kâmv'iri Lexicon
Presented here are approximately 5,600 words and grammatical formatives that constitute the core
of the traditional kâmv'iri lexicon. Not generally included are the many hundreds of
Persian, Persianized Arabic, and Pashto-ized English loanwords that are currently being incorporated
into daily use in an on-going process. I recorded most of the vocabulary presented here during my resident research in Nuristan from 1967-1969. More words were added during subsequent visits to Nuristan and from continuing conversations with Kâmv'iri speakers.
Entries in the lexicon may be found using the index to the right. The lexicon is indexed
semantically by categories and alphabetically by phonemes.
- Entries within a semantic category are grouped by major grammatical category: nouns first,
followed by adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.
- Entries under each phoneme are alphabetized according to the order given at the top of each phoneme's page. The alphabetic order differs from language to language, but it follows the Sanskritic practice of vowels before consonants, both ordered according to position of articulation and subsequently by degree of vocal-tract stricture.
A lexical entry contains the following parts:
- The phonemic form, followed by any contextually conditioned alternant or dialectal
variant.
- A part of speech designator.
- The English gloss, followed by any optional comments.
- Any derivative or irregular morphological forms.
- The morphological analysis of the form, in brackets. Subscripts indicate major grammatical categories; superscripts distinguish homonyms.
- The etymology of the form, if known, in boldface brackets. This includes the language from
which the form is derived, followed by the etymon and English gloss. Etyma from Old-Indo-Aryan that appear in R. L. Turner's Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages are indicated using the entry number in that work, prefixed by "T." A parenthesized comment on the etymology may follow, within which a "+" following a Turner number indicates that the current form was not included in Turner's entry and should be added; a "-" indicates that the current form was incorrectly included in the specified entry.
- Optional examples of the entry.