Shekhani dialect should not be confused with Shikhany.
| Eastern Kata-vari | |
| Nativename: | (Shekhani) |
| Region: | Lutkuh Valley (Gobor, Shekhandeh, Rumbur, Badogar, and Urstsun), Upper Chitral District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa |
| State: | Pakistan |
| Speakers: | 1,500 |
| Date: | 2003 |
| Ref: | [1] [2] |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Indo-Iranian |
| Fam3: | Nuristani |
| Fam4: | Northern |
| Fam5: | Kamkata-vari |
| Fam6: | Kata-vari |
| Script: | Khowar alphabet (Perso-Arabic) |
Eastern Kata-vari also locally known as Shekhani is a variety of the Kata-vari language spoken in Chitral district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.[3] The Kamviri language is also known as Shekhani. The Khowar name for the dialect is Sheikhwar[4] which means "Language of the Sheikhs or converts."[5] Some linguists consider Shekhani or Eastern Kata-vari a different language due to the isolation from other Nuristani languages other than Kamviri.[6] [7] Kamviri Shekhani is different than Eastern Kata-vari which is also called Shekhani.
In August 2022, Pakistani linguist, Rehmat Aziz Chitrali proposed a keyboard to Khowar Academy, Chitral.[8]
The speakers of Eastern Kata-vari migrated from Kamdesh in Nuristan in modern-day Afghanistan to Lutkuh Valley in Chitrali Princely State in British Raj during the 19th century.[9] Most Shekhani speakers speak either Pashto or Khowar as a second language. Many Shekhani speakers often marry the minority Pashtuns in the area.[10]
| 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/ |