Kalasha-ala

Waigali (Kalaṣa-alâ), also known as Nuristani Kalasha,[2] is a language spoken by about 10,000 Nuristani people of the Waigal Valley in the Nuristan Province of Afghanistan. The native name is Kalaṣa-alâ 'Kalasha-language'. "Waigali" refers to the dialect of the Väi people of the upper part of the Waigal Valley, centered on the town of Waigal, 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.

Not to be confused with Kalasha-mun.
Waigali
Nuristani Kalasha
Kalaṣa-alâ
Native toAfghanistan
RegionNuristan Province
Native speakers
12,000 (2011)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3wbk
Glottologwaig1243
ELPWaigali
Linguasphere58-ACC-a

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[3] 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.”[4] 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.

Dialects

According to linguist Richard Strand, Kalaṣa-alâ contains several dialects spoken among the Väi, Vai, or Vä peoples, the Čima-Nišei people, and the Vântä people. Within the Väi, the Väi-alâ, Ameš-alâ, and Ẓönči-alâ subdialects are spoken. Among the Čima-Nišei, the Nišei-alâ and Čimi-alâ subdialects are spoken. The exact dialect of the Vântä is unclear, but is most probably Nišei-alâ. For this article, most cited forms will be based on the Nišei dialect (Nišei-alâ).

Phonology
Kalaṣa-alâ consonants[5]
Labial Dental/

Alveolar

 Retroflex Postalveolar/

Palatal

 Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
Stop voiceless p t̪ ʈ k (q) (ʔ)
voiced b d̪ ɖ ɡ
Affricate voiceless ts tʂ tɕ
voiced dʑ
Fricative voiceless (f) s ʂ ɕ (x) (ħ) (h)
voiced w~β2 z ʐ (ɣ) (ʕ)
Approximant l̪ j w
Nasal m n̪ ɳ~ɽ̃1 ŋ
Rhotic nasalised ɹ̃
plain ɾ ɽ~ɹ3

Symbols in brackets are foreign sounds.

  1. /ɳ/ becomes [ɽ̃] intervocalically.
  2. /w/ becomes [β] before /ɹ, ɹ̃/ and next to front vowels.
  3. Post-consonantally, /ɽ/ retroflexes the following vowels in the word, sounding like a /ɹ/ before or after the vowel. Post-consonantally before a front vowel, /ɽ/ simply turns to /ɹ/.

Vocabulary

Pronouns
Person Nominative Accusative Genitive
1st sg. aŋa ũ uma
pl. ämi äme ämeba
2nd sg. tü tu tuba
pl. vi vẫ vẫma

Numbers
  1. ev
  2. dü
  3. tre
  4. čatâ
  5. pũč
  6. ṣu
  7. sot
  8. oṣṭ
  9. nu
  10. doš

References
  1. Waigali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Halfmann, Jakob. "Terminological Proposals for the Nuristani languages". In: Himalayan Linguistics , 2021. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.5070/H920150079]; https://escholarship.org/uc/item/59p9w3r6
  3. Grünberg, A.L. (1999). "Zemiaki jazyk/dialekt". In Edelman, D.I. (ed.). Jazyki mira: Dardskie i nuristanskie jazyki. Moscow: Indrik. p. 123. ISBN 585759085X.
  4. Acta orientalia: ediderunt societates orientales Batava, Danica, Norvegica. E.J. Brill. 2006.
  5. "Richard Strand's Nuristân Site: The Sound System of Nišei-alâ". nuristan.info. Retrieved 2023-06-06.
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