Pashayi languages

{{Short description|Indo-Aryan language spoken in Afghanistan}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Pashayi

| altname = Pashai

| nativename = {{lang|mul|زبان پشه‌ای}}
{{lang|mul|Zabân Pašhây}}

| image = پشه‌ای.svg

| imagecaption = Pashayi in Nastaliq

| states = Afghanistan

| ethnicity = Pashayi

| speakers = {{sigfig|404,400|2}}

| date = 2000–2011

| ref = e18

| script = Pashayi alphabet

| familycolor = Indo-European

| fam2 = Indo-Iranian

| fam3 = Indo-Aryan

| fam4 = Dardic

| lingua = 59-AAA-a

| lc1 = aee

| ld1 = Northeastern

| lc2 = glh

| ld2 = Northwestern

| lc3 = psi

| ld3 = Southeastern

| lc4 = psh

| ld4 = Southwestern

| glotto = pash1270

| glottorefname = Pashayi

| map = Map of Languages (in Districts) in Afghanistan.jpg

| mapsize =

| mapalt =

| mapcaption = Linguistic map of Afghanistan; Pashayi is spoken in the purple area in the east.

| map2 = Lang Status 80-VU.svg

| mapcaption2 = {{center|{{small|Pashayi is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger}}}}

}}

Pashayi or Pashai (Persian: زبان پشه ای; Pashto: پشه اې ژبه) is a group of Indo-Aryan languages spoken by the Pashai people in parts of Kapisa, Laghman, Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Kabul (Surobi District) provinces in Northeastern Afghanistan.{{cite book|first=Colin P.|last=Masica|title=The Indo-Aryan Languages|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=1991|page=440}}

The Pashayi languages had no known written form prior to 2003.{{cite conference |last=Yun |first=Ju-Hong |year=2003 |title=Pashai Language Development Project: Promoting Pashai language, literacy and community development |conference=Conference on language development, language revitalization and multilingual education in minority communities in Asia. 6–8 November 2003. Bangkok, Thailand |url=http://palaso.org/ldc/parallel_papers/ju-hong_yun.pdf |access-date=5 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105202847/http://palaso.org/ldc/parallel_papers/ju-hong_yun.pdf |archive-date=5 November 2018 |url-status=dead}} There are four mutually unintelligible varieties, with only about a 30% lexical similarity:

• Northeastern: Aret, Chalas (Chilas), Kandak, Korangal, Kurdar dialects
• Northwestern: Alasai, Bolaghain, Gulbahar, Kohnadeh, Laurowan, Najil, Nangarach, Pachagan, Pandau, Parazhghan, Pashagar, Sanjan, Shamakot, Shutul, Uzbin, Wadau dialects
• Southeastern: Damench, Laghmani, Sum, Upper and Lower Darai Nur, Wegali dialects
• Southwestern: Ishpi, Isken, Tagau dialects

A grammar of the language was written as a doctoral dissertation in 2014.{{Cite thesis|last=Lehr|first=Rachel|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1620321674|degree=PhD|title=A Descriptive Grammar of Pashai: The Language and Speech Community of Darrai Nur|date=2014|publisher=University of Chicago|isbn=978-1-321-22417-7|id={{ProQuest|1620321674}} |language=en}}