Ormuri is a member of the Southeastern branch of the Eastern Iranian languages,^[1] but attempts to classify Ormuri in the Northwestern Iranian languages have also been made.^[2] It is spoken in the city of Kaniguram in South Waziristan, Pakistan by the Burki people. It may also be spoken by a few people in Baraki Barak in Logar, Afghanistan.

Ormuri is notable for its unusual sound inventory, which includes a voiceless alveolar trill (contrastive with the more common voiced variety) i.e. the ř of Czech, which does not exist in the surrounding Pashto at all. Ormuri also have voiceless and voiced alveolo-palatal fricatives (the voiceless being contrastive with the more common voiceless palato-alveolar fricative), which also exist in the Waziri Pashto, but could have been adopted from Ormuri due to its close proximity.^[3]

Dialects[link]

There are two dialect of Ormuri, one is spoken in Kaniguram, Waziristan, which is the more archaic dialect, and the other one in Baraki-Barak, Logar. The Kaniguram dialect is not understood in Baraki-Barak. The linguist Georg Morgenstierne wrote:

While Kaniguram has borrowed freely from Waziri Pashto, the vocabulary of Logar has been influenced by other Pashto dialects, and, to a still greater extent, by Persian.^[4]

The dialect of Kaniguram is currently strong, spoken by a relatively prosperous community of Ormur in an isolated part of the rugged Waziristan hills. However, the position of the dialect of Baraki Barak is not strong. Morgenstierne wrote he was told that:

Ormuri was no longer spoken in Baraki Barak, the ancient headquarters of the Ormur tribe. Even a man said to be from this village denied the existence of any other language than Persian and Pashto in his native place.^[4]

See also[link]

• Ormur
• Parachi language
• Waneci

References[link]