Western Katë dialect

Western Katë is a dialect of the Katë language spoken by the Kata in parts of Afghanistan. The most used alternative names are Kata-vari or Kati.

Together with the Northeastern dialect, it is spoken by approximately 40,000 people (mostly in Afghanistan, just over 3,700 in Pakistan), and its speakers are Muslim. 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.

There are several subdialects spoken in the Ramgal, Kulam, Ktivi and Paruk valleys of Nuristan.

Innovations According to Halfmann (2024), the primary innovations of the Western dialect include loss of nasalization, a progressive suffix -n-, and a past copula stem st-.

Phonology Consonants LabialDental/AlveolarPalato-alveolarRetroflexPalatalVelarPlosivevoicelessvoicedAffricatevoicelessvoicedFricativevoiceless()()voiced()()NasalTap()Approximantlateralcentral()

Sounds /ʒ ɽ ɣ/ occur from neighboring languages. /f x/ are borrowed from loanwords. /ʈ/ can also be heard as an allophone [ɽ]. [j] is heard as an allophone of /i/. /v/ can also be heard as bilabial [β] or a labial approximant [w].

Vowels FrontCentralBackHighMidLow

Mid /ə/ can be heard as a close central [ɨ].

Vocabulary Pronouns PersonDirectOblique1stsg.vúze, vúzë (Ktivi)ye, yémepl.yimó, yimú (Ktivi)2ndsg.tyutupl.šo

Numbers e, ev dyu tre štëvó puč ṣu sut vuṣṭ nu duċ yaníċ diċ triċ šturéċ, štruċ (Ktivi) pčiċ ṣeċ stiċ ṣṭiċ neċ vëċë́

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