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Kalash or Kalasha (also known as Kalasha-mun) is an Indo-European language in the Indo-Iranian branch, further classified as a Dardic language in the Chitral Group. Georg Morgenstierne maintains that "The Kalash do not belong to the special Kafir branch of Indo-Iranian but speak a true Indo-Aryan language." [2] The Kalash language is phonologically atypical because it contrasts plain, long, nasal, and retroflex vowels as well as combinations of these (Heegård & Mørch 2004). Kalash is spoken by the Kalasha people who reside in the remote valleys of Bumboret, Birir and Rumbur, which are west of Ayun, which is ten miles down the river from Chitral Town, high in the Hindu Kush mountains in the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan. The Kalash have their own religion, with gods and goddesses, although it is estimated that half of the Kalash have converted to Islam. There are an estimated 6,000 speakers of Kalash, of which 3,000 still follow the Kalash religion and the other 3,000 have converted to Islam. According to Badshah Munir Bukhari, one of the world's leading authorities on this subject, "Kalasha" is the ethnic name for the Nuristani inhabitants of a region southwest of the Kalash Valleys, in the Waygal and middle Pech Valleys of Afghanistan's Nuristan Province. The term "Kalasha" seems to have been adopted by the Kalasha speakers of Chitral from the Nuristanis of Waygal, who for a time expanded up to southern Chitral several centuries ago.[3] However, there is no close connection between the Indo-Aryan language Kalasha-mun and the Nuristani language Kalasha-ala, which descend from different branches of the Indo-Iranian languages. Until the latter 20th century, Kalasha was an undocumented language. More recently, through the work of a Greek NGO and local Kalash elders seeking to preserve their oral traditions, a new Kalasha alphabet has been created. Working in close collaboration with various international researchers and linguists, Kalash linguist Taj Khan Kalash organized first "Kalasha Orthography Conference"[4] in Islamabad Pakistan. Having moved to Thessaloniki, Greece, to study linguistics in the Aristotle University, he and the Greek NGO Mesogaia took on the task of compiling the script and creating The Alphabet Book, a primer used to teach the alphabet to the Kalash children. In 2004 he was able to raise funds to publish first alphabet book of Kalasha language based on Roman script designed by an Australian linguist Gregory R. Cooper. Of all the languages in the subcontinent, Kalash preserves its Old Indo-Aryan basis best, next to the western Dardic Khowar [5]. Some of the typical retentions of sounds and clusters (and meanings) are seen in the following list. However, note some common New Indo-Aryan and Dardic features as well. [6].
History contains references to "Siah-Posh Kafirs". Timur fought with them. Babur advised not to tangle with them. Alexander the Great encountered them. Genghis Khan passed by them. However, there is a question whether these were the Red or the Black Kafirs, or both. It has been widely assumed that these were the Red Kafirs who were thought of as fierce and independent, as opposed to the Black Kafirs, who were somewhat subservient to the King of Chitral. On the other hand, the word "Siah-Posh Kafirs" translates to mean "Black Robed Kafirs", as the word "siah" means "black", so it seems possible that it was the Black and not the Red Kafirs who fought against and defeated Tamurlane. [edit] References
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