Northeastern Katë is a dialect of the Katë language spoken by the Kata in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It also includes the so-called Shekhani dialect spoken in Chitral district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
There are several subdialects spoken in the upper Landai Sin Valley. It is also spoken in Chitral District, in Gobor and the upper Bumboret Valley in Pakistan.
Innovations According to Halfmann (2024), the primary innovations of the Northeastern dialect include secondary vowel length from monophthongization of vowel + v, a progressive suffix -t-, and epenthesis of original *tr and *dr clusters.
Orthography In August 2022, Pakistani linguist, Rehmat Aziz Chitrali proposed a keyboard to Khowar Academy, Chitral.
History Speakers of Eastern Katë dialects migrated from Kamdesh in Nuristan in modern-day Afghanistan to Lutkuh Valley in Chitrali Princely State in British Raj during the 19th century. Most speakers in Pakistan speak either Pashto or Khowar as a second language. Many native speakers often marry the minority Pashtuns in the area.
Phonology Consonants LabialDental/AlveolarPalato-alveolarRetroflexPalatalVelarGlottalPlosivevoicelessvoicedAffricatevoicelessvoicedFricativevoiceless()()voiced()()NasalTap()Approximantlateralcentral()
Sounds /ʒ ɽ ɣ/ occur from neighboring languages. /f x/ are borrowed from loanwords mainly from Khowar or Yidgha. /ʈ/ can also be heard as an allophone [ɽ]. [j] is heard as an allophone of /i/. /v/ can also be heard as bilabial [β] or a labial approximant [w].
Vowels FrontCentralBackHighMidLow
Mid /ə/ can be heard as a close central [ɨ].
Vocabulary Pronouns PersonDirectOblique1stsg.ũ, ũċĩ, yẽpl.imú2ndsg.tyutupl.šo
Numbers e, ev dyu tëre štëvó puč ṣu sut uṣṭ nu duċ yaníċ diċ tëríċ šturéċ pčiċ ṣeċ stiċ ṣṭiċ neċ vëċë́
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