Proto-Nuristani is the reconstructed

proto-language In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unatte ...

of the

Nuristani languages The Nuristani languages are one of the three groups within the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian language family, alongside the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages, Iranian languages. They have approximately 214,000 speakers ...

. Proto-Nuristani is descended from

Proto-Indo-Iranian Proto-Indo-Iranian, also called Proto-Indo-Iranic or Proto-Aryan, is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Indo-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the late 3rd ...

, which in turn is descended from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...

History

Proto-Nuristani is the latest common form of all modern-day

. Since diverging from the other

Indo-Iranian languages The Indo-Iranian languages (also known as Indo-Iranic languages or collectively the Aryan languages) constitute the largest branch of the Indo-European language family. They include over 300 languages, spoken by around 1.7 billion speakers ...

, the Nuristani-speaking peoples have maintained social interactions with other Indo-Iranian peoples, influencing each other's linguistic and cultural landscapes. There have been some phonological developments that were shared with Indo-Aryan and

Iranian languages The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian langu ...

at different stages of development, as well as sound changes specific to the Nuristani languages. Due to the lack of direct attestation of Nuristani languages until the 19th century, it is difficult to deduce much detail about Proto-Nuristani, without resorting to extensive internal comparisons between the modern-day

, and external comparisons with earlier forms of attested

. The earliest divergence of Proto-Nuristani from the other Indo-Iranian languages may be indicated by the fact that the

Ruki sound law The ruki sound law, also known as the ruki rule or iurk rule, is a historical sound change that took place in the satem branches of the Indo-European language family, namely in Balto-Slavic, Armenian, and Indo-Iranian. According to this sound ...

does not apply after *u: e.g. Southeastern Katë ''musë'' "mouse" < ''*mūs-a-ka-''. Proto-Nuristani shares with

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

languages the merger of the tenuis and breathy-voiced consonants, the preservation of the distinction between the two sets of Indo-Iranian voiced palatals (which merged in Indo-Aryan), and the fronting of the

primary palatal consonants. The latter were retained as dental affricates in Proto-Nuristani, in contrast to simplification to sibilants in most Iranian languages. Proto-Nuristani is distinguished by the lack of debuccalizing to as in Indo-Aryan. Later on Proto-Nuristani shifted to in all Nuristani varieties other than Southeastern Katë and Tregami, while Proto-Nuristani shifted to only in Ashkun (though in some instances it is retained as ). Proto-Nuristani started to break off into distinct languages from around 8th century BCE. From this point, the influences from surrounding Indo-Aryan and

onto early Nuristani languages have been highly complex, due to different patterns of migration and settlement by various Nuristani-speaking tribes.Strand, Richard F. (2023). "Kâmboǰâs and Sakas in the Holly-Oak Mountains: On the Origins of the Nûristânîs." In Cacopardo, Alberto M., and Augusto S. Cacopardo, eds., Roots of Peristan: The Pre-Islamic Cultures of the Hindukush/Karakorum. Serie Orientale Roma, n.s. 37, Part II: 781-808. Roma. This is demonstrated by the existence of disparate sound changes in individual Nuristani languages that make it difficult to neatly classify them into groups that share a common sound change on the same timeline.

Selected reconstructions

''*ačāni'' "eyes" (Halfmann 2023) ''*āp-pešáni'' "water mill" (Halfmann 2023) ''*dáca'' "ten" (Kreidl 2021) ''*dúǰitā'' "daughter" (Kreidl 2021) ''*dū́'' "two" (Kreidl 2021) ''*dvára-'' "door" (Halfmann 2023) ''*dvāráka-'' "doorjambs" (Halfmann 2023) ''*Kānta-ka-'' "Katë" (Halfmann 2024) ''*páda-'' "footprint" (Kreidl 2021) ''*pra-dā-'' "to give" (Kreidl 2021)

References

External links

* Proto-Nuristani language on

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{{Indo-European languages Nuristani Indo-Iranian languages

History

Selected reconstructions

Further reading

References

External links