Wasi-wari

Wasi-wari is a language spoken by the Vâsi (Prasuni) people who are located in the Pârun Valley, known as Vâsi-gul, at the beginning of the Pech River basin in Nuristan Province of northeastern Afghanistan. The native names of the language are Vâsi-vari or Vâsi-veri, but it is also known as Prasuni, Paruni, Parun, Vasi-vari, Prasun, Veron, Verou, Veruni, and Pārūnī. The population of Vâsi-gul is between 3,000-6,000, and there are approximately 8,000 native speakers within the valley and other areas, which makes it a vulnerable language.

Wasi-wari is broken up into three dialects that are spoken in six villages. The upper dialect, Ṣupu-vari, is spoken in the northernmost village, Ṣupu. The central dialect, üšüt-üćü-zumu-vari, is spoken in the middle four villages, Seć, Üćü, Üšüt, and Zumu. The lower dialect, Uṣüt-vare, is spoken in Uṣüt, the lowest village. For this article, most cited forms will be based on the Seć dialect unless specified otherwise.[5]

Wasi-wari is part of the Nuristani branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, which show both Iranian and Indo-Aryan influences, but are otherwise not closely related.[6] Nuristani languages were formerly considered to be Dardic languages,[7] however, they are dissimilar enough from the other Dardic languages to constitute their own branch of the Indo-Iranian language tree. There was also previously confusion on whether Wasi-wari and Prasun were the same or separate languages, but it was determined that both names referred to the same language.[8] Although it is substantially different from the other Nuristani languages, Wasi-wari forms the northern cluster of Nuristâni languages with Kamkata-vari, so they share some similarities.[9]

• Prasuni at the Endangered Languages Project