Re: [tied] Dardic & Nuristani.

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 3174
Date: 2000-08-16

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Odegard
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2000 7:35 PM
Subject: [tied] Dardic & Nuristani.
 
Yes, some of the languages traditionally subsumed under "Dardic" (once a purely geographical grouping) are now classified as Indic (these include Kashmiri and Khowar); the remaining ones seem to be "basal Indo-Iranian", i.e. neither Indic nor Iranian (it's difficult to tell if this "Nuristani branch" is monophyletic).
 
Useful links:
http://users.sedona.net/~strand/Nuristani/nuristanis.html
http://users.sedona.net/~strand/lngIndex0.html
 
Piotr
 
I get the impression that 'Dardic' and 'Nuristani', as well as the older, now politically-incorrect 'Kafiric' are approximate synonyms.
 
Nuristani seems to be the preferred modern term. This language group is usually said to stand with Iranian and Indic as an independent, first-level division of Indo-Iranian. Others suggest it is a highly conservative, isolated Indic dialect preserving some astounding archaisms.
 
The online Britannica article 'Dardic' is none to clear on this. It's as if the Dardic group is broken into two distinct units, one of which is Nuristani, with the remainder treated as Indic -- to include Kashmiri.
 
My geographic knowledge of this part of the world is still murky, but it seems the Dardic group is way up in the mountains, tucked into isolated valleys, just the kind of place where linguistic conservativeness occurs.
 
Mark.