Kamkata-vari dialect of Afghanistan and Pakistan
Kata-vari (Kâta-vari) is a dialect of the Kamkata-vari language spoken by the Kata in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The most used alternative names are Kati, Kativiri or Bashgali.
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 two main sub-dialects: Eastern Kata-vari and Western Kata-vari. In Afghanistan, Western Kata-vari is spoken in the Ramgal, Kulam, Ktivi and Paruk valleys of Nuristan. Eastern Kata-vari is spoken in the upper Landai Sin Valley. In Pakistan, Eastern Kata-vari or Shekhani is spoken in Chitral District, in Gobor and the upper Bumboret Valley.
The dialect of Ktivi has lost nasalization, so that ǰâře- [d͡ʒaˈɻe] "to kill" corresponds to Kamviri ǰâňa- [d͡ʒaˈɽ̃ɘ]. For this article, most cited forms will be based on the Ktivi dialect.
Name
The name derives from Kâta [kaˈtɘ], the ethnonym of the Kata people in Kamkata-vari, with the suffix vari [βɘˈɾi] "language, speech". Cognates of the ethnonym in other Nuristani languages include Waigali Kẫta [kãˈtɐ].
