INTRODUCTION.
1. For the earliest information about Ormuri (Oraw'ri) or Baraki
we are indebted to Babur, who is also the first to mention Parachi.
The passages in his Memoirs which refer to 'Bereki' have been
quoted above (p. 3).
The first European scholar who is aware of the existence of the
'Vurmud" tribe in 'Caniguram' and the 'Barki' language is Leyden 1 .
Elphinstone writes in his 'Account of the Kingdom of Caubul' 8 :
"The next class of Taujiks are the Burrukees, who inhabit Logur
and part of Boot-Khauk. Though mixed with the Ghiljies, they differ
from the other Taujiks, in as much as they form a tribe under
chiefs of their own, and have a high reputation as soldiers. 8 They
have separate lands and castles of their own, furnish a good many
troops to government, closely resemble the Afghauns in their man-
ners, and are more respected than the other Taujiks. Their number
are now about eight thousand families. All traditions agree that
they were introduced into their present seats by Sooltaun Mahmood
about the beginning of the eleventh century, and that their lands
were once extensive ; but their origin is uncertain ; they pretend to
be sprung from the Arabs, but other say that they are descended
from the Kurds or Coords."
1 Asiatic Researches, XI, pp. 363 ff., London 1812.
1 I, p. 411.
* Till recent times the Ix>garis have been reckoned among the best soldiers in
the Afghan army.
Burnes 1 mentions " the Burukee or Kanigramee spoken by the
people of Logur", which "has an affinity to Persian, although
those using it claim a descent from Arabia, and assert that they
entered the country with Sultan Mahmood".
2. According to Leech 2 "there are two divisions of the tribe,
the Barakis of Eajan in the province of Lohgad, who speak Per-
sian, and the Barakis of Barak, a city near the former, who speak
the language called Baraki". Some of them settled in Kaniguram
in the country of the Waziris, and "the Barakis of this place and
of Barak alone speak the Baraki language". "We receive a war-
ning from the study of their vocabulary, not to be hasty in refer-
ring [?] the origin of a people merely from the construction of their
language; for it is well known that the one now instanced was
invented by Mir Yuzuf who led the first Barakis from Yemen
into Afghanistan" (in the times of Mahmud of Ghazni). Eaverty 8 ,
too, mentions the tradition about the Arab descent of the 'Barakais'.
3. Bellew 4 quotes a tradition according to whicii the Orakzai,
Afridi, Mangal, Waziri, Khatak and Khogiani tribes of the Pathans
are of Ormuri origin. The Ormurs are described as having been
fire-worshippers, and as observing peculiar religious ceremonies. Once
a week they congregated for worship, men and women together,
and at the conclusion of their devotions the officiating priest extin-
guished the fire they worshipped, and, at the same time, exclaimed
"Or mur", a term expressive of the act, for in Pukhtu "or" (or)
means "fire", and "mur" {mar) means "dead", "extinct".
In ' An Inquiry into the Ethnography of Afghanistan ' 6 Bellew
identifies the Barakis with the Barkaians, who according to Hero-
dotus were transported "from the far distant Libya to the village
in Kunduz of Baktria"(!), and he finds support for this theory in a
1 Cabool, p. 269.
> JASB, VII, pp. 727, ff., quoted in LSI, X, 123.
» JASB, XXXIII, pp. 267 ff., quoted in LSI, 1. c.
4 Journal of a Mission to Afghanistan in 1857, p. 63 t, Cf. also Tarlx-i Murassa',
Kalidi- Afghani, p. 222.
Introduction 30'.
— misunderstood — passage from Arrian. Of greater interest is
Bellew's statement that the Barakis "besides their head quarters
in Kunduz and Logar, have settlements in Butkhak, and at Kani
goram in the Vaziri country, and on the Hindu Kush, about Bamian
and Ghorband districts". "Amongst themselves", he continues,
"the Baraki use a peculiar dialect, which is more of a Hindi lan-
guage than anything else, to judge from the few words I have
met with". "They are a fine, tall, and active people, with fairer
complexions than the generab'ty of Afghans, and are held in con-
sideration as a respectable people. They have no place in Afghan
genealogies by that name, being generally reckoned along with the
Tajik population". Bellew derives the ruling tribe of ' Barahsi'
in Afghanistan from the Baraki.
