Nuristani

Why the name Kafiri was dropped

The region was known as Kafiristan, a name taken from the pre-Islamic religion of its people. After they converted to Islam it became Nuristan, 'land of light', and the languages took the new name with it. Nuristan was incorporated into Afghanistan in the 1890s. The languages themselves were not described in any literature until the 19th century.

Which languages belong to the group

Six are counted. Katë, also called Kati or Kamkata-vari, has Western, Northeastern and Southeastern dialects. Prasun, or Vasi-vari, is the most divergent, with a grammar and sound system of its own. Ashkun has sound changes found in no other member. Nuristani Kalasha, formerly Waigali, is close to Tregami and Zemiaki, and is a different language from Kalasha-mun, which is Indo-Aryan. Tregami, 'of three villages', is spoken in Gambir, Kaṭâr and Devoz in Kunar's Watapur District.

How Nuristani split from its neighbours

The group shares an ancestor with Sanskrit and Avestan in the Proto-Indo-Iranian of the late 3rd millennium BCE. Proto-Nuristani began to break into separate languages around the 8th century BCE. Where the group sat inside Indo-Iranian was argued over until recent work placed it as a branch of its own, although Indo-Aryan influence runs through it. Dameli, which borrowed heavily from Nuristani, was once counted as a member and is now classed as Dardic because of its morphology and pronouns.

The vocabulary keeps traces of that contact. Nuristani borrowed its words for 'law' and 'judge' from Bactrian around the 1st century CE, possibly from the Kushan state. Katë has indrõ, 'rainbow', read as 'Indra's bow'.

What changed for Nuristani in Afghan law

Until 2004 the Afghan government promoted only Dari and Pashto. The 2004 constitution added Nuristani to the languages that are official in the areas where they are the majority language, and an estimate for 2020 put Nuristani speakers at 1% of Afghanistan's population.