lingvo.wikisort.org - Language

Zemiaki (Zamyaki) is a Nuristani language spoken by some 400–500 people in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan.[1]

Zemiaki
J̌amlām-am bašā
Native to	Afghanistan
Region	Nuristan Province
Native speakers	500 (1999)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Nuristani Southern Zemiaki
Language codes
ISO 639-3	(included in [nli])
Glottolog	zemi1238
ELP	Zemiaki

It is named after the settlement in which it is spoken, from the Pashto Zemyaki žə́ba "language of Zemyaki", the native equivalent being J̌amlām-am bašā. It is closely related to Waigali, and ancestors of the Zemyakis were, according to local tradition, Waigalis who migrated into the area several centuries ago.[1] The language spoken in the surrounding areas is Pashto, and it has been a source of a large number of lexical borrowings, including several common conjunctions.[2]

There is no grammatical gender, but number and person are marked on the verb,[3] following a split-ergative pattern of agreement.[4]

References

Bibliography

• Grünberg, A.L. (1999). "Zemiaki jazyk/dialekt". In Edelman, D.I. (ed.). Jazyki mira: Dardskie i nuristanskie jazyki (in Russian). Moscow: Indrik. pp. 123–125. ISBN 585759085X.

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