User:Zainachaudhry/Ormuri

Ormuri (Farsi: زبان ارموری‎; meaning, "Ormuri language"), otherwise known as Baraki, Ormui, Ormur, and Bargista is a language of Eastern Iranian origin. Other examples of common Eastern Iranian languages are Pashto, Munji, Avestan, Sanglechi, Wakhi, Shugni, Parachi, Yaghnobi, and Ossetic. The Ormuri language is currently spoken in Waziristan, Pakistan. It is also spoken in Southeast Afghanistan in areas such as Ghazni, Mazar-e-Sharif, Wardak, Kandahar, and Butkhak. The name Ormur, in Pashto, means "fire" or "extinguished ." Some scholars say that this name can be attributed to the fact that the Ormur people may have been fire worshippers, however, this is not a confirmed theory.

Sociolinguistics
The people who speak the Ormuri language are known as the Burki tribe. The Burki tribe, which is also known as the Omur tribe, comes under the Pashtun tribal system. The Ormur people do not generally live in an ethnic territory that is homogeneous. In Afghanistan, they tend to live among the Tajiks and the Pashtuns, whereas in Pakistan, they tend to live with only the Pashtuns. Many of the Omrurs have assimilated to Pashtun culture, more than they have with Tajik culture. Ormuri shares similarities with Pashto language, as it is another language of Eastern Iranian origin. Some research indicates that Ormuri may have Dardic origin. It is deemed that languages such as Pashto, may have also borrowed vocabulary and language from a Dardic source, thus indicating the similarity between both languages. What makes Ormuri a difficult object of research is the fact that the language has rarely been written and that the language has been heavily influenced by neighboring languages in a region.

The Burki tribe identifies with the Karlan confederacy. Both Pashto and Dari have replaced the local Ormuri language and have become the more common forms of communication for the populations living in such regions. Many Omurs, namely those in Waziristan, Pakistan, are bilingual in both Ormuri and Waziristani (Maseedwola), which is the local Pashto dialect of the region. Due to the geographical location of the native speakers of the language (namely located in Afghanistan and Pakistan), the language not only shares elements from Pashto, but also with neighboring languages such as Urdu, Farsi, and Arabic. There are two main dialects of the Ormuri language. The first one is Logari which originates in Logar, Afghanistan. The other one is Kanigurami, which originates in Kaniguram, South Waziristan, Pakistan.

Current State of Ormuri
Ormuri is now known as an endangered language. It is not commonly spoken in either Afghanistan or Pakistan. The language is mainly confined to the home, as it has little to no use outside of the home. Many Ormurs have now opted to utilize Pashto or Dari as their language of communication. Ormurs have overall assimilated with Pashtun culture entirely. Ormuri is a language mostly spoken by elder individuals. There are no longer many young people who speak Ormuri, as most of them speak in Pashto or Dari, depending on the region that they live in. Middle generation individuals also, are not familiar with the language. Ormuri is generally an unwritten language, making it a more difficult language to research on and study. For any business, education, or official purposes, Pashto or Dari are used. Because of this, it is difficult to determine the origin of the Ormur people and the Ormuri language. Only any linguistic data, has allowed historians to learn about the origins of the language. One hypothesis about where the Ormur people, as well as the Baloch and Parahci, come from is in the southern areas surrounding the Caspian Sea. The ambiguity behind the background of the Ormuri language is why linguistic comparisons are vital to the language's understanding today.

Challenges of Studying the Ormuri Language
The Ormuri language has been found to be one of the more difficult languages to conduct research on. The biggest challenge, as mentioned previously, comes from the fact that the language has hardly any written documentation. The language is mostly utilized orally. Second, Ormuri has been present in heterogeneous ethnic environments, meaning, that Ormuri speakers have rarely been part of regions where only Ormur individuals or Ormuri speakers are present. This led to the mixing and influence of other languages in the Ormuri language. Additionally, this gave Ormuri less of a "domain of use " because other more powerful and influential languages were present in the region. Third, many Ormurs were bilingual. This bilingualism took away from the essence of the Ormuri language. Lastly, Ormuri had "an early isolation from the genetically closely-related northwestern languages and dialects resulting from an assumed migration of the ancestors of the Ormur people from the west to the east."

