Kalasha-ala

Waigali (Kalaṣa-alâ) is a language spoken by about 10,000 Nuristani people of the in Afghanistan's Nuristan Province. The native name is Kalaṣa-alâ 'Kalasha-language'. "Waigali" refers to the dialect of the people of the upper part of the Waigal Valley, centered on the town of , which is distinct from the dialect of the Čima-Nišei people who inhabit the lower valley. The word 'Kalasha' is the native ethnonym for all the speakers of the southern Nuristani languages.

Kalaṣa-alâ belongs to the Indo-European language family, and is in the southern Nuristani group of the Indo-Iranian branch. It is closely related to Zemiaki^[2] and to Tregami, the lexical similarity with the latter being approximately 76% to 80%.^[1]

It shares its name with Kalaṣa-mun, spoken in Pakistan's southern Chitral District, but the two languages belong to different branches of Indo-Iranian. Waigali speakers are sometimes called “Red Kalasha,” while the speakers of the language in Pakistan are called “Black Kalasha.”^[3] According to linguist Richard Strand the Kalasha of Chitral apparently adopted the name of the Nuristani Kalasha, who at some unknown time had extended their influence into the region of southern Chitral.

Vocabulary[]

Numbers:

1. ev
2. dū
3. tre
4. čatā
5. pũč
6. ṣu
7. sot
8. oṣṭ
9. no
10. doš

References[]

External links[]

• Strand, Richard F. (1997). "Nuristan: Hidden Land of the Hindu-Kush". Retrieved 2012-01-16.
• Strand, Richard F. (1998). "The Kalaṣa of Kalaṣüm". Retrieved 2012-01-16.
• Strand, Richard F. (2011). "Kalaṣa-alâ Lexicon". Retrieved 2012-01-16.
• Strand, Richard F. (2011). "The Sound System of Kalaṣa-alâ". Retrieved 2015-05-07.

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