| Gawar-Bati | |
|---|---|
| Narsati | |
 | |
| Native to | Afghanistan, Pakistan |
| Region | Kunar,province , Chitral |
Native speakers | 75,000 (2017–2024) [1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gwt |
| Glottolog | gawa1247 |
| ELP | Gawar-Bati |
Gawar-Bati or Narsati is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Kunar Province of eastern Afghanistan and across the border in Pakistan. It is also known as Kohistani in Kunar. Gawar-Bati has an estimated 75,000 speakers, of whom 50,000 are in Kunar and 25,000 in Chitral, Pakistan.
The Gawar-Bati language has not been given serious study by linguists, except that it is mentioned by George Morgenstierne (1926) and Kendall Decker (1992).
It is classified as an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic subgroup. However, the term Dardic is not linguistic but merely geographic. [2]
The following tables set out the phonology of the Gawar-Bati language: [3]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iiː | uuː | |
| Mid | (e)eː | (o)oː | |
| Open | aaː |
The status of short /e/ and /o/ is unclear.
A breathy voiced series, /bʱ dʱ gʱ/, existed recently in older speakers—and may still do so.
| Labial | Coronal | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɳ | ||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | ʈ | k | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɖ | ɡ | |||
| aspirated | pʰ[pff] | tʰ | ʈʰ | kʰ | |||
| Affricate | voiceless | ts | tʂ | tʃ | |||
| voiced | dz | dʐ | dʒ | ||||
| aspirated | tsʰ | tʂʰ | tʃʰ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | ʂ | ʃ | x | h | |
| voiced | z | ʐ | ʒ | ɣ | |||
| Approximant | j | w | |||||
| Lateral | plain | l | |||||
| Fricative | ɬ~l̥ | ||||||
| Rhotic | r | ɽ | |||||
It is rarely written. This alphabet is used in Pakistan: [4]
| Letter | ا | ب | پ | ت | ٹ | ث | ج | چ | ح | خ | ڄ | ݮ | څ | ځ | د | ڈ | ذ | ر | ڑ | ز | ژ | ݫ | س |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transliteration | ā, Ø | b | p | t | ṭ | s | ǰ | č | h | x | c̣ | j̣ | c | j | d | ḍ | z | r | ṛ | z | ẓ | ž | s |
| IPA | [aː], Ø | [b] | [p] | [t] | [ʈ] | [s] | [d͡ʒ] | [t͡ʃ] | [h] | [x] | [ʈ͡ʂ] | [ɖ͡ʐ] | [t͡s] | [d͡z] | [d] | [ɖ] | [z] | [r~ɾ] | [ɽ] | [z] | [ʐ] | [ʒ] | [s] |
| Letter | ش | ݭ | ص | ض | ط | ظ | ع | غ | ف | ق | ک | گ | ل | ݪ | م | ن | ݨ | ں | ه | ء | و | ی | ے |
| Transliteration | š | ṣ | s | z | t | z | ʔ | ǧ | f | q | k | g | l | ł | m | n | ṇ | ˜ | h | ʔ | w, ū, o | y, ī | e |
| IPA | [ʃ] | [ʂ] | [s] | [z] | [t] | [z] | [ʔ] | [ɣ] | [f] | [q] | [k] | [ɡ] | [l] | [ɬ~l] | [m] | [n] | [ɳ] | [˜] | [h] | [ʔ] | [w], [uː], [oː] | [j], [iː] | [eː] |
| Letter | تھ | پھ | ٹھ | چھ | ڄھ | څھ | کھ | َ | ِ | ُ | |||||||||||||
| Transliteration | th | ph | ṭh | čh | c̣h | ch | kh | a | i | u | |||||||||||||
| IPA | [tʰ] | [pʰ] | [ʈʰ] | [t͡ʃʰ] | [ʈ͡ʂʰ] | [t͡sʰ] | [kʰ] | [a] | [i] | [u] |
'Dardic' is a geographic cover term for those Northwest Indo-Aryan languages which [..] developed new characteristics different from the IA languages of the Indo-Gangetic plain. Although the Dardic and Nuristani (previously 'Kafiri') languages were formerly grouped together, Morgenstierne (1965) has established that the Dardic languages are Indo-Aryan, and that the Nuristani languages constitute a separate subgroup of Indo-Iranian.
The Indo-Aryan languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus river in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal. Moreover, apart from the Indian subcontinent, large immigrant and expatriate Indo-Aryan–speaking communities live in Northwestern Europe, Western Asia, North America, the Caribbean, Southeast Africa, Polynesia and Australia, along with several million speakers of Romani languages primarily concentrated in Southeastern Europe. There are over 200 known Indo-Aryan languages.
The Nuristani languages, also known as Kafiri languages, are one of the three groups within the Indo-Iranian language family, alongside the much larger Indo-Aryan and Iranian groups. They have approximately 130,000 speakers primarily in eastern Afghanistan and a few adjacent valleys in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Chitral District, Pakistan. The region inhabited by the Nuristanis is located in the southern Hindu Kush mountains, and is drained by the Alingar River in the west, the Pech River in the center, and the Landai Sin and Kunar rivers in the east. More broadly, the Nuristan region is located at the northern intersection of the Indian subcontinent and the Iranian plateau. The languages were previously often grouped with Indo-Aryan or Iranian until they were finally classified as forming a third branch in Indo-Iranian.
The Dardic languages, or Hindu-Kush Indo-Aryan languages, are a group of several Indo-Aryan languages spoken in northern Pakistan, northwestern India and parts of northeastern Afghanistan. This region has sometimes been referred to as Dardistan.
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The Katir are a Nuristani tribe in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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Dameli (دَميلي), also Damia, Damɛ̃ḍī, Dāmia bāṣa or Gidoj, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic subgroup spoken by approximately 5,000 people in the Domel Town, in the Chitral District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
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Gawri (ګاوری), also known as Kalami (کالامي), Kalam Kohistani and Bashkarik, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Swat Kohistan region in the upper Swat District and in the upper Panjkora river valley of Upper Dir District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Tregami (Trigami), or Katar Gambiri, is a language spoken in the villages of Gambir, Kaṭâr, and Devoz in the Tregâm Valley off the lower Pech River in the Watapur District of Kunar Province in Afghanistan. The area is in the Hindu Kush along the border with Pakistan. Tregami belongs to the Nuristani group of the Indo-Iranian language family. It is spoken by approximately 3,500 people (2011). Most individuals speak Pashto in addition to Tregami.
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