4. Among the authors mentioned above Leech and Eaverty are
the only ones who have given short vocabularies of the language
(the Logar dialect); Leech has also given a few sentences with
translation. Most of the words in Eaverty's vocabulary are copied
from Leech.
5. The first fuller description of the language is that given by
Sir George Grierson in the Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of
Bengal 1 , and subsequently in the Linguistic Survey of India. 8 His
account deals with the Kaniguram (Waziristan) dialect, and is based
chiefly on Ghulam Muhammad Khan's (Jawdid-e Bargista supplemented
by material furnished by British officials in Waziristan. My indeb-
tedness to these works, both in their descriptive and in their etymo-
logical parts, is so great that it has been impossible to acknowledge
it in each case in the following pages. I may be permitted
to testify once for all how much every page of the following
account of Ormuri owes to Sir George's lucid survey of the gram-
matical system of the language and of its affinities.
6. Our knowledge of the Logar dialect of Ormuri being limited
to Leech's and Eaverty's short vocabularies, I tried during my stay
310 Ormuri
in Kabul in 1924 to get into touch with Ormurs from this valley.
To begin with I was told by people who knew the Logar valley
well that Baraki was no longer spoken in Barak-i 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. After some difficulty I got hold of a
young man from Barak-i Barak, who, though not an Ormur himself
knew something about the language. The information he could
give me was very limited; but it proved on the whole to be fpirly
correct, and the vocabulary which I got out of him included a 1'ew
evidently genuine Ormuri words which my second informant did not
seem to recollect.
In the beginning of August, just at the moment when I ha<!h
arranged to go to Barak-i Barak myself, news was received in Kabul
that the insurrection had spread to Logar and that the rebels from
Khost had crossed the Altimur Pass and entered the valley. But
in spite of these difficulties the Afghan Foreign Office managed to
fetch an old man, Din Muhammad by name, from Barak-i Barak
to Kabul. He worked with me for about a week, but could not be
induced to stay longer away from his home.
7. Din Muhammad said that he was one of the few persons in
Barak-i Barak still speaking pure Ormuri, and this statement agreed
fairly well with what had been told me by my first informant.
According to the LSI. 1 the Ormurs now occupy some fo\ir or five
hundred houses in Kaniguram. At Butkhak, about ten miles east
of Kabul, people said that they belonged to the Ormur tribe; but
they all spoke Pashto, and I met with no one there who knew any
Ormuri. The Ormurs living in the Khalsa Pargana of the Nowshehra
Tahsil in the Peshawar district 8 are also all of them Pashto-spea-
king. I did not hear anything about Ormurs living in Ghorband,
Bamian or Kunduz (cf. Bellew, quoted above), and I think it is at
1 X, p. 123.
* Called Urmar$ in the Gazetteer of the Peshawar District, 1888—84, pp. 103,
106, 114.
Introduction 311
any rate very improbable that they have preserved their original
language.
8. Din Muhammad was not acquainted with Baryista l as a name
for his own language, which he called Ormu'ri. According to
him the Ormur tribe are Sayyids and are descended from the two
brothers 'Mir-i 'Barak and 'Mir-i Bara ] Mt, who came from Bar-yaman
(Yemen) into Turkistan, the former being buried in Anxoi (Andkhui),
and the latter in Mazar-i Sharif. 'Mir Yu'zuf (cf. Leech quoted
above, 2) was the son of 'Mir-i Bara'Mt.
9. I do not think the traditions about the Arab or Kurdish
descent of the Ormurs quoted above are much more valuable than
those which make the Pathans Israelites, the Baloches Syrians, the
Ozbin Pashais Quraishis from Mekka, the Chitralis descendants of
Alexander's deported prisoners, the Bashgali Kafirs the poorer brethren
of the Englishmen, the nimca tribes of Kunar Germans, or the
Gurkhas and Burmese Hazaras. 8 Nor is the tradition rendered more
credible by being connected with Mahmud of Ghazni. Solomon,
Alexander, Ali and Mahmud are the four historical personages to
whom popular fancy generally attributes all important events of the
past. The tradition about the Ormurs being Kurds, mentioned by
Elphinstone, cannot be reconciled with the one which makes them
Arabs from Yemen, and cannot be upheld without the support of
linguistic facts, a question which will be discussed below.
