Ormuri
Oormuri, Urmuri, Ormur, Ormui, Bargista, Baraks, Baraki
Native to	Pakistan, Afghanistan
Region	Waziristan, Kaniguram, Logar
Native speakers	6,000 (2004)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Eastern Pashto Waziri Ormuri
Writing system	Naskh
Language codes
ISO 639-3	oru
Glottolog	ormu1247

Ormuri (also known as Oormuri, Urmuri, Ormur, Ormui, Bargista, Baraks, and Baraki) is a dialect of Waziri Pashto spoken in Waziristan. It is spoken in the town 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, which does not exist in the surrounding Pashto. 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.^[2]

Ormuri is classified under the Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Eastern Iranian, Southeastern Iranian, and Ormuri-Parachi language groups ^{[3] [4]}

According to the Endangered Languages Project, the language of Ormuri is highly threatened. The language is used for face-to-face communication, however it is losing users. ^[5] The language is on the verge of extinction in Afghanistan. ^[6]

Ormuri is spoken primarily in the town of Kaniguram in South Waziristan, Pakistan. A small population also speaks it in Logar Province, Afghanistan. ^[7] The language is sustained by nearly fifty adherents in Afghanistan and around five to six thousand speakers in Pakistan ^[8]

There are two dialects 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.^[9]

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.^[9]

Table 1: Lexical Differences in Ormuri

	Logar	Kaniguram
'blind'	kor	ond
'soft'	narm	noř
'fox'	roba	rawas
'flea'	kayk	řak
'shepherd'	čopan	šwān
'comb'	šåná	šak(k)
'place'	jåy	jikak
'to fly'	parók	buryék

^[10]

Table 2: Differences in the Phonetic Form of Vowels in Ormuri

	Logar	Kaniguram
'to go'	tsok	tsek, tsyek
'one'	še	sa
'house'	ner	nar
'dry'	wuk	wyok
'water'	wok	wak
'to sit'	nóstok	nástak

^[11]

Table 3: Differences in the Phonetic Form of Consonants in Ormuri

	Logar	Kaniguram
'one'	še	sa
'three'	šo	ři
'six'	xo	ša
'above'	pa-bega	pa-beža
'snow'	ɣoš	ɣoř

^[12]

• Ormur
• Waziri Pashto
• Parachi language
• Waneci
• Burki
• Baraki
• Logar Province
• Kaniguram

• Ormuri at The Endangered Languages Project
• Ormuri at Ethnologue
• Ormuri Classification at Glottolog
• Clitics of Ormuri
• Ormuri and Bargista Language
• Ormuri and Parachi Language Analysis by Georg Morgenstierne
• Ormuri Phonetics

Category:Languages of Pakistan Category:Languages of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas