Harman Patil (Editor)

Pashayi languages

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Native to
  
Afghanistan

Native speakers
  
400,000 (2000–2011)

Ethnicity
  
Pashayi people

Glottolog
  
pash1270

Language family
  
Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Dardic Pashayi

ISO 639-3
  
Variously: aee – Northeastern glh – Northwestern psi – Southeastern psh – Southwestern

Pashayi or Pashai (sometimes referred to colloquially in neighbouring languages as "Shari") is a group of languages spoken by the Pashai people in parts of Kapisa, Laghman, Nuristan, Kunar, and Nangarhar Provinces in Northeastern Afghanistan. It belongs to the Dardic branch of the Indo-Aryan languages. Most speakers are bilingual in Pashto with a literacy rate of about 25%, with the Pashayi languages having 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, and Upper and Lower Darai Nur dialects
  • Southwestern: Ishpi, Isken, Tagau dialects

    • A grammar of the language was written as a doctoral dissertation in 2014.

    References

    Pashayi languages Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA