Kamkata-viri
Spoken in:	Afghanistan
Region:	Kunar Province
Total speakers:	18,700 (Ethnologue)
Language family:	}}}  Indo-Iranian   Nuristani    Kamkata-viri}}}
Official status
Official language of:	none
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	none
ISO 639-3:	bsh

Kamkata-viri, the largest Nuristani language, contains the main dialects Kata-vari, Kamviri and Mumviri. Kata-vari and Kamviri are often defined as two separate languages, but according to linguist Richard Strand they form one language.

The Kamkata-viri language is spoken by the Kata, Kom, Mumo, Ksto and some smaler former Black-Robed tribes in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are dialectal differences of the Kamkata-viri speakers of Pakistan. Most used alternative names are Bashgali or Kati, which derive from Khowar.

Kamkata-viri is spoken by 18,700 Kata people (15,000 in Afghanistan, just over 3,700 in Pakistan), and approximately 5,500 (or up to 10,000) Kom.

It belongs to the Indo-European language family, and is on the Nuristani group of the Indo-Iranian branch.

Literacy rates are low: below 1% for people who have it as a first language, and between 15% to 25% for people who have it as a second language. The Kativiri dialect can be heard on radio in Afghanistan.

There are four main dialects: Eastern Kata-vari, Western Kata-vari, Kamviri and Mumviri, the last two are often defined as separate languages.

References

• The Kamkata. Retrieved July 19, 2006, from Richard F. Strand: Nuristan, Hidden Land of the Hindu-Kushhttp://users.sedona.net/~strand/Nuristani/Kamkata/kamkata.html.
• The Kâta. Retrieved July 02, 2006, from Richard F. Strand: Nuristan, Hidden Land of the Hindu-Kush http://users.sedona.net/~strand/Nuristani/Kamkata/Kata/kata.html.
• The Kom. Retrieved July 02, 2006, from Richard F. Strand: Nuristan, Hidden Land of the Hindu-Kush http://users.sedona.net/~strand/Nuristani/Kamkata/Kom/kom.html.
• The Mumo. Retrieved July 11, 2006, from Richard F. Strand: Nuristan, Hidden Land of the Hindu-Kush http://users.sedona.net/~strand/Nuristani/Kamkata/Mumo/mumo.html.
• Kati. Retrieved June 13, 2006, from Ethnologue: Languages of the World, fifteenth edition. SIL International. Online version.

•  • [ e] Indo-Iranian languages
Indic (Indo-Aryan)	Old: Sanskrit: Vedic Sanskrit - Classical Sanskrit (Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni) Middle: Prakrit: Pāli - Maharashtri - Magadhi New: Bengali (Dialects: Chittagonian, Sylheti) Hindustani (Registers: Hindi, Urdu) Angika Assamese Bhojpuri Bishnupriya Manipuri Dhivehi Dogri Gujarati Konkani Mahl Maithili Marathi Nepali Oriya Punjabi Romani Sindhi Sinhala
Iranian	Eastern: Avestan Bactrian Pamir (Shughni, Sarikoli, Wakhi) Pashto Scythian - Ossetic Sogdian - Yaghnobi Western: Persian: Old Persian - Middle Persian - Modern Persian (Varieties: Farsi, Dari, Tajik) Bukhori Balochi Dari (Zoroastrianism) Gilaki Kurdish Luri Mazandarani Talysh Tat Tati Zazaki
Dardic	Dameli Domaaki Gawar-Bati Kalash Kashmiri Khowar Kohistani Nangalami Pashayi Palula Shina Shumashti
Nuristani	Askunu Kamkata-viri Tregami Vasi-vari Waigali