Pakistani Languages (Kalash)

Kalash or Kalasha (also known asKalasha-mun) is an Indo-European language in the Indo-Iranianbranch, further classified as aDardic language in the ChitralGroup. Georg Morgenstiernemaintains that "The Kalash do not belong to the special Kafir branch of Indo-Iranian but speak a true Indo-Aryan language." The Kalash language is phonologically atypical because it contrasts plain, long, nasal, and retroflex vowels as well as combinations of these (Heegård & Mørch 2004).

Kalash is spoken by the Kalasha people who reside in the remote valleys of Bumboret, Birir and Rumbur, which are west of Ayun, which is ten miles down the river from Chitral Town, high in the Hindu Kush mountains in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan. The Kalash have their own religion, with gods and goddesses, although it is estimated that half of the Kalash have converted to Islam. There are an estimated 6,000 speakers of Kalash, of which 3,000 still follow the Kalash religion and the other 3,000 have converted to Islam.

According to Badshah Munir Bukhari, one of the world's leading authorities on this subject, "Kalasha" is the ethnic name for the Nuristani inhabitants of a region southwest of the Kalash Valleys, in the Waygal and middle Pech Valleys of Afghanistan's Nuristan Province. The term "Kalasha" seems to have been adopted by the Kalasha speakers of Chitral from the Nuristanis of Waygal, who for a time expanded up to southern Chitral several centuries ago. However, there is no close connection between the Indo-Aryan language Kalasha-mun and the Nuristani language Kalasha-ala, which descend from different branches of theIndo-Iranian languages.

Of all the languages in the subcontinent, Kalash preserves its Old Indo-Aryan basis best, next to the western Dardic Khowar. Some of the typical retentions of sounds and clusters (and meanings) are seen in the following list. However, note some common New Indo-Aryan and Dardic features as well.

Meanwhile, the Kafiristan Kafiri over in Kafiristan were converted to Islam byKing Abdul Rehman in 1895. They are now known as Nuristani.

History contains references to "Siah-Posh Kafirs". Timur fought with them. Baburadvised not to tangle with them. Alexander the Great encountered them.Genghis Khan passed by them. However, there is a question whether these were the Red or the Black Kafirs, or both. It has been widely assumed that these were the Red Kafirs who were thought of as fierce and independent, as opposed to the Black Kafirs, who were somewhat subservient to the King of Chitral. On the other hand, the word "Siah-Posh Kafirs" translates to mean "Black Robed Kafirs", as the word "siah" means "black", so it seems possible that it was the Black and not the Red Kafirs who fought against and defeated Tamurlane.

The Norwegian Linguist Georg Morgenstierne wrote that Chitral is the area of the greatest linguistic diversity in the world. Although Khowar is the predominant language of Chitral, more than ten other languages are spoken here. These include Kalash, Palula, Dameli, Gawar-Bati, Nuristani, Yidgha,Burushaski, Gujar, Wakhi, Kyrgyz, Persian and Pashto. Since many of these languages have no written form, letters are usually written in Urdu or Persian(Dari).