Maiya language

Not to be confused with Shina Kohistani language.

Maiyã
Indus Kohistani
Region	Kohistan, Swat
Native speakers	unknown (200,000 cited 1992)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Dardic Kohistani Maiyã
Writing system	Arabic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mvy
Glottolog	indu1241

Maiyã, also called Abasin Kohistani or Indus Kohistani, is a Dardic language spoken in Kohistan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan.

Phonology

The phonology of Maiyã varies between its major dialects as shown below.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː		o oː
Open		a aː

In the Kanyawali dialect, the back vowels /u/ and /o/ are described as variants of each other, as are the front vowels /i/ and /e/.

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Maiya is shown in the chart below. (Consonants particular to the Kanyawali Dialect of Tangir and those found only in the Kohistan Dialects are color-coded respectively.)

		Labial	Coronal	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	Voiced	m	n	ɳ
	Breathy Voiced	(mʱ)
Stop	Voiceless	p	t	ʈ		k	(q)
	Aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ		kʰ
	Voiced	b	d	ɖ		ɡ
	Breathy Voiced	bʱ	dʱ	ɖʱ		ɡʱ
Affricate	Voiceless		ts	tʂ	tʃ
	Aspirated		tsʰ		tʃʰ
	Voiced				dʒ
Fricative	Voiceless	f	s	ʂ	ʃ	x		h
	Voiced	v	z	ʐ	ʒ	ɣ
Lateral			l
Rhotic	Voiced		r	ɽ
	Breathy Voiced		rʱ	ɽʱ
Semivowel					j	w

The phonemes /x/, /ɣ/, and /q/ are mainly found in loan words. The status of /q/ in the Kanyawali Dialect is unclear.

See also

• Kohistan
• Kohistani people