Nuristani Kalasha

Nuristani Kalasha (Kalaṣa-alâ), also known as Waigali, is a Nuristani language spoken by about 10,000 people 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.

Nuristani Kalasha belongs to the Indo-European language family, and is in the Nuristani group of the Indo-Iranian branch. It is closely related to Zemiaki and to Tregami, the lexical similarity with the latter being approximately 76% to 80%.

It shares its name with the Indo-Aryan Kalasha language (Kalaṣa-mun), spoken in Pakistan's southern Chitral District, but the two languages belong to different branches of Indo-Iranian. Speakers of Nuristani Kalasha (Kalaṣa-alâ) are sometimes called "Red Kalasha", while the speakers of Indo-Aryan Kalasha are called “Black Kalasha.” The Kalash people are very close to the Nuristani people in terms of culture and historic religion. 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.

From Wikipedia · Nuristani Kalasha language · CC BY-SA 4.0