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

[Stefan Georg]

>     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.

Obviously, sorry.

>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.

This is interesting. Being such a non-specialist (but not *denying* this,
of course), I'd like to hear more about this. What would be most
interesting, is: which criteria aside from the representation of /k'/ (the
only criterion I have heard about, or better: I remember having heard about
without reaching for the books) may be cited in favour of this view, e.g.
from morphology ? Some references would be welcome, too
(post-Morgenstierne).

St.G.

PS: as I just discover, your fine web-site contains some answers to my
questions, and I'd like to recommend it for anyone interested. But maybe
there are more features of N. lg. relevant for Aryan subclassification
which could be mentioned ?

Dr. Stefan Georg
Heerstraße 7
D-53111 Bonn
FRG
Tel./Fax +49-228-691332