It is, however, very probable that the tradition of their having
emigrated to Kaniguram in Waziristan from Barak-i Barak is true.
The names Barahl and Bargista seem to indicate that Barak was
their old, if not original, home.
Nor is it impossible that there may be a nucleus of truth in the
statement that they were 'fire- worshippers' till comparatively recent
1 Cf. LSI. X, p. 123.
' This "tradition" was probably invented on the spot by my I'athan servant
in order to explain the similarity between the Hazaras and those Mongoloid peoples
which he knew from his service in the Indian army. According to him Mahmud
of Ghazni had conquered the whole of India, and had settled Hazaras in Burma
and Nepal!
312 Ormuri
times. And it is interesting to note that Ormuri is the only modern
Ir. dialect, which has preserved the ancient technical term of Zoro-
astrian theology for "studying", "reading." 1 The account of the
extinguishing of lamps at their religious festivals, reminds us of
the slanders told about Yezidis, Druses and other sects of Western
Asia, and need not have any foundation in fact. And the etymo-
logy of the word Ormur suggested by Bellew (3) seems rather
fanciful. 2
10. In connexion with these traditions regarding the "lamp-
extinguishing" ceremonies of the Ormurs, it is well worth noticing
that the only member of this tribe who has played any r61e in
history, was the famous arch heretic Bayazid Ansari, the Pir BoSan
('The Saint of Light') of his own adherents, and the Pir Tarik
('The Saint of Darkness') of his opponents. According to the
Makhzan-ul-Islam* Bayazid was an Ormur (Wurmar) from Kaniguram.
And, according to Leyden 4 , the famous and important sect founded
by him was accused "of practising the abominations of the unchaste
sect termed Cheragh-cush " ('Lamp-Extinguishers'). It seems quite
possible that the heretical tendencies of Bayazid were based in some
way on religious traditions and practices peculiar to his native tribe. 6
1 V. VOC. 8.V. aW: _
* In Rep. p. 16 I proposed to explain Ormur as a Psht. form, derived from
*arya-tnft(y)a: arya- would, however, probably result in Psht. *ar, not in *3r.
— The Ormurs of Logar call the Afghans Kdi (Kaniguram pi. k a sl "the Wazirs").
The g in this word may be derived from *s{t)r, *xSy, *fSy. Is there any possi-
bility that the original form is *Kafiya-, connected with KapiSd, etc. (cf. Sylvain
Levi, J A, 1923, p. 62 f.)?
» British Museum, Or. Mscr. 6274, f. 117 v.; India Office Mscr. 2792, f. 187 a;
Dorn, Chresthomathy of the Pushtu Language, p. 22.
4 I. c. p. 378.
5 In London in 1926 I had an opportunity, through the courtesy of Sir E. Deni-
son Ross, to examine a unique manuscript of Bayazid's theological work, the Xair-
ul-Bayan. which had been supposed to be lost. The manuscript was written by
Bahar TuH, a disciple of Bayazid, and was finished on Wednesday the 20th of
Ramazpn, A. 11. 1061 (A.D. 1650). This book is the oldest Psht. work extant, and
presents many interesting orthographic and linguistic peculiarities. But the language
Introduction 313
11. The Ormuri of Kaniguram (Waziristan) and the Ormuri of
Barak-i Barak (Logar) are two distinct dialects, the Kaniguram form
being, generally speaking, the more archaic.
Eegarding phonetics one of the most important points of difference
between the two dialects is that Log. has preserved s (< sr, str,
xsy, sy etc.), z which has become s, z in K. ; e. g. Log. ywasi "graiss" :
K. ywasi, Log. roz "day": K. ryuz; cf. 54, 57. On the other hand
Log. has given up the distinction between K. $ and £ r ; e. g. ILog.