Alphabet
Ormuri uses namely letters from the Pashto alphabet in its writing. However, many of the letters are also the same as Farsi, Urdu, and Arabic. These letters across the various languages have similar pronunciations and notations when written individually, at the beginning of the word, in the middle of the word, and at the end of the word. Ormuri also shares alphabet with other common languages indigenous to Pakistan such as Pakistani Punjabi, Pakistani Sindhi, Saraiki, etc. Most languages in Pakistan, including Urdu, have a large influence from Farsi.

Comparison with Farsi/Urdu
Urdu and Farsi utilize the same alphabet (stemming from the Arabic language), with Urdu utilizing four additional letters, making it a thirty-six letter language. The font style in Urdu and Farsi is also slightly different from that in Arabic. Ormuri utilizes a total of forty-six letters, meaning that the language has more letters than Urdu. The letters in Ormuri which vary from the Urdu language are in the following table: {| class="wikitable" !Letter Name !Isolated Letter Symbol !ṭe !ټ !tse !څ !dzim !ځ !ḍāl !ډ !xře !ڒ !ṛe !ړ !źe !ݫ !śin !ݭ !gāp !ګ !ṇun !ڼ !
 * +Variant Letters from Urdu

nūn ğunna
!ں !kajīra he !ۀ !ye !ي !ye !ئ
 * }

The letters presented in the table above are not extremely different from the Urdu language. Much of the difference comes from the placement and the number of nuqtas (or dots) seen above or below the letters. For example, in the second row, the only deviation in the letter tse from the Urdu language is the placement of an extra two nuqtas at the top of the letter. The letter ze has two nuqtas. Something interesting here is the placement of the nuqtas. The vertical placement of the nuqtas is something seen neither in Farsi nor Urdu. This similar placement is seen in the sin letter where the nuqtas are also vertical. The nun gunna is a unique alphabet because of the absence of a nuqta. A nun without a nuqta does not exist in Farsi or Urdu.

Another variance comes from the presence of hamzas in some letters of the Ormuri alphabet. For example, dzim has a hamza on top of the letter. Although the base of the letter (ha) is found in Urdu and Farsi, there is no letter which combines a hamza with a ha. Similarly, the letter kahira he has a hamza on top of a he. The letter he, on its own, is present in Urdu and Farsi. However, like with dzim, Ormuri combines an existing letter with hamza to create a new sound. Lastly, the ye in the final row in the table above also has a hamza on top of it. The ye without the hamza exists in Urdu and Farsi, however, Ormuri combines this base letter with a hamza once again. It is evident that the Ormuri language wanted to capture more sounds and phonetics, which is why the language devises combinations of elements not seen in any other Indo-Aryan language.

The small circles seen under te, dal, and nun are also unique to Ormuri. Like with the other letters discussed above, Ormuri utilizes the same base letter as Urdu and Farsi, but makes an addition with the small circle notations.

Lastly, the letter xre also has an additional add-on like the other letters discussed above. The small "v" notation is seen neither in Farsi nor Urdu. However, the letter "re" exists individually without the small "v" notation on top.

All the other letters in Ormuri are also used in Urdu. Some of these letters include but are not limited to: alif, be, pe, te, se, jim, he, re, ze, sin, swad, zwad, twe, zwe, ayn, fe, mim, nun, and he. The notation of the letters when isolated, at the beginning of a word, at the end of a word, and in the middle of a word are exactly as found in Urdu and Farsi. Unlike western languages like English, all of these languages are written from right to left.

