Indus Kohistani

"Kohistani language" redirects here. Not to be confused with the Shina Kohistani language.

Indus Kohistani or simply Kohistani (کوستَیں ژیب, Kōstaiñ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the former Kohistan District of Pakistan.^[3] The language was referred to as Maiyã (Mayon) or Shuthun by early researchers, but subsequent observations have not verified that these names are known locally.^[4]

Kohistani (Indus Kohistani)
Kostaie
کوستَیں Kōstaiñ
Region	Indus Kohistan (Upper Kohistan, Lower Kohistan, Kolai-Palas districts as well as Tangir and Darel valleys)[1]
Ethnicity	Indus Kohistanis
Native speakers	(200,000 cited 1992)[2]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Dardic Kohistani Kohistani (Indus Kohistani)
Writing system	Perso-Arabic script (Nastaliq)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mvy
Glottolog	indu1241
Kohistani is a minor language of Pakistan which is mainly spoken in the Kohistan region, it is given a space in this map.

Phonology

The phonology of Indus Kohistani varies between its major dialects as shown below.^[5]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː		o oː
Open		a aː

In the Kanyawali dialect, the back vowels /u/ and /o/ are described as variants of each other, as are the front vowels /i/ and /e/.

Consonants

Kohistani is spoken in multiple districts of KPK in north as of the 2017 Pakistan Census

The consonant inventory of Indus Kohistani is shown in the chart below. (Consonants particular to the Kanyawali Dialect of Tangir and those found only in the Kohistan Dialects are color-coded respectively.)

		Labial	Coronal	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	Voiced	m	n	ɳ
	Breathy Voiced	(mʱ)
Stop	Voiceless	p	t	ʈ		k	(q)
	Aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ		kʰ
	Voiced	b	d	ɖ		ɡ
	Breathy Voiced	bʱ	dʱ	ɖʱ		ɡʱ
Affricate	Voiceless		ts	tʂ	tʃ
	Aspirated		tsʰ		tʃʰ
	Voiced				dʒ
Fricative	Voiceless	f	s	ʂ	ʃ	x		h
	Voiced	v	z	ʐ	ʒ	ɣ
Lateral			l
Rhotic	Voiced		r	ɽ
	Breathy Voiced		rʱ	ɽʱ
Semivowel					j	w

The phonemes /x/, /ɣ/, and /q/ are mainly found in loan words. The status of /q/ in the Kanyawali Dialect is unclear. The sounds /f, v/ can also be bilabial [ɸ, β].^[6]

See also

• Kohistan District, Pakistan
• Kohistani people
• Shina Kohistani
• Hazarewal

References

1. Frembgen, Jurgen Wasin (1999). "Indus Kohistan An Historical and Ethnographie Outline". Central Asiatic Journal. 43 (1): 71. JSTOR 41928174.
2. Kohistani (Indus Kohistani) at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
3. Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George (2007-07-26). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 874. ISBN 978-1-135-79711-9.
4. Zoller 2005, p. 2.
5. Edelman 1983, pp. 246, 253.
6. Zoller 2005, p. 36.

Bibliography

• Edelman, D. I. (1983). The Dardic and Nuristani Languages. Moscow: (Institut vostokovedenii︠a︡ (Akademii︠a︡ nauk SSSR).
• Zoller, Claus Peter (2005). A grammar and dictionary of Indus Kohistani. Vol. 1: Dictionary. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-017947-7.