Nuristani words and numbers
How to count, and about forty everyday words, in each of the languages of Nuristan.
Words from the valleys
The Nuristani languages are spoken in the valleys of Nuristan and in a few villages beside it in Kunar and Chitral, and nowhere else. They are not dialects of Pashto or Dari. They form a branch of their own in the Indo-Iranian family, and a speaker of one valley's language cannot follow another's. Until very recently none of them was written down by its own speakers.
This page is a small word list: the numbers, about forty everyday words, and a few phrases, set side by side in each language so that the family likeness and the differences can be seen. Every word is copied from the published work of the linguists who recorded it, chiefly Richard Strand, and the sources are at the foot. Our own language is the one spoken in Waygal. We are checking that column against our family's speech and will add recordings.
- Languages
- Kati, Waygali-ala, Ashkun, Prasun and Tregami
- Family
- Nuristani, a branch of Indo-Iranian
- Counting
- In twenties: forty is two twenties
- One, two, three
- ev, dü, tre in Kamviri
- Water
- âv in Waygal, oa in Kamdesh, âbo in Wama
- Language
- alâ in Waygal; viri or vari in Kati
- Writing
- No agreed alphabet; the Arabic script is adapted as needed
- Dictionaries
- Kati (2016) and Waygali-ala (2017), both printed in Kabul
Counting in the Nuristani languages
One to ten, twenty and a hundred. Each column is one language as it was recorded in the village named under it.
| Number | Kati: KamviriKamdesh | Kati: Kata-variKantiwa | Waygali-alaNishigram | Ashkun groupWama | PrasunParun | TregamiGambir |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ev | ev | ev | âc̣ | upün | yo |
| 2 | dü | diu | dü | du | lü | du |
| 3 | tre | tre | tre | tra | ćši | tre |
| 4 | što | štavo | čatâ | ćâtâː | čpu | čâtâ |
| 5 | puč | puč | pu˜č | po˜ć | vuču | po˜č |
| 6 | ṣu | ṣu | ṣu | ṣo | vuṣ | ṣu |
| 7 | sut | sut | sot | soːt | sata | sut |
| 8 | uṣṭ | uṣṭ | oṣṭ | oːṣṭ | âsta | voṣṭ |
| 9 | nu | nu | nu | no | nu | nu˜ |
| 10 | duć | duć | doš | dos | leza | dåš |
| 20 | vići | vaća | viši | viši | źu | viši |
| 100 | pučći | puč vaća | pu˜čči | po˜s-viši | · | · |
The Nuristani languages count in twenties, as French does from eighty and as much of this region does. Forty is two twenties: dü vići in Kamviri, dü viši in Waygali-ala, du-viši in Wama. Sixty is three twenties, tre vići, and eighty four twenties, što vići. Thirty is twenty and ten, vićâ duć. A hundred is five twenties, which is what the words in the last row say.
Kamviri once had a word for four hundred, âźor, twenty twenties. It was borrowed from the Persian for a thousand, and a recent grammar of Kati reports that it now means a thousand again.
Water, fire, mother, name
Read across a row to see how far the languages have drifted apart, and how much they still share.
