Waigali language

Waigali or Waigeli is a language spoken by the Kalasha of the Nuristan Province in a few villages in the central part of the Kunar Province of Afghanistan. The native name is Kalasa-Alâ or simply Kalasa. The word "Kalasha" describes the people on both sides of the Durand line although it is now used less in Afghanistan as the people have been largely subsumed into the larger group known as Nuristanis and were converted at swordpoint to Islam by Abdur Rahman Khan, king of Afghanistan, in 1893, following the imposition of the Durand line.

The descriptor "Ala" means "red" in the language and it differentiates the Red Kalasha on the Afghan side of the Durand line from the Kalasha-mun, or "Black" Kalasha on the Pakistani (originally Indian) side. The color specifications refer to the colors of the traditional dresses worn by the Kalasha women. Following the forced conversion of the Red Kalasha, some fled to Pakistan and in Pakistan's three valleys in which Kalasha people now live, there are a few Red Kalasha to this day and their native dress clearly may be observed in its difference from the surrounding Black Kalasha although they have now adopted Kalasha-mun as their language and ironically, most of them have now converted to Islam.

Waigali belongs to the Indo-European language family, and is on the Nuristani group of the Indo-Iranian branch.

According to the Badshah Munir Bukhari that Its speakers have been estimated at 1,500 (2000, Van Driem) and are overwhelmingly Muslim. Literacy rates are low: below 1% for people who have it as a first language, and between 15% to 25% for people who have it as a second language.

It has a lexical similarity of approximately 76% to 80% with the Tregami language.

Note, there is no close connection between Kalasha-ala and Kalasha-mun. These two languages descend from different branches of the Indo-Iranian language. According to linguist Richard Strand the Kalasha of Chitral apparently adopted the term of the former Kafiristan Kalash, who at some unknown time extended their influence into the region of Chitral.

References

• The Kalasha. Retrieved July 2, 2006, from Richard F. Strand: Nuristan, Hidden Land of the Hindu-Kush [1].
• Waigali. Retrieved June 13, 2006, from Ethnologue: Languages of the World, fifteenth edition. SIL International. Online version.