Wasi-wari

Wasi-wari (Vâsi-vari, Vâsi-veri) is the language of the Wasi people, spoken in a few villages in the Pārūn Valley (Prasun Valley) in Afghanistan. It also goes by the name Prasun or Paruni.

Wasi-wari belongs to the Indo-European language family, and is on the Nuristani group of the Indo-Iranian branch. Wasi-wari is the most divergent of the Nuristani languages.

The Prasuni people are now mostly Muslim since the imposition of Islam by the Afghan ruler Abdur Rahman Khan in 1896.^[2] They first followed out of intimidation, then became more devout as younger generations studied Islamic scriptures in Pakistan and India and came back to preach Islam,^[3] but they also keep some vestiges of their indigenous pre-Islamic religion.^[4] 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.

The name of the language derives from its endonym Vâsi [waˈsi], with cognates such as Kamviri Přâsü̃ [pɽaˈsỹ] (whence the alternative name Prasun) and Kata-vari Přâsiu [pɽaˈsju]. Pārūni comes from the two national languages of Afghanistan, Pashto and Dari.

Wasi-wari is a language spoken by the Vâsi (Prasuni) people who are located in the Pârun Valley, known as Vâsi-gul, at the beginning of the Pech River basin in Nuristan Province of northeastern Afghanistan. The native names of the language are Vâsi-vari in the Ṣupu dialect, and Vâsi-veri in the Seć dialect, but it is also known as Prasuni, Prasun, Vasi-vari, Pārūni, Pārūn, Veron, Verou, and Veruni. The population of Vâsi-gul is between 3,000-6,000, and there are approximately 8,000 native speakers within the valley and other areas, which makes it a vulnerable language.

Wasi-wari is broken up into three dialects that are spoken in six villages. The upper dialect, Ṣupu-vari, is spoken in the northernmost village, Ṣupu (Shtive). The central dialect, üšüt-üćü-zumu-vari, is spoken in the middle four villages, Seć (Pronz), Üćü (Dewa), Üšüt (Kshtoki), and Zumu. The lower dialect, Uṣüt-vare, is spoken in Uṣüt (Pashki), the lowest village. For this article, most cited forms will be based on the Seć dialect unless specified otherwise.^[5]

One characteristic feature defining all Wasi-wari dialects is the shift of ancient *d to l, which was lost in intervocalic position in other Nuristani languages, such as vazala [wɘˈzɘlɘ] "shoe", compared to Ashkun vâćâ [vaˈt͡sa], Kamviri vâćo [vaˈt͡so], and Waigali oćä [oˈt͡sæ], and the pervasive lenition of initial stops, such as viṭa [wiʈɘ] "wing", compared to Ashkun pâṭu [paˈʈu] "feather", Kamviri pâṭü [paˈʈy] "feather", and Waigali paṭä [paˈʈæ] "feather, wing".

Wasi-wari is part of the Nuristani branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, which show both Iranian and Indo-Aryan influences, but are otherwise not closely related.^[6] Nuristani languages were formerly considered to be Dardic languages,^[7] however, they are dissimilar enough from the other Dardic languages to constitute their own branch of the Indo-Iranian language tree. There was also previously confusion on whether Wasi-wari and Prasun were the same or separate languages, but it was determined that both names referred to the same language.^[8] Although it is substantially different from the other Nuristani languages, Wasi-wari forms the northern cluster of Nuristâni languages with Kamkata-vari, so they share some similarities.^[9]

Wasi-wari has eight vowels, â, u, o, i, e, ü, ö, and the unmarked vowel, a, which is pronounced as a high central vowel, [ɨ]. Long vowels are denoted with the IPA symbol /:/, such as [iː].

^[10]

• Prasuni at the Endangered Languages Project

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