Comparison with Arabic
Both Urdu and Farsi are heavily influenced by Arabic, as the majority of letters in both languages are derived from the Arabic alphabet. However, in order to make up for the sounds not found in Arabic, Urdu and Farsi have adopted additional alphabet to compensate for the absence of such sounds. Examples of such letters are the letters pe and che. The connectivity of the letters and their notations in the beginning, middle, and end of a word are exactly as found in Arabic. Arabic, like Urdu and Farsi is also written from right to left. Evidently, Ormuri's alphabet is widely influence by the Arabic language as well. An interesting observation to make is the Ormuri language's utilization of the letter ye (ي). This letter is neither found in Urdu nor Farsi and instead, both languages use the following notation for ye: ی (which is also another notation used in Ormuri). Interestingly, ye (ي) is found in the Arabic language. It is noteworthy that Ormuri directly picks this alphabet from the Arabic language. This indicates that there is some direct influence of the Arabic language on Ormuri.

Similarities between Urdu and Ormuri
There are some words that are similar in Urdu and Ormuri, indicating a close relationship of the two languages. Below are some examples of such words found in both Urdu and Ormuri:


 * Soft
 * Urdu: naram
 * Ormuri: narm
 * Wheat:
 * Urdu: gandum
 * Ormuri: ganum
 * Near
 * Urdu: nazdek
 * Ormuri: nezdek
 * A little
 * Urdu: kam
 * Ormuri: kem
 * Head
 * Urdu: sar
 * Ormuri: sar
 * Prayer
 * Urdu: namaz
 * Ormuri: nemaz
 * Book
 * Urdu: kitab
 * Ormuri: ketab
 * Letter:
 * Urdu: khat
 * Ormuri: xat
 * Uncle (maternal)
 * Urdu: mamu
 * Ormuri: mama
 * River
 * Urdu: darya
 * Ormuri: daryab
 * Human
 * Urdu: insan
 * Ormuri: insan
 * Teacher
 * Urdu: ustad
 * Ormuri: ustaz
 * Language
 * Urdu: zaban
 * Ormuri: zban
 * Month
 * Urdu: mah
 * Ormuri: may

Similarities between Farsi and Ormuri
There are also words similar between Farsi and Ormuri. Below are some examples of such words:


 * Human
 * Farsi: insan
 * Ormuri: insan
 * Head
 * Farsi: sar
 * Ormuri: sar
 * Near
 * Farsi: nezdek
 * Ormuri: nezdek
 * A little
 * Farsi: kem
 * Ormuri: kem
 * Month
 * Farsi: mah
 * Ormuri: may
 * Winter
 * Farsi: zimastan
 * Ormuri: zimak
 * Wheat
 * Farsi: gandum
 * Ormuri: ganum
 * Fox
 * Farsi: rawabah
 * Ormuri: rawas
 * Soft
 * Farsi: narm
 * Ormuri: narm
 * Book
 * Farsi: ketab
 * Ormuri: ketab
 * Comb
 * Farsi: shana
 * Ormuri: sana
 * Letter
 * Farsi: khat
 * Ormuri: xat

Similarities between Arabic and Ormuri
Although few in number, there are some similarities between Arabic and Ormuri. Below are a couple of examples of similar words in both Arabic and Ormuri:


 * Book
 * Arabic: kitab
 * Ormuri: ketab
 * Human
 * Arabic: insan
 * Ormuri: insan

Ormuri Literature
The first book written in Ormuri was called "Should we leave our language at the deathbed" (ماخ اخوئ زبان ته ګور غاړه زر ژيېن). This was written in Pashto script. The famous Pashtun war poet named Pir Roshan, who was born in Jalandhar, India and the composer of the Pashto alphabet, was from the Ormur tribe. He uses several Ormuri words in his famous piece called "Khairul-Bayan. " Another famous manuscript written in the Ormuri language is called the Qawa ‘id-i Bargista, (translated to the Rules of Bargista), was written by Ghulam Muhammad Khan. This book was completed in 1886. Copies of the Qawa ‘id-i Bargista can be found at the Islamia College Peshawar and Pashto Academy. Ghulam Muhammad Khan was also known as the first individual to have worked on Ormuri grammar. There is a chapter written on the Ormuri language in "The languages and Races of Afghanistan" by Dost Mohammad Dost from the Pashto Academy in Kabul, Afghanistan.