| Kundal Shahi | |
|---|---|
| کنڈل شاہی Kunḍal Šāhī | |
 | |
| Native to | Pakistan |
| Region | Neelam Valley |
Native speakers | 700 (2005)[1] |
Indo-European
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | shd |
| Glottolog | kund1257 |
  Kundal Shahi  Kundal Shahi | |
| Coordinates: 34°33′17″N 73°50′38″E / 34.5548°N 73.8439°E | |
Kundal Shahi (کنڈل شاہی, Kunḍal Šāhī) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 700 people in the Kundal Shahi village of Neelam Valley in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan.[2] It is an endangered language and its speakers are shifting to Hindko.[3]
The following tables set out the phonology of Kundal Shahi.[4]
Kundal Shahi is unusual amongst Dardic languages in that it has front rounded vowels.[5]
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |
| Close | i iː | y yː | u uː | |
| Close-Mid | e eː | øː | ə | o oː |
| Open-Mid | ɛ ɛː | ʌ | ɔ ɔː | |
| Open | a aː | |||
Like Kashmiri, Kundal Shahi is unusual amongst Dardic languages in that it lacks retroflex fricatives and affricates.[5]
| Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɳ | (ŋ) | |||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | t | ʈ | tʃ | k | |
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | ʈʰ | tʃʰ | kʰ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɖ | dʒ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | x | h | |
| voiced | z | ||||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Flap | ɾ | ɽ | |||||
| Approximant | j | w | |||||
Kundal Shahi, like many Dardic languages, has either phonemic tone or, as in Kundal Shahi, pitch accent.[6] Words may have only one accented mora, which is associated with high pitch; the remaining mora have a default or low pitch.[5]
Kundal Shahi is severely endangered with less than 500 speakers, most of whom are over the age of 40.[7]