| Kohistani (Indus Kohistani) | |
| Also Known As: | Kostaie |
| Nativename: | {{nq|کوستَیں |
| Region: | Indus Kohistan (Upper Kohistan, Lower Kohistan, Kolai-Palas districts as well as Tangir and Darel valleys)[1] |
| Speakers: | 200,000 |
| Ethnicity: | Indus Kohistanis |
| Date: | 1992 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Indo-Iranian |
| Fam3: | Indo-Aryan |
| Fam4: | Eastern Dardic |
| Fam5: | Kohistani |
| Iso3: | mvy |
| Glotto: | indu1241 |
| Glottorefname: | Indus Kohistani |
| Script: | Perso-Arabic script (Nastaliq) |
| Map: | Minor languages of Pakistan as of the 1998 census.png |
| Mapcaption: | Kohistani is a minor language of Pakistan which is mainly spoken in the Kohistan region, it is given a space in this map. |
Indus Kohistani or simply Kohistani (Kōstaiñ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the former Kohistan District of Pakistan.[2] The language was referred to as Maiyã (Mayon) or Shuthun by early researchers, but subsequent observations have not verified that these names are known locally.
The phonology of Indus Kohistani varies between its major dialects as shown below.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /i iː/ | pronounced as /u uː/ | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /e eː/ | pronounced as /o oː/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /a aː/ |
In the Kanyawali dialect, the back vowels /u/ and /o/ are described as variants of each other, as are the front vowels /i/ and /e/.
The consonant inventory of Indus Kohistani is shown in the chart below. (Consonants particular to the
Kanyawali Dialect of Tangir and those found only in the Kohistan Dialects are color-coded respectively.)| Labial | Coronal | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | Voiced | pronounced as /m/ | pronounced as /n/ | pronounced as /ɳ/ | |||||
| Breathy Voiced | (pronounced as /mʱ/) | ||||||||
| Stop | Voiceless | pronounced as /p/ | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /ʈ/ | pronounced as /k/ | (pronounced as /q/) | |||
| Aspirated | pronounced as /pʰ/ | pronounced as /tʰ/ | pronounced as /ʈʰ/ | pronounced as /kʰ/ | |||||
| Voiced | pronounced as /b/ | pronounced as /d/ | pronounced as /ɖ/ | pronounced as /ɡ/ | |||||
| Breathy Voiced | pronounced as /bʱ/ | pronounced as /dʱ/ | pronounced as /ɖʱ/ | pronounced as /ɡʱ/ | |||||
| Affricate | Voiceless | pronounced as /ts/ | pronounced as /tʂ/ | pronounced as /tʃ/ | |||||
| Aspirated | pronounced as /tsʰ/ | pronounced as /tʃʰ/ | |||||||
| Voiced | pronounced as /dʒ/ | ||||||||
| Fricative | Voiceless | pronounced as /f/ | pronounced as /s/ | pronounced as /ʂ/ | pronounced as /ʃ/ | pronounced as /x/ | pronounced as /h/ | ||
| Voiced | pronounced as /v/ | pronounced as /z/ | pronounced as /ʐ/ | pronounced as /ʒ/ | pronounced as /ɣ/ | ||||
| Lateral | pronounced as /l/ | ||||||||
| Rhotic | Voiced | pronounced as /r/ | pronounced as /ɽ/ | ||||||
| Breathy Voiced | pronounced as /rʱ/ | pronounced as /ɽʱ/ | |||||||
| Semivowel | pronounced as /j/ | pronounced as /w/ | |||||||
The phonemes /x/, /ɣ/, and /q/ are mainly found in loan words. The status of /q/ in the
Kanyawali Dialect is unclear. The sounds /f, v/ can also be bilabial [ɸ, β].