| Northeastern Katë | |
| States: | Afghanistan, Pakistan |
| Region: | Nuristan, Kunar, Chitral |
| Speakers: | 1,500 (Pakistani speakers only) |
| Date: | 2003 |
| Ref: | [1] [2] |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Indo-Iranian |
| Fam3: | Nuristani |
| Fam4: | Katë |
| Script: | Arabic script |
| Iso3: | bsh |
| Glotto: | kati1270 |
| Glottorefname: | Kati |
Northeastern Katë is a dialect of the Katë language spoken by the Kata in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It also includes the so-called Shekhani dialect spoken in Chitral district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.[3]
There are several subdialects spoken in the upper Landai Sin Valley. It is also spoken in Chitral District, in Gobor and the upper Bumboret Valley in Pakistan.
According to Halfmann (2024), the primary innovations of the Northeastern dialect include secondary vowel length from monophthongization of vowel + v and a progressive suffix -t-.
In August 2022, Pakistani linguist, Rehmat Aziz Chitrali proposed a keyboard to Khowar Academy, Chitral.[4]
Speakers of Eastern Katë dialects migrated from Kamdesh in Nuristan in modern-day Afghanistan to Lutkuh Valley in Chitrali Princely State in British Raj during the 19th century.[5] Most speakers in Pakistan speak either Pashto or Khowar as a second language. Many native speakers often marry the minority Pashtuns in the area.[6]
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palato- alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ |
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | ||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Tap | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | ||||||
| Approximant | lateral | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| central | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | ||||||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Low | pronounced as /link/ |
| Person | Direct | Oblique | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | sg. | ũ, ũċ | ĩ, yẽ |
| pl. | imú | ||
| 2nd | sg. | tyu | tu |
| pl. | šo | ||