Western Katë dialect

Western Katë
Western Katë
Native to	Afghanistan
Region	Nuristan, Kunar
Native speakers	140,000 (2017)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Nuristani Katë Western Katë; ; ; ;
Writing system	Arabic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bsh
Glottolog	kati1270

Western Katë is a dialect of the Katë language spoken by the Kata in parts of Afghanistan. The most used alternative names are Kata-vari or Kati.

Together with the Northeastern dialect, 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 several subdialects spoken in the Ramgal, Kulam, Ktivi and Paruk valleys of Nuristan.

Innovations

According to Halfmann (2024), the primary innovations of the Western dialect include loss of nasalization, a progressive suffix -n-, and a past copula stem st-.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palato- alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		ʈ		k
Plosive	voiced	b	d		ɖ		ɡ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s	t͡ʃ	t͡ʂ
Affricate	voiced			d͡ʒ	d͡ʐ
Fricative	voiceless	(f)	s	ʃ	ʂ		(x)
Fricative	voiced	v	z	(ʒ)	ʐ		(ɣ)
Nasal		m	n		ɳ		ŋ
Tap			ɾ		(ɽ)
Approximant	lateral		l
Approximant	central				ɻ	(j)

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

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ə	u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

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

Vocabulary

Pronouns

Person		Direct	Oblique
1st	sg.	vúze, vúzë (Ktivi)	ye, yéme
1st	pl.	yimó, yimú (Ktivi)
2nd	sg.	tyu	tu
2nd	pl.	šo

Numbers

e, ev
dyu
tre
štëvó
puč
ṣu
sut
vuṣṭ
nu
duċ
yaníċ
diċ
triċ
šturéċ, štruċ (Ktivi)
pčiċ
ṣeċ
stiċ
ṣṭiċ
neċ
vëċë́

References

^ Western Katë 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.

[e25-1] Western Katë at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

[1]