Nuristani (was k' > ts > c-hachek order of changes?)

[Richard F.Strand]

     Stefan George wrote:

>You are doubtlessly having the Nuristani languages of SE Afghanistan in
>mind, which are sometimes viewed as the third Aryan group besides Indic and
>Iranian.

Not to be too picky, but Nuristan is in *north*-eastern Afghanistan, on the
southern slopes of the Hindu Kush range.  I would add that only
non-specialists in the region would deny the linguistic and ethnic validity
of the Nuristanis' place as a third group within Indo-Iranian.  However,
while both Iranians and Indo-Aryans claim to be "Aryan" (AryA'i in Afghan
FArsi), I have found no linguistic or cultural evidence for an "Aryan"
consciousness among any Nuristanis (aside from a few intellectuals who have
taken this notion from Western researchers).  From the cumulative evidence
it would appear that the Proto-Nuristanis were ethnically non-Aryas who were
swept up in the earliest expansion of those Aryas who later became Iranians,
only to be displaced later into the Indo-Aryan milieu of northeastern
Afghanistan.  Details of the Nuristanis' migration to their present homeland
appear on my website.

          Richard Strand

          Richard Strand's Nuristan Site
          http://users.sedona.net/~strand