Munji (aka Munjani or Munjiwar; ISO 639-3: [mnj]) is spoken in the Kuran wa Munjan district of Badakhshan province in Afghanistan. Munji is classified as an Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Iranian, Eastern, Southeastern, Pamir language (Lewis Reference Lewis2009). There are about 5,300 Munji speakers (Beyer & Beck Reference Beyer and Beck2011). There are two main dialects, which divide into the northern and southern halves of the valley (see Figure 1).Footnote 1 These dialects exhibit some regular sound changes and a small percentage of lexical differences. Munji speakers are aware of the differences, but there is no trouble in mutual understanding.
Map of the Munji language area.
Previous studies of the language are by Morgenstierne (Reference Morgenstierne1938), Grjunberg (Reference Grjunberg1972), and Beyer & Beck (Reference Beyer and Beck2011). Since 2010, this author has had the opportunity to work with the Munji community in cooperation with the Afghan government to develop an orthography and literacy materials. The goal and contribution of this phonetic illustration is to share some new language data and to encourage further research in the Munji language.
There are four government schools in the Munji language area. Dari is the language of instruction. As of 2015, there was no cell phone reception in the Munji valley and no internet access. Many villages have some sort of small-scale hydro-electric power. This gives them some limited access to television. Only recently have young people from the Munji community begun studying in the national universities, but their number is increasing year by year.
The recordings and transcriptions given in this phonetic illustration are from a 20-year-old man, Abdul Jabar, who is a native speaker of Munji from the village of Shahran. He is representative of the northern dialect. Recordings from the southern dialect were given by Nek Mohammad, age 21 years, from the village of Tili. In order to receive better education, both Abdul Jabar and Nek Mohammad have spent part of each year outside of the Munji valley from the time they were about 13 years old. They have studied in both Ishkashem and Faizabad. They often travel back to the Munji valley, and have lived with other Munji students when away from their home area. The conclusions and observation in this Illustration are also based on numerous interactions with Munji speakers both in the Munji Valley and in Faizabad from September 2010 to November 2015.
Consonants
The phoneme /q/ is only found in borrowed words from Dari and Arabic, but these are commonly used in natural Munji speech. The /h/ also occurs in borrowed words, and is sometimes realized as [ʔ]. Word-initial vowels are preceded by [h] and [ʔ] in free variation. The phonemes /
/, /
/, and /
/ are quite rare. Morgenstierne (Reference Morgenstierne1938) and Grjuenberg (Reference Grjunberg1972) document a phonemic contrast between both the retroflex sibilants /ʂ/ and /ʐ/ post-alveolar sibilants /ʃ/ and /ʒ/, but this contrast has largely been lost – mostly likely because of the influence of Dari. The palatal stops /c/ and /ɟ/ and the voiceless palatal fricative /ç/ stand out as prominent and characteristic phonetic features of Munji.
Vowels
There are five long vowels, /i u ɛ ɔ a/, and three short vowels, /ɪ ʊ ə/. Both long and short vowels may be stressed. In unstressed syllables, there is a tendency toward neutralization of short vowels.
Stress
Stress is usually on the first syllable of nouns, but there are a number of exceptions where the stress placement is part of the underlying form of word and is not predictable. Words are stressed on their stems and not on their suffixes. However, the negative verbal prefix, [
ʊ-], is always stressed. Otherwise, two-syllable verb stems are stressed on the second syllable. For a number of verbs, the present tense stem contains one syllable and the past tense stem contains two syllables, so the stress placement corresponds to a difference in the past and non-past stems (/ˈwɪʃc-əm/ ‘stand up.prs.1sg’ /wɪʃˈcɔj-əm/ ‘stand up.pst.1sg’).
