Pamir Kyrgyz dialect

Pamir Kyrgyz (Kyrgyz: پامیری قیرغیزچه) is a dialect of the Kyrgyz language natively spoken in the Chitral district and Gojal Valley of Pakistan and Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan.^[2] It has been evolving into a distinct dialect of Kyrgyz due to its isolation.^[3] The dialect is known by its speakers as Black Kyrgyz (قاره قیرغیز).^[4]

Pamiri Kyrgyz
پامیری قیرغیز
Pamiri Kyrgyz in Nastaliq
Native to	Pakistan, Afghanistan
Region	Chitral, Gojal, Wakhan
Native speakers	6,000 (in Pakistan) (2023)[1]
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak Kyrgyz–Kipchak Kyrgyz Pamiri Kyrgyz
Writing system	Arabic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Loanwords

Pamir Kyrgyz uses many loanwords from Dari Persian, which unlike Kyrgyz from Kyrgyzstan, makes it hard to understand the language due to Kyrgyz from Kyrgyzstan using Russian loanwords.^[5]

Literacy

Literacy rate from the Kyrgyz of Pamir has increased, with many proposing an alphabet for it. The Agha Khan has started funding schools for the Pamir Kyrgyz in Afghanistan for Dari Persian, Pashto, and their native Pamir Kyrgyz language.^[6]

Phonology

The Pamiri Kyrgyz dialect uses long and hard vowels unlike the Kyrgyz in Kyrgyzstan.^[7]

Vowels

	Front		Back
	unr.	rnd.	unr.	rnd.
Close	i	y	ɯ	u
Mid	e	ø		o
Open	æ		ɑ

Consonants

Kyrgyz consonants

		Labial	Dental/ alveolar	Post- alveolar	Dorsal	Uvular
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	q
	voiced	b	d		ɡ	ɢ
Affricate	voiceless			t͡ʃ
	voiced			d͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ	x
	voiced	v	z
Approximant			l		j
Trill			r