| Nuristany | |
|---|---|
| Kafiri | |
| Geographic distribution | Nuristan, Afghanistan Chitral, Pakistan |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
| Proto-language | Proto-Nuristani |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | nuri1243 |
 Nuristan region, located on southern range of Hindu Kush | |
 Nuristan Province in modern-day Afghanistan, where most speakers live | |
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The Nuristani languages, also known as Kafiri languages, are one of the three groups within the Indo-Iranian language family, alongside the much larger Indo-Aryan and Iranian groups.[1][2][3] They have approximately 130,000 speakers primarily in eastern Afghanistan and a few adjacent valleys in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Chitral District, Pakistan. The region inhabited by the Nuristanis is located in the southern Hindu Kush mountains, and is drained by the Alingar River in the west, the Pech River in the center, and the Landai Sin and Kunar rivers in the east. More broadly, the Nuristan (or Kafiristan) region is located at the northern intersection of the Indian subcontinent and the Iranian plateau. The languages were previously often grouped with Indo-Aryan (Dardic sub-group) or Iranian until they were finally classified as forming a third branch in Indo-Iranian.
Dameli is often considered to be Nuristani instead of Dardic due to the preponderance of vocabulary of Nuristani origin, though the pronoun system and morphology are characteristically of Dardic origin.
- ^ SIL Ethnologue [1]
- ^ Morgenstierne, G. (1975) [1973]. "Die Stellung der Kafirsprachen" [The position of the Kafir languages]. In Morgenstierne, G. (ed.). Irano-Dardica (in German). Wiesbaden: Reichert. pp. 327–343.
- ^ Strand, Richard F. (1973). "Notes on the Nûristânî and Dardic Languages". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 93 (3): 297–305. doi:10.2307/599462. JSTOR 599462.