Conventions
Voiceless stops /p, t, k/ are aspirated in all environments, and strongly aspirated in word-initial position. Voiced plosives and fricatives sometimes devoice word-finally (/pɔɾɡ/ [pɔɾk] ‘mouse’). Nasals directly followed by a stop or affricate assimilate to the same place of articulation (/ˈaminɟə/ [ˈamiɲɟə] ‘apple’). /c/ and /ɟ/ are sometimes realized as [
] and [
] (e.g. /zʊnˈɟɪk/ [zʊɲˈ
ɪk] ‘boy’). The phoneme /ɾ/ is pronounced as [ɽ] when it occurs directly before a /t/ or /d/ (/luɾd/ [luɽt] ‘run away.pst.3sg’). In word-initial position, the phoneme /j/ is often pronounced [ʔ] when the following vowel is [i] (/jist/ [ʔist] ‘come.prs.3sg’). The phonemes /
/ and /
/ occur in only a handful of words, and some speakers pronounce these sounds as [
] and [
] (e.g. /ˈə
iɔ/ [ˈə
ia] ‘waterproof skin container’). In the northern dialect, word-medial and word-final /ɡ/ becomes [ɣ] (e.g. /ˈjɔwɣa [ˈjɔwɡa] ‘water’), but both dialects maintain the distinction between /ɡ/ and /ɣ/ in word-initial position. In the southern dialect, the sequence /nd/ becomes [d] (e.g. /ˈɣɔndəm/ [ˈɣɔdəm] ‘wheat’). Many words show an alternation between [i] in the northern dialect and [u] in the southern dialect (e.g [
fiɾ], [
fuɾ] ‘four’). The word-final vowel /ɔ/ in the northern dialect becomes [a] in the southern dialect (e.g /ˈfiɔ/ [ˈfia] ‘shovel’). The voiced palatal fricative /ɟ/ in the northern dialect is pronounced as the palatal approximant [j] southern dialect when it occurs after /l/ (e.g. /ˈpəlɟə/ [ˈpəljə] ‘kick’).
Transcribed passage
‘The North Wind and the Sun’
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other. Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him; and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shone out warmly, and the immediately the traveler took off his cloak. And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.
Phonetic transcription
ˈməsɔbɪqə ʒə ˈmiɾɔcan wə ˈwijan ʒə ˈsaɾan
ju ˈwəxtɛ wi ʒə ˈsaɾan ˈvijə wə ˈmiɾɔ ˈvijəj. jaf
mɔˈbajn ˈxəsəɾan
məsɔbɪˈqə ˈkəɾat
kə wiˈʒaɾam ˈkiɛm
zuɾ ʔast. bad
ju
musəˈfəɾ ˈzuɲɟɪɣə ʔɔˈɣaj. ju ˈvəɾɣə ʔɔˈɣʊst. ˈwian ʒə ˈsaɾan
wə ˈmiɾɔcan
fxatiat
kə məsɔbɪˈqə ˈkənat ˈkiɛm
zuɾ ast
kə və ˈvəɾɣə ʒə ˈzʊɲɟɪɣan
xiʃc. bad ˈʒɔwan ˈaɾ
i
kə wə ˈwian
pəf
kəɾ pəf
kəɾ zʊɲˈɟɪɣɔcan
və ˈvəɾɣəɪʃ qɔˈɛmɛ ɣɾɪvd
wə və ˈvəɾɣə vɪˈdiɾə ˈkəɾɔ ˈ
ikəɾkəɾ. bad ˈʒɔwan
nəˈwət
nə ˈmiɾɔcan ɾəˈsi. ˈwəxtɛ kə ˈmirɔcan ɡaɾˈmi
kəɾ wə musəˈfəɾ zʊɲˈɟɪɣɔcan
və ˈvəɾɣə ˈwədəm
lɪˈɣɛndə vɪˈdiɾ. ˈʒɪman
maˈlum ʃi
kə ˈmiɾɔ nəzˈbət
nə ˈwian ʒə ˈsaɾan ˈqawi ʔast.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank the Munji people for their kindness and hospitality which made this phonetic illustration possible. Abdul Jabar from Shahran and Nek Mohammad from Tili generously lent their voices for the sound recordings. Other Munji speakers also helped by sharing their time and knowledge about their language. In particular, I would like to thank Abdul Salaam and Ghulam Ali from Miandeh, Doost Mohammad from Shahran, and Hajji Bashir Munjani from Dehambe. I am also indebted to Adrian Simpson and the anonymous reviewers for the JIPA, who gave valuable insight and encouragement to me in the process of making this phonetic illustration a reality.