| English | Kati: KamviriKamdesh | Kati: Kata-variKantiwa | Waygali-alaNishigram | Ashkun groupWama | PrasunParun | TregamiGambir |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| water | oa, ov | âva | âv | âbo | âva | · |
| fire | âŋo | âŋo | â˜i | âŋâ | âneǧe | aŋâ |
| sun | su | su | sö | so | üsük | sä˜ |
| moon | mos | mus | mâs | mâs | masak | mâs |
| star | řâšto | što | târa | ist☠| istik | târa |
| mountain | do | do | dâ | dâ | ku | · |
| river | gâloa | gulava | golâv | golâbo | gulâu | · |
| snow | źim | zim | zim | žim | zimâ | źim |
| tree | kâno | kana | ǰala | kanda | üštyobu | ǰalâ |
| house | âmo | âmu | amâ | âmâ | vârek | amâ |
| village | gřom | gřum | deš | gřâm | gam | · |
| road | put | put | pu˜t | varičo | vutu | · |
| bread | buṭi | ânǰa | äv | âu | · | · |
| milk | źu | zu | zor | zoː | · | · |
| meat | âno | âno | andâ | ânâː | bâza | · |
| salt | ẓuk | ẓuk | vṛug | ẓoːk | uẓeŋk | · |
| walnut | iâmřu | âmřu | üni | imřoː | umu˜ | imro |
| she-goat | vâsa | vâsa | ose˜ | vasa | byer | vasâ |
| cow | go | go | gâ | gâ | guṭu | gâ |
| dog | kuři | křu·i | ću˜ | kuṛi | kürok | · |
| horse | ušpa | vašup | guṛa | goṛa | iri | gořə |
| man | moč | muč | mâč | mâć | muš | madaṣ |
| woman | štri | štri | meši | istramâli | vastiː | dabili |
| child | kuřa | kuřa | kṛo | přâː˜ | kyüru | · |
| father | tot | to | tâti | dâi | yâ | tât |
| mother | nua | nu | iei | âvâːk | nân | žei |
| brother | břo | břo | brâ | břâ | vâyâ | brâ |
| sister | sus | sus | sos | sos | syus | · |
| son | pütr | pitr | zâga | zâga | · | putr |
| daughter | ǰü | ǰuk | ǰü | zuː | lüšt | ǰu |
| name | nom | num | nâm | · | nom | · |
| head | ṣea, ṣei | ṣâ·i | ṣai | ṣâː | ǰi | ṣei |
| eye | âče˜ | âče | ače˜ | âći˜ | iži˜ | ac̣i˜ |
| hand | düšt | dušt | dost | dost | lust | döš |
| heart | źâra | zara | zö | židi | zar | źo |
| language | viri | vari | alâ | viːri | veri | · |
A few glosses are narrower than the heading. The Wama word for brother is a younger brother, the Tregami word under hand is the arm, the Prasun word under mountain is a high mountain, and the Prasun and Tregami words under she-goat mean goat in general. Prasun is given in the Sech dialect and Tregami in that of Gambir, both as recorded by Georg Morgenstierne and re-spelled by Strand. An empty cell means we found no published form, not that the language lacks the word.
Our own language, and the word alâ
The Waygal column needs a word of its own. Strand recorded it at Nishigram, in the lower valley, and the speech of the upper valley around Waygal village is a different dialect of the same language. He notes a few of the differences himself: mother is iei at Nishigram and ei at Waygal, father is tâti and tata, and brother brâ and břâ. The upper valley also keeps long and short vowels apart, which Nishigram does not.
Alâ, in the last row, is the word for language. It is the second half of the names of our languages: Nishei-alâ is the Nishigram language, and Kalasha-alâ, the name in the books, the Kalasha language. In Waygal we say Waygali-ala.
A few things to say
Waygali-ala, Nishigram
ṣaṣü bü
Thank you.
Waygali-ala, Nishigram
par bü
Thanks, said for a gift of ghee or cheese.
Waygali-ala, Nishigram
par böi
Excuse me, said when passing someone.
Kamviri and Kata-vari
âć
Come!
Published phrases are few, because the linguists collected words and stories, not phrasebooks. In Kati the old greetings were questions put to someone arriving: have you come well, or have you come from up the valley. The linguist who recorded them says they are heard less than they were.
We will add everyday greetings in Waygali-ala here, spoken by our own family, with recordings.
How to say the letters
The words are spelled as the linguist Richard Strand writes them. These are the letters an English reader will not know.
| â | The open a of father. A plain a, in Strand's spelling of Kamviri and the Wama language, is a short, obscure vowel, something like the e in roses. |
|---|---|
| ü, ö | As in German: ü like the French u, ö like the French eu. |
| š, ž | sh, and the s of measure. |
| č, ǰ | ch as in church, and j as in judge. |
| ć, ź | ts as in cats, and dz as in adze. |
| ṣ, ẓ, ṭ, ḍ, ṇ, c̣ | The same sounds as s, z, t, d, n and ch made with the tip of the tongue curled back. |
| ř | An r made with the tongue curled back and not touching. ṛ is a quick flap. |
| ˜ | The vowel before it is spoken through the nose, as in French bon. |
| ː | The vowel before it is held long. |
| ŋ | ng as in sing. |
Strand marks the stressed syllable in every word; we have left the stress marks out to keep the table readable. At Nishigram and Wama the stress usually falls on the last syllable.