?o "3", #Mj"6": K. £ r e, $ a h; cf. 60. In. loan-words we find £ in both
dialects e.g. in Log. §dsta, K. gaista "pretty", s in both dialects
in Log. Saitdn, K. saltan "devil" etc.; but e.g. Log. §dr, K., sor
"town", Log. usyar, K. hugyar "wise". This variation depends on
the date of the borrowing and whether its source is Prs. or siome
Psht. dialect. — Log. strwa, K. sirtvd "soup" must be an ancient
loan-word from Prs. sdrwa, sorba. — K. h has resulted in Log. g
(v. 65). Regarding the occasional change of s <. c in K. cf . 69 ; regard-
ing the dropping of h in Log., and the prothetic h of K. v. 74.
Note Log. g- "to seize" < K. gl-. (v. Voc. s.v.).
The vowel system of Log. makes a less original impression than
that of K, owing chiefly to the frequent change of a into u (v. 27).
It seems probable that K. a has been changed into Log. a (cf. 29)
through the influence of Afghan Prs.
12. The morphological system of Log. has been very miuch
simplified. The geographical position of the two dialects renders it
very natural that this should be so. K. is spoken by a compara-
tively strong community in an isolated part of the rugged Waziristan
hills, surrounded only by culturally and socially unimportant Fsht.
dialects. Log., on the other hand, is a dialect that is rapidly dying-
out; the Ormurs of Logar inhabit a broad, open valley, not far
conforms in the main to ordinary literary Psht., which is based chiefly oni the
Mohmand and Yusufzai dialects. We find Tery few traces of any influence otf the
Waziri dialect Note, however, the word tai tan "master, husband". Lorimer jgives
iiitan as the Waziri form of the word; bat Orm. of Kaniguram has taStan, a form
which is evidently borrowed from the local Waziri dialect of this village.
from Kabul, are in constant contact with Persian-speaking neigh-
bours, and for several generations have served extensively in the
Afghan army. 1 No wonder, then, that Log. bas lost the distinction
of gender (v. 81), has simplified the formation of the plural of
nouns (v. 82), and has reduced the number of irregular past parti-
ciples (v. 123). The system of contracted pronouns (v. 102) is also
much simpler in Log. than in K., and the use of the particles at and
di has been discarded on account of its intricacies. 2 Eegarding the
termination of the aorist 2 sg. v. 118. I have been able to detect
one instance only of greater morphological archaism in Log., viz.
the preservation of the aorist 1 sg. in -Im (v. 120).
13. While K. has borrowed freely from Waziri Psht., the voca-
bulary of Log. has been influenced by other Psht. dialects, and, to
a still greater extent, by Prs.
A number of genuine Orm. words found in K. seem to be missing
in Log., although it is of cours
se possible that thej
exist in the dialect.
We find e. g. :
K. hond "blind" :
Log. kor.
» hins "bear" :
» xirs.
» nor$ r (narm) "soft":
» narm.
» pis- "to write":
» nimista k-.
» ro "iron":
» din.
» rawas "fox":
robd.
» sikak "hare":
* xargQs.
» $ r ak "flea":
» kaik.
» tusk (xali) "empty":
» xdli.
» winjok "son of a co-wife"
: » bacandar.
» xwarind 1 "right (hand)":
» rdst.
» yanak "ashes":
» xdkistcir.
Cf. also words such as K.
sukal "porcupine"
pin "honey'',
mbai "friends", hencci "tears", § r amot "forgetting" etc., of which
Introduction 311
I found no corresponding forms in Log. K. nwastak "to lie down'
was probably discarded because it became Log. *nustuk and coulc
be confused with nustah "to sit down" <C K. nastdk.
On the other hand we do not find recorded among the words
from K. such good Ir. words as Log. unddrdw- "to sew", fees "rope",
yQ$ "snow", jusp "span", Mil "knife", malt "husband", moz-
"to loosen", nefak "navel", nimek "salt", *skan "cow-dung", porn
"wool", sinl "needle", zemdlc "winter", zinak "chin" etc. The
interesting loan-word gram "village" is also peculiar to Log. (K.
kflai from Psht.).
14. The dialect of Logar does not seem to have changed very
much since Leech published his vocabulary in 1838. The forme
found in his vocabulary and collection of sentences, and in the
vocabulary published by Raverty, agree very well with those I heard.
