Southeastern Katë is a
dialect
A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
of the
Katë language
Katë, also known as Kati or Kamkata-vari, is a Nuristani languages, Nuristani language. It is a dialect continuum comprising three separate dialects spoken mostly in Afghanistan, with additional speakers in the Chitral District of Pakistan deriv ...
spoken by the
Kom and
Kata
''Kata'' is a Japanese word ( 型 or 形) meaning "form". It refers to a detailed choreographed pattern of martial arts movements. It can also be reviewed within groups and in unison when training. It is practiced in Japanese martial arts ...
in parts of
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
and
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
. It also includes the so-called ''Kamviri'' and ''Mumviri'' (spoken in
Mangul,
Sasku and
Gabalgrom in the
Bashgal Valley) dialects.
Innovations
According to Halfmann (2024), the primary innovations of the Southeastern dialect include secondary vowel length from monophthongization of vowel + ''v'', a progressive suffix ''-n-'', intervocalic consonant lenition (usually sibilants and velars), post-nasal voicing, and merger of
Proto-Nuristani pre-tonic ''*a'' and ''*ā'' as ''a''.
Phonology
The inventory as described by
Richard Strand
Richard F. Strand is a linguist and anthropological researcher who is best known for his research into Nuristani languages and other little-known languages of Afghanistan and neighboring areas of Pakistan.
He was trained at Cornell University. ...
.
The Sound System of ''kâmvʹiri''
/ref> In addition, there is stress.
The neutral articulatory posture, as in the reduced vowel , consists of the tip of the tongue behind the lower teeth and a raised tongue root is linked with a raised larynx, producing a characteristic pitch for unstressed vowels of about an octave above the pitch of a relaxed larynx.
Consonants
* Sounds are found in loanwords.
* Between vowels, voice to .
* can also be heard as bilabial or a labial approximant .
* For most speakers, and especially in Kombřom, becomes a retroflex flap
The voiced retroflex flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication, spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a letter ''r'' with tail, and the equivalent X-SAMPA ...
.
* becomes a velar tap .
One suffix voices to for most speakers.
are phonetic affricates.
Nasals voice a following obstruent.
Laminal consonants change a following from to .
Vowels
is after another vowel, after a laminal consonant and after . For some speakers, it is after . Otherwise it is or .
Vocabulary
Pronouns
Numbers
# ''e'', ''ev'', ''ē''
# ''dü''
# ''tre''
# ''što''
# ''puč''
# ''ṣu''
# ''sut''
# ''vuṣṭ''
# ''nu''
# ''duċ''
# ''yaníċ''
# ''diċ''
# ''triċ''
# ''štreċ''
# ''pačíċ''
# ''ṣeċ''
# ''satíċ''
# ''aṣṭíċ''
# ''neċ''
# ''viċí''
Further reading
*
References
Bibliography
*
* The Mumo. Retrieved July 10, 2006, from ''Richard F. Strand: Nuristan, Hidden Land of the Hindu-Kush'
*
*
External links
*
*
*
{{Nuristani languages
Nuristani languages of Afghanistan
Languages of Afghanistan
Nuristani languages