| Western Katë | |
| States: | Afghanistan |
| Region: | Nuristan, Kunar |
| Date: | 2017 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Indo-Iranian |
| Fam3: | Nuristani |
| Fam4: | Katë |
| Script: | Arabic script |
| Iso3: | bsh |
| Glotto: | kati1270 |
| Glottorefname: | Kati |
Western Katë is a dialect of the Katë language spoken by the Kata in parts of Afghanistan. The most used alternative names are Kata-vari or Kati.
Together with the Northeastern dialect, it is spoken by approximately 40,000 people (mostly in Afghanistan, just over 3,700 in Pakistan), and its speakers are Muslim. Literacy rates are low: below 1% for people who have it as a first language, and between 15% and 25% for people who have it as a second language.
There are several subdialects spoken in the Ramgal, Kulam, Ktivi and Paruk valleys of Nuristan.
According to Halfmann (2024), the primary innovations of the Western dialect include loss of nasalization, a progressive suffix -n-, and a past copula stem st-.
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palato- alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | (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/) | ||
| 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. | vúze, vúzë (Ktivi) | ye, yéme |
| pl. | yimó, yimú (Ktivi) | ||
| 2nd | sg. | tyu | tu |
| pl. | šo | ||