We find e. g. she "1" (Log. se, K. so), rosh "day" (Log vqz, K,
ryuz), yasp "horse" (Log. yasp, K. yansp), wolch "water" (Log.
wok, K. w a k).
Most of the innovations of Log. had already taken place. Thus
| had become g in glon "thou takest", pabega "above"; wa, we
had resulted in o (u) in ar-ghoshtakai "you did fall", ghoJc "said";
there was no distinction of geuder, shuk "became", for instance,
being used as a masculine; the termination -on had been introduced
into the aorist 2 sg. (cf. 118), e. g. on "thou art", daron "thou hast";
shera "gives", shoh "gave" correspond to the modern Log. forms
(v. Voc. s. v. set-) etc.
In some cases we find more archaic forms surviving than in
present day Log. Thus we find ghe (*£e) "3" (Log. go, K. £ r e),
hhuranak "hungry" (Log. xrunuk, K. axwaranak), glon "thou
takest" (Log. g-, K. gl-), ivrosht (Rav. tcarosht) "beard"' (Log. auru?t,
K. wVSt"), -tier-, -ne "in" (Log. -ne, K. inar), Rav. w'rizza (but
Leech rizza) "rice" (Log. rezan, K. rijan), Rav. ra-dzai "come"
but Leech raza "comes" (Log. ar-eam, K. rl-jam "I come"), sugh
(= *su$) "red" (Log. sus, K. suf). Of special interest are the
numerals: Ichoshty "60" (Log. $u$tu, K. $wai§tt), hawai "70" (Log.
316 Ormuri
awaitu, K. awai), hashtai "80" (Log. cdr jlstu, K. hastai), nuvi "90"
(Log. mive, K. naivi). sMst "30", tsasht "40", panzast "50" are
more archaic forms than either Log. gistu, ea$tn, panjastu or K.
$ r istii, cdgtu, panjaitfu (cf. 99).
15. The affinities of Orm. within the range of the Ir. languages
has been discussed in Eep. pp. 26 ff.
With W. Ir. and Par. Orm. shares the preservation of initial
voiced stops (cf. Par. Gr. 7). The development of dw > b and the
loss of intervocalic dentals, changes which are characteristic of
N.W. Ir. and Par., are also found in Orm. But the points of
special resemblance between Orm. and N.W. Ir. are not so many
as those between Par. and N.W. Ir. mentioned p. 9. E.g. Orm.
has w- "to sit down", but Par. has nhin-, Samn. -nln-, Orm. does
not possess the verb *a-ni- "to bring" etc.
According to Tedesco 1 Ir. *-ah became -i in E.Ir. I have tried*
to show that this development was not universal in E.Ir., and we
find no trace of it in Orm. On the contrary, we find Orm. K. so
"1" (Log. se with palatalization due to the s, v. 28) < *syo, *syah,
Orm. Icpk "who" < *Jco-ka < *Jcah, and probably Orm. Log. afo
"that" (K. hafb m., haf f.) < -o, -ah.
There seem to be no linguistic facts in support of the tradition
of the Kurdish origin of the Ormurs. The only point of special
resemblance that I have been able to detect, is the employment of
an extra I- suffix in the word denoting "egg": Orm. K. hanwalk,
Log. wullc: Kurd, hilka etc.
16. Regarding the relations between Orm. and Par. v. above
pp. 9 f . There are, however, profound differences between the two
languages, cf. e.g. the treatment of the groups ft, xt, the demon-
strative pronouns, the personal pronoun 1 pi. Par. ma, but Orm.
max etc.
17. Rep. p. 36 n. I have pointed out the possibility that Bal.
may contain some elements borrowed from an Ir. dialect spoken in
1 Monde Oriental, XV, p. 266; ZII, IV pp. 127 ft.; cf. my remarks Rep. p. 30-
• NShgh., p. 84.
Introduction 31?
the country before the advent of the Baloches. To the examples
adduced there may be added Bal. gwas- "to speak": Orm. Log.
