Nuristani languages

History

Nuristani languages are Indo-European, ultimately descending from Proto-Indo-European. The prehistory of Nuristani is unclear, except that it apparently split off from the rest of the Indo-European languages as part of the Indo-Iranian branch.

The Proto-Indo-Iranian language of the late 3rd millennium BCE represents the reconstructed ancestral language that the Nuristani languages share with Sanskrit and Avestan as their common origin. This makes Nuristani languages closely related to Indo-Iranian languages like Hindustani and Persian, and more distantly related to other Indo-European languages like Lithuanian and Icelandic. Its classification within the Indo-Iranian branch was debated until recent scholarship settled its position as a third branch, distinct from Indo-Aryan or Iranian, though extensive Indo-Aryan influence can be detected.

Proto-Nuristani is the reconstructed ancestral language of all the modern-day Nuristani languages, representing the latest point at which they were still unified as a single language. Proto-Nuristani began breaking off into distinct languages around the 8th century BCE. The influences from surrounding Indo-Aryan and Iranian languages onto early Nuristani languages have been highly complex, due to different patterns of migration and settlement by various Nuristani-speaking tribes throughout their history.

The Nuristani languages continued their development as the primary languages of the Nuristani peoples, who maintained a history of interaction with surrounding Indo-Aryan peoples and later the Afghans, who became dominant in the area. In the 1890s, the region of Nuristan was finally incorporated into Afghanistan due to geopolitical pressure. Today, ethnic Nuristanis make up over 99% of the population of Nuristan. The Nuristani languages are spoken by about 78% of the total Nuristani population, and by 84% of villages.

Today, Indo-Aryan Dardic languages like Khowar, Pashai, and Kalasha-mun, and Eastern Iranian languages like Munji, Sanglechi, and Yidgha are natively spoken in the neighboring regions of Nuristan, leading to language contact. Dameli, a neighboring Indo-Aryan language, has a significant amount of vocabulary borrowed from Nuristani languages and thus was previously classified as a Nuristani language. However, the morphology and the pronominal system of Dameli are characteristically Indo-Aryan, leading to its re-classification as Dardic.

Vocabulary

The oldest layer of the Nuristani lexicon is the common inheritance from Proto-Indo-European, shared with other Indo-European languages. For example, Tregami tre is cognate with English three, Russian три (tri), and Spanish tres.

Much of the Nuristani lexicon traces back to the Proto-Indo-Iranian language of the late 3rd millennium BCE (compare the Ashkun ćës—"markhor hair" and the Marathi kes—"hair"). Due to the relative isolation of the Nuristan region until the turn of the 20th century, the Nuristani languages were thought to have retained some inherited words from the ancient Indo-Iranian religion, predating Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. However, recent research on Nuristani theonyms shows robust semantic and linguistic correspondences with Indo-Aryan religious terminologies, which points to a significant post-Vedic Hindu influence on Nuristani theology and religious vocabulary. Remnants of inherited Indo-Iranian elements may have survived in some Prasun theonyms with hitherto unknown etymologies. In contrast, there is no trace of any Zoroastrian influence on Nuristani vocabulary, suggesting that Nuristani languages were not widely spoken in areas where Zoroastrianism was practiced.

Nuristani-speaking peoples have since long participated in enduring social contact with Indo-Aryan speakers, leading to a large number of early Indo-Aryan loanwards and relative semantic closeness among the shared cognates between Indo-Aryan and Nuristani languages. There have been important historical exchanges between the Nuristani religious practices and earlier forms of Hinduism. For instance, the Katë Indrë may be linked to the Hindu deity Indra, from which it derives the Katë indrõ—"rainbow" ("Indra's bow") and indrëṣ—"earthquake" ("Indra's impulse).

Middle Indo-Aryan languages like Gandhari have shared a broader cultural and linguistic milieu with Nuristani languages for many centuries in the Gandhara region. In addition, Nuristani languages borrowed words for "law" and "judge" from the Iranian Bactrian language around the 1st century CE, suggesting some degree of contact with Bactrian-speaking state institutions, possibly the Kushan Empire.

The chart below compares some basic vocabulary among the modern-day Nuristani languages.

Syntax

Many Nuristani languages have subject–object–verb word order, like most other Indo-Iranian languages, and unlike the nearby Dardic Kashmiri language, which has verb-second word order.

Sample sentences

Katë

Vyé-r-p-amuř-e

përdík

vú-gayé

"The old woman from the bottom floor went upstairs. (Western dialect of Kulem)"

Kaṛv-ó

ō

či-pëlëŋé-di

é-lë-ay

"Strong waters even go up the valley. (Northeastern dialect of Mumret)"

Tǘ

ask-ḗ

náčō-loš

"You should leave him alone. (Southeastern dialect of Kamdesh)"

Prasun

Lust

lēnjǝwógnī

oyinī́g

naḍǝm

rē-s

"Eating (a ritual dish) without having raised the hands (in pre-Islamic prayer) was unlawful/improper."