Ormuri
Oormuri, Urmuri, Ormur, Ormui, Bargista, Baraks, Baraki
Native toPakistan, Afghanistan
RegionWaziristan, Kaniguram, Logar
Native speakers
6,000 (2004)[1]
Naskh
Language codes
ISO 639-3oru
Glottologormu1247

Ormuri (also known as Oormuri, Urmuri, Ormur, Ormui, Bargista, Baraks, and Baraki) is a dialect of Waziri Pashto spoken in Waziristan. It is spoken in the town of Kaniguram in South Waziristan, Pakistan by the Burki people. It may also be spoken by a few people in Baraki Barak in Logar, Afghanistan.

Ormuri is notable for its unusual sound inventory, which includes a voiceless alveolar trill, which does not exist in the surrounding Pashto. Ormuri also have voiceless and voiced alveolo-palatal fricatives (the voiceless being contrastive with the more common voiceless palato-alveolar fricative), which also exist in the Waziri Pashto, but could have been adopted from Ormuri due to its close proximity.[2]

Classification

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Ormuri is classified under the Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Eastern Iranian, Southeastern Iranian, and Ormuri-Parachi language groups [3] [4]

Language Status

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According to the Endangered Languages Project, the language of Ormuri is highly threatened. The language is used for face-to-face communication, however it is losing users. [5] The language is on the verge of extinction in Afghanistan. [6]

History

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Geographic Distribution

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Ormuri is spoken primarily in the town of Kaniguram in South Waziristan, Pakistan. A small population also speaks it in Logar Province, Afghanistan. [7] The language is sustained by nearly fifty adherents in Afghanistan and around five to six thousand speakers in Pakistan [8]

Dialects

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There are two dialects of Ormuri; One is spoken in Kaniguram, Waziristan, which is the more archaic dialect, and the other one in Baraki-Barak, Logar. The Kaniguram dialect is not understood in Baraki-Barak. The linguist Georg Morgenstierne wrote:

While Kaniguram has borrowed freely from Waziri Pashto, the vocabulary of Logar has been influenced by other Pashto dialects, and, to a still greater extent, by Persian.[9]

The dialect of Kaniguram is currently strong, spoken by a relatively prosperous community of Ormur in an isolated part of the rugged Waziristan hills. However, the position of the dialect of Baraki Barak is not strong. Morgenstierne wrote he was told that:

Ormuri was no longer spoken in Baraki Barak, the ancient headquarters of the Ormur tribe. Even a man said to be from this village denied the existence of any other language than Persian and Pashto in his native place.[9]

Lexical Differences

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Table 1: Lexical Differences in Ormuri
Logar Kaniguram
'blind' kor ond
'soft' narm noř
'fox' roba rawas
'flea' kayk řak
'shepherd' čopan šwān
'comb' šåná šak(k)
'place' jåy jikak
'to fly' parók buryék

[10]

Differences in Phonetic Forms

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Table 2: Differences in the Phonetic Form of Vowels in Ormuri
Logar Kaniguram
'to go' tsok tsek, tsyek
'one' še sa
'house' ner nar
'dry' wuk wyok
'water' wok wak
'to sit' nóstok nástak

[11]

Table 3: Differences in the Phonetic Form of Consonants in Ormuri
Logar Kaniguram
'one' še sa
'three' šo ři
'six' xo ša
'above' pa-bega pa-beža
'snow' ɣoš ɣoř

[12]

Language Structure

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Sounds/Phonology

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Morphology

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Ormuri at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Rozi Khan Burki. "Dying Languages; Special Focus on Ormuri". Originally published in Pakistan Journal of Public Administration; Volume 6. No. 2 in December 2001. Khyber.ORG.
  3. ^ http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/4930
  4. ^ http://www.ethnologue.com/language/ORU
  5. ^ http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/4930
  6. ^ https://www.academia.edu/2019868/The_Ormuri_Language_in_Past_and_Present
  7. ^ http://www.khyber.org/publications/016-020/ormuri.shtml
  8. ^ https://www.academia.edu/2019868/The_Ormuri_Language_in_Past_and_Present
  9. ^ a b Daniel G. Hallberg (1992) Pashto, Waneci, Ormuri (Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, 4). National Institute of Pakistani Studies, 176 pp. ISBN 969-8023-14-3.
  10. ^ https://www.academia.edu/2019868/The_Ormuri_Language_in_Past_and_Present
  11. ^ https://www.academia.edu/2019868/The_Ormuri_Language_in_Past_and_Present
  12. ^ https://www.academia.edu/2019868/The_Ormuri_Language_in_Past_and_Present


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Category:Languages of Pakistan Category:Languages of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas