Dardic languages

The Dardic languages is a sub-group of the Indo-Aryan languages spoken in northern Pakistan, eastern Afghanistan, and in the Indian region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Position in Indo-Iranian languages

The Dardic group has traditionally been defined as a sub-group of the Indo-Aryan languages which experienced strong influence from the Nuristani and East Iranian languages. Nuristani, a group of languages spoken in northeast Afghanistan, has sometimes been included in Dardic, but is today generally regarded as an independent group, as one of the three sub-groups of Indo-Iranian, following the studies of Georg Morgenstierne in 1973 to 1975 CE.

Except for Kashmiri, all of the Dardic languages are small minority languages which have not been sufficiently studied. In many cases they are spoken in areas difficult to access due to mountainous terrain and/or armed conflicts in the region. All of the languages (including Kashmiri) have been historically influenced by more prominent (non-Dardic) neighboring languages, which blurs their classification.

List of Dardic languages

Kunar languages

• Pashayi
• Gawar-Bati
• Dameli
• Shumashti
• Nangalami (includes Grangali)

Chitral languages

• Khowar
• Kalasha

Kohistani languages

• Kalami
• Torwali
• Kalkoti
• Indus Kohistani
• Bateri
• Chilisso
• Gowro
• Wotapuri-Katarqalai
• Tirahi

Shina languages

• Shina language
• Brokskad (the Shina of Baltistan and Ladakh)
• Ushojo
• Domaaki
• Palula
• Savi

Kashmiri

• Kashmiri
• Poguli

See also

• Dard people
• Nuristani languages

References

• Morgenstierne, G. Irano-Dardica. Wiesbaden 1973;
• Morgenstierne, G. Die Stellung der Kafirsprachen. In Irano-Dardica, 327-343. Wiesbaden, Reichert 1975
• Decker, Kendall D. Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, Volume 5. Languages of Chitral.
• National Institute of Pakistani Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University & Summer Institute of Linguistics [2]
• Dardic language tree

Notes

1. ^  According to SIL International.

External links