■fo.9- (*ywas-); cf. also Bal. dialect forms, such as sai "3", N. Bal.
sa-<C*fra- (e.g. in N. Bal. samust'a "forgotten": Orm. K. $ r amot),
got "ear" etc. When the Baloches first came into contact with the
Indians, they still retained w-, as appears from the Khetrani loan-
word vdhor "snow": Bal. gwahar, and from Bal. gwac (recent bor-
rowing wac) "buffalo-calf" < Sindhi vachi. Possibly the transition
from w- to gw- in Bal. is due to the influence of an Ir. substratum
akin to Orm., gw- being substituted for yw-.
18. Orm. contains several words which are known only from
E. Ir. (cf. Bep. p. 32). A certain number of such words are included
in the list Par. Gr. 9. Others are:
ban- "to throw down": Psht. Iwan-, Yazg. bevan- etc., Av. dvan-.
K. hond "blind": Sak. hana-, Minj. ydday, Av. anda-.
K. mer$ r "sun": Minj. mira, Av. mi&ra-.
se (K. so) "1": Sak. 6fou.
sir "good": Sak. siira-, Soghd. sir, Av. srtra-.
waw- "to obtain'': Sak. byau-. Av. avi-ap-.
K. xwarinc a "right (hand)": Soghd. xwarant, Sak. hvarandau ace.
sg., hvarameaini "on the right hand''.
This last word is possibly an ancient loan-word in Orm.
19. But the E. Ir. language with which Orm. has been in the
closest contact for centuries, and which has exercised a profound
and far-reaching influence on the development of the language, is
Psht. Orm. possesses a great number of Psht. loan-words; but
the connexion between the two languages is of a much more funda-
mental nature, and appears to me to exclude the possibility that
the contact dates only from the time of Mahmud of Ghazni.
In the first instance there are several words in the two languages
which, although showing a special relationship, have developed
phonetically on different lines. Some of these words may be Psht.
loan-words in Orm.; but the phonetical divergences show that the
borrowing must have taken place a long time ago.
318 Ormuri ^
Eep. p. 33 f. I have mentioned Orm. E. ^ark "lost"; 1MB
"grass"; gigi "tooth"; K. bazar "fore-arm"; K. wan "co-wife";
K. wtnjoh " son of a co-wife " ; K. du$ki " a little ", prdn " yesterday " ;
K. rdfai "brother's son"; K. xwarkai "sister's son"; K. ta "pater-
nal uncle"; xwa$ (K. xwa$ r ) "sweet", nas- (K. nis-) "to take
out" etc.
Other instances are: Orm. bruS- "to glitter": Psht. breijecfol; Orm.
yanj "bad", yunj "rag" (cf. 51); Orm. K. mrig, mrik "slave":
Psht. maryai; Orm. n- (pret. K. nastah) "to sit down": Psht.
nasfal; Orm. ndk "wife": Psht. naive "bride".
The most striking morphological correspondence between Orm.
and Psht. is the use of the so-called contracted pronouns (cf. 102).
There is evidently some connexion between the Psht. and the Orm.
forms, even if its exact nature cannot be determined. Note also
Orm. tQs (K. tyus) "you": Psht. tarn (Waz. tus) ; Orm. genitive
particle tar, ta: Psht. da < Av. taro.
The transition of c > c in Orm. is due to Psht. influence, cf.
also Log. g < f (v. 65).
All these features show that, notwithstanding the profound diffe-
rences in the original dialectical bases of the two languages, Orm.
and Psht. must have been neighbours for a lengthy period, and
there is no reason to assume that Orm. was introduced from the
west of Iran.
20. Orm. is at present completely separated from the Dard lan-
guages; but it contains a few loan-words which point to an earlier
contact. The most important word is Log. gram "village"; cf.
also piyg "cock", K. ping a "the time just before dawn": Khow.
jriyga-chiii "cock-crow, early dawn", and possibly dri "hair" (v. Voc).
INSTITUTTET
FOR SAMMENL1GNENDE KULTURFORSKNING
INDO-IRANIAN FRONTIER
LANGUAGES
BY
GEORG MORGENSTIERNE
VOL. I.
PARACHI AND ORMURI
OSLO 1929
H. ASCHEHOUG & CO. (W. NYGAARD)
LEIPZIG PARIS LONDON
OTTO HARRASSOWITZ HONORS CHAMPION WILLIAMS & NORGATE, LTD.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
TVNews
OpenLibrary