Pashayi languages

Pashayi or Pashai 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.[2] The Pashayi languages had no written form prior to 2003.[3] There are four mutually unintelligible varieties, with only about a 30% lexical similarity:[1]

• 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, Upper and Lower Darai Nur, Wegali dialects
• Southwestern: Ishpi, Isken, Tagau dialects

Pashayi
Pashai
زبان پشه‌ای zabân Pashhay
Native to	Afghanistan
Ethnicity	Pashayi people
Native speakers	400,000 (2000–2011)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Dardic Pashayi
Writing system	Persian alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: aee – Northeastern glh – Northwestern psi – Southeastern psh – Southwestern
Glottolog	pash1270
Linguasphere	59-AAA-a
Linguistic map of Afghanistan; Pashayi is spoken in the purple area in the east.

A grammar of the language was written as a doctoral dissertation in 2014.[4]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palato- alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n			ɳ		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t			ʈ		k
	voiced	b	d			ɖ		ɡ
Affricate	voiceless				t͡ʃ
	voiced				d͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless			s	ʃ	(ʂ)		x	(h)
	voiced			z	ʒ			ɣ
	lateral			ɬ
Rhotic	tap			ɾ		ɽ
	trill			r
Approximant	lateral		l
	central	ʋ ~ w					j

• [h] is only phonemic in the Amla dialect.
• Sounds [f] and [q] can also occur, but only in loanwords and among Dari speakers.
• [ʂ] is more commonly heard among older speakers, but is lost among younger speakers, and is heard as a postalveolar [ʃ].
• /ʋ/ is heard before front vowels /i e/. When occurring before or after central or back vowels /a u o/, it is heard as [w].

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e eː		o oː
Low		a aː

• Only mid or low vowels have lengthened equivalents.
• /e/ can be heard as [ɛ] and /a/ can be heard as [ə] or [æ], in certain environments.[4]

References

1. Northeastern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
   Northwestern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
   Southeastern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
   Southwestern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Masica, Colin P. (1991). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 440.
3. Yun, Ju-Hong (2003). "Pashai Language Development Project: Promoting Pashai language, literacy and community development" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 November 2018. Retrieved 5 November 2018. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
4. Lehr, Rachel. 2014. A descriptive grammar of Pashai: The language and speech of a community of Darrai Nur. Phd dissertation, University of Chicago.