Pashai people
Pashayi or Pashai ( Pashayi: پشهای) are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group living primarily in eastern Afghanistan. They are mainly concentrated in the northern parts of Laghman and Nangarhar, also parts of Kunar, Kapisa, Parwan, Nu ...
in parts of
Kapisa,
Laghman,
Nangarhar,
Nuristan
Nuristan, also spelled as Nurestan or Nooristan (Dari: ; Kamkata-vari: ), is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It is divided into seven districts and is Afghanistan's least populous province, wi ...
,
Kunar and
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
(
Surobi District) provinces in Northeastern
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
.
The Pashayi languages had no written form prior to 2003.
There are four mutually unintelligible varieties, with only about a 30% lexical similarity:
* 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.
Phonology
Consonants
*
is only phonemic in the Amla dialect.
* Sounds
and
can also occur, but only in loanwords and among Dari speakers.
*
is more commonly heard among older speakers, but is lost among younger speakers, and is heard as a postalveolar
*
is more commonly heard among older speakers, but is lost among younger speakers, and is heard as a postalveolar
* /ʋ/ is heard before front vowels /i e/. When occurring before or after central or back vowels /a u o/, it is heard as
* According to Masica (1991) some dialects have a //.
Vowels
* Only mid or low vowels have lengthened equivalents.
* /e/ can be heard as
and /a/ can be heard as
or
in certain environments.
*
References
Dardic languages
Languages of Afghanistan
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