Kata-vari dialect

Kamkata-vari dialect of Afghanistan and Pakistan

Kata-vari (Kâta-vari) is a dialect of the Kamkata-vari language spoken by the Kata in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The most used alternative names are Kati, Kativiri or Bashgali.

It is spoken by approximately 40,000 people (mostly in Afghanistan, just over 3,700 in Pakistan), and its speakers are Muslim. Literacy rates are low: below 1% for people who have it as a first language, and between 15% and 25% for people who have it as a second language.

There are two main sub-dialects: Eastern Kata-vari and Western Kata-vari. In Afghanistan, Western Kata-vari is spoken in the Ramgal, Kulam, Ktivi and Paruk valleys of Nuristan. Eastern Kata-vari is spoken in the upper Landai Sin Valley. In Pakistan, Eastern Kata-vari or Shekhani is spoken in Chitral District, in Gobor and the upper Bumboret Valley.

The dialect of Ktivi has lost nasalization, so that ǰâře- [d͡ʒaˈɻe] "to kill" corresponds to Kamviri ǰâňa- [d͡ʒaˈɽ̃ɘ]. For this article, most cited forms will be based on the Ktivi dialect.

Name

The name derives from Kâta [kaˈtɘ], the ethnonym of the Kata people in Kamkata-vari, with the suffix vari [βɘˈɾi] "language, speech". Cognates of the ethnonym in other Nuristani languages include Waigali Kẫta [kãˈtɐ].

Phonology

Consonants

• Sounds /ʒ ɽ ɣ/ occur from neighboring languages. /f x/ are borrowed from loanwords.
• /ʈ/ can also be heard as an allophone [ɽ].
• [j] is heard as an allophone of /i/.
• /v/ can also be heard as bilabial [β] or a labial approximant [w].

Vowels

• Mid /ə/ can be heard as a close central [ɨ].

Vocabulary

Pronouns

Numbers

1. ev
2. diu
3. tre
4. štavo
5. puč
6. ṣu
7. sut
8. uṣṭ
9. nu
10. duć

References

1. Kata-vari at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

• Grjunberg, Aleksandr L. (1980). Jazyk Kati: Teksty, Grammatičeskij Očerk. Moskva: Glavnaya Redaktsija Vostočnoj Literatury.
• Strand, Richard F. (1973). Notes on the Nūristāni and Dardic Languages. Journal of the American Oriental Society.
• Strand, Richard F. (2010). "Nurestâni Languages". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Archived from the original on 6 November 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
• Strand, Richard F. (2011). "Kâtʹa-vari Lexicon". Retrieved 22 November 2020.

External links

• Strand, Richard F. (1997–2013). "Nuristan: Hidden Land of the Hindu-Kush". Retrieved 16 January 2012.
• Strand, Richard F. (1997). "The kâtʹa, kʹom, mumʹo, kṣtʹo, biniʹo, ǰâmčʹo, and ǰâšʹa". Retrieved 16 January 2012.
• Strand, Richard F. (1998). "The kâtʹa". Retrieved 16 January 2012.
• Strand, Richard F. (2011). "Kâtʹa-vari Lexicon". Retrieved 16 January 2012.
• Strand, Richard F. (2011). "The Sound System of Kt'ivřâ·i vari". Retrieved 16 January 2012.