Palula and also known as Ashreti or Dangarikwar, is a Dardic language spoken by approximately 10,000 people in the valleys of Ashret and Biori, as well as in the village of Puri in the Shishi valley and at least by a portion of the population in the village Kalkatak, in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It is closely related to the Sawi language of Afghanistan and to Kalkoti, which is spoken in Dir District. The area where Palula is spoken includes. In some of the smaller villages, Palula has either ceased to be spoken or its speakers are largely shifting to the more widely spoken Khowar language. However, in the main Palula settlements in the Biori and Ashret valleys, it is a strong, vibrant and growing language, as the population in those areas increases and it is still with a few exceptions the mother tongue of almost all people. Palula is pronounced as /paːluːláː/, with three long vowels and a rising pitch on the final syllable.
Study and classification
The Palula language has been documented by George Morgenstierne, Kendall Decker, Henrik Liljegren, and Henrik Liljegren & Naseem Haider. It is classified as a Dardic language, but this is more of a geographical classification than a linguistic one.
Phonology
Vowels
The following table sets out the vowels of Palula.
Front
Central
Back
Close
Mid
Open
Nasalization is found; however, it typically limited to vowels preceding sibilants and nasals and word finally.
Consonants
The consonant inventory of Palula is shown in the chart below. The phonemic status of the voiceless aspirate and breathy voiced series are debatable. The breathy voiced series is generally considered lexical—a cluster of a consonant + /h/. Neither voiceless aspiration nor breathy voicing co-occur with /s ʂ ʃ ɳ ɽ/ or /x ɣ / in a syllable onset.
Tone
Like many Dardic languages, Palula shows either tone or, as in Palula, a pitch accent. Words may have only one accented mora, which is associated with high pitch; the remaining mora have a default or low pitch.
Status
In 2004, Anjuman-e-taraqqi-e-Palula, the Society for the promotion of Palula, was founded by people in the Palula community to promote the continued use of their language and to encourage research and documentation of their language, history and culture. After the establishment of a written form of the language, the society is now engaged in producing literature and educational material in Palula. In 2006, Palula Alifbe and Palula Shiluka were jointly published by the Anjuman-e-taraqqi-e-Palula and the Frontier Language Institute in Peshawar. In 2008, a mother-tongue based educational programme was launched by a local school management committee in Ashret and a first batch of Palula children could start learning to read and write in their own language. Since 2010, two schools operate within this programme in Ashret, using a curriculum developed by the community itself with assistance from the Forum for Language Initiatives.