Old words, kept in the mountains
The Nuristani languages are distant cousins of English and close cousins of Sanskrit. In some words it shows.
| Meaning | Nuristani | Sanskrit | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| name | nom, num, nâm | nâman | name |
| three | tre | trayaḥ | three |
| star | što, istâ˜, istik | stṛ | star |
| brother | břo, brâ | bhrâtṛ | brother |
| cow | go, gâ | gâva | cow |
| daughter | ǰü, ǰuk | duhitṛ | daughter |
None of these words was borrowed from English or from Sanskrit. All three languages inherited them from one ancestor, spoken five thousand years ago or more, and the Nuristani languages have kept them in the mountains ever since. The Sanskrit forms are the ones Strand cites.
Are the languages written?
The Nuristani languages were purely oral until recently. An alphabet for them in the Arabic script was published by the Afghan Academy of Sciences in 1987 and has largely been forgotten. Today people who write Kati adapt the spelling of Pashto, Dari or Urdu as they go, and no standard has taken hold.
Two large dictionaries have appeared in Kabul. Sulayman Sun-Aro's dictionary of Kati came out in 2016, and many writers now follow his spelling. In 2017 Samiullah Taza, a native of Zhonchigal in the Waygal valley, published a dictionary of our language in three languages, with Pashto and Dari, of about two thousand pages. Tregami has never been written. There is no online translator for any Nuristani language, and no machine translation service covers them.
Asked about Nuristani words
How do you count in Nuristani?
In Kamviri, the Kati of Kamdesh, one to ten is ev, dü, tre, što, puč, ṣu, sut, uṣṭ, nu, duć. In Waygali-ala it is ev, dü, tre, čatâ, pu˜č, ṣu, sot, oṣṭ, nu, doš. The languages count in twenties, so forty is two twenties and a hundred is five twenties.
Is there a Nuristani dictionary?
Yes. Richard Strand's lexicons of four Nuristani languages are free to read at nuristan.info. In print there are Sulayman Sun-Aro's Kati dictionary (Kabul, 2016) and Samiullah Taza's dictionary of Waygali-ala (Kabul, 2017), which gives each word in Pashto and Dari as well.
Is there a Nuristani translator?
No. No online translator or machine translation service covers any Nuristani language. The languages are small, were unwritten until recently and have no agreed spelling. The word lists on this page and Strand's lexicons are the nearest thing.
How do you say thank you in Nuristani?
In Waygali-ala, as recorded at Nishigram, thank you is ṣaṣü bü. Each Nuristani language has its own words, and published phrase lists for the others are scarce.
Are the Nuristani languages written?
Only recently and not in a settled way. An Arabic-script alphabet was published in 1987 and has fallen out of use. People now write Kati with adapted Pashto or Dari spelling, and two dictionaries printed in Kabul in 2016 and 2017 are setting examples that others follow.
Is Nuristani similar to Pashto or Dari?
No more than English is to Russian. The Nuristani languages are a separate branch of the Indo-Iranian family, beside the Iranian branch that includes Pashto and Dari and the Indo-Aryan branch that includes Hindi. Speakers have borrowed many Pashto and Dari words, but the basic vocabulary and grammar are their own.
What does alâ mean?
Language. It is the word used in the Waygal valley, and it is the second half of the names of the language there: Kalasha-alâ, the Kalasha language, in the books, and Waygali-ala as people in the valley say it.
On this site
- The Nuristani languages, valley by valley, with the map
- A glossary of Nuristan: tribes, valleys, gods and words
- Nuristani names, old and new
- Who are the Nuristani people?
- The Kalash people, and the two languages called Kalasha
- Waygal, our valley
- Richard Strand: Kamviri lexicon (the Kati of Kamdesh)
- Richard Strand: Kata-vari lexicon (the Kati of Kantiwa)
- Richard Strand: Nishei-alâ lexicon (Waygali-ala at Nishigram)
- Richard Strand: Sanu-viri lexicon (Wama)
- Richard Strand: Nuristani etymological lexicon, with Prasun and Tregami forms after Morgenstierne and Buddruss
- Richard Strand: index of the Nuristani languages and their dialects
- Jakob Halfmann, A Grammatical Description of the Katë Language (University of Cologne, 2024), on numerals, greetings and writing
- Jakob Halfmann, Terminological proposals for the Nuristani languages (Himalayan Linguistics, 2021), on the dictionaries
- Wiktionary: Nuristani Swadesh lists
The word forms on this page are from the lexicons of Richard F. Strand at nuristan.info, quoted for reference with thanks. Any mistake in copying them is ours; tell us and we will correct it.
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