This article includes a list ofgeneral references, butit lacks sufficient correspondinginline citations. Please help toimprove this article byintroducing more precise citations.(June 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Palula
پالُولا Paaluulaá
Palula inNastaliq
Pronunciation	/paːluːlǎː/
Native to	Pakistan
Region	Chitral
Ethnicity	Palula
Native speakers	10,000 (2018)[1] The population of Ashret and Biol Valleys is almost completely monolingual (2008)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Dardic Shinaic Sawi–Kalkoti–Palula?[2] Kalkoti–Palula?[2] Palula
Writing system	Palula alphabet (Nastaʿlīq script)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	phl
Glottolog	phal1254
ELP	Phalura

Palula (IPA:[paːluːlǎː], also speltPhalura,Palola,Phalulo) and also known asAshreti (Aćharêtâʹ) orDangarikwar (the name used byKhowar speakers), is anIndo-Aryan language spoken by approximately 10,000 people in the valleys ofAshret andBiori, as well as in the village of Puri (also Purigal) in the Shishi valley and at least by a portion of the population in the village Kalkatak, in theChitral District ofKhyber Pakhtunkhwa province ofPakistan.^[3]

In some of the smaller villages, Palula has either ceased to be spoken (in the village Ghos, situated near Drosh) or its speakers are largely shifting (as in Puri and Kalkatak) to the more widely spokenKhowar language. However, in the main Palula settlements in the Biori and Ashret valleys, it is a strong, vibrant and growing language, as the population in those areas increases and it is still with a few exceptions the mother tongue of almost all people.

Palula is pronounced as /paːluːlǎː/, with three long vowels and a rising pitch on the final syllable.

The Palula language has been documented byGeorge Morgenstierne (1926, 1941), Kendall Decker (1992),Richard Strand (1997-