Kalasha-mun


Kalasha is an Indo-European language in the Indo-Aryan branch spoken by the Kalash people, further classified as a Dardic language in the Chitral group. The Kalasha language is phonologically atypical because it contrasts plain, long, nasal and retroflex vowels as well as combinations of these.
Kalasha is spoken by the Kalash people who reside in the remote valleys of Bumburet, Birir and Rumbur, which are west of Ayun, which is ten miles down the river from Chitral Town, high in the Hindu Kush mountains in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The Kalash have their own religion, with gods and goddesses. There are an estimated 5,000 speakers of Kalasha.
Kalasha should not be confused with the nearby Nuristani language Waigali. According to Badshah Munir Bukhari, a researcher on the Kalash, "Kalasha" is also the ethnic name for the Nuristani inhabitants of a region southwest of the Kalasha Valleys, in the Waygal and middle Pech Valleys of Afghanistan's Nuristan Province. The name "Kalasha" seems to have been adopted for the Kalash people by the Kalasha speakers of Chitral from the Nuristanis of Waygal, who for a time expanded up to southern Chitral several centuries ago. However, there is no close connection between the Indo-Aryan language Kalasha-mun and the Nuristani language Kalasha-ala, which descend from different branches of the Indo-Iranian languages.

Study

Early scholars to have done work on Kalasha include the 19th-century orientalist Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner and the 20th-century linguist Georg Morgenstierne. More recently, studies have been undertaken by Elena Bashir and several others. The development of practical literacy materials has been associated with the Kalasha linguist Taj Khan Kalash.

Classification

Of all the languages in the subcontinent, Kalasha is likely the most conservative, along with the nearby western Dardic language Khowar. In a few cases, Kalasha is even more conservative than Khowar, e.g. in retaining voiced aspirate consonants, which have disappeared from most other Dardic languages.
Some of the typical retentions of sounds and clusters are seen in the following list. However, note some common New Indo-Aryan and Dardic features as well.

Phonology

Set out below is the phonology of Kalasha:

Vowels

Consonants

As with other Dardic languages, the phonemic status of the breathy voiced series is debatable. Some analyses are unsure of whether they are phonemic or simply lexical—i.e., clusters of consonants with /h/.
The phonemes /x ɣ q/ are found in loanwords.

Vocabulary comparison

The following table compares Kalash words to their cognates in other Indo-Aryan languages.
EnglishKalashaSanskritother Indo-Aryan languages
boneathi, aṭhíasthiHindi -; Nepali ā̃ṭh 'the ribs'
urinemutra, mútramūtraH. mūt; Assamese mut
villagegromgramaH. gā̃w; A. gãü
roperajuk, raĵhú-krajjuH. lej, lejur; A. lezu
smokethumdhūmaH. dhūā̃, dhuwā̃; A. dhü̃a
meatmosmaṃsaH. mā̃s, mās, māsā
dogshua, śõ.'aśvanH. -; Sinhalese suvan
antpililak, pilílakpipīla, pippīlikaH. pipṛā; A. pipora
sonput, putrputraH. pūt; A. put
longdriga, drígadīrghaH. dīha; A. digha
eightasht, aṣṭaṣṭāH. āṭh; A. ath
brokenchina, čhínachinnaH. chīn-nā 'to snatch';
killnashnash, naś, naśyatiH. nā̆s 'destroy'

Conservative traits

Examples of conservative features in Kalasha and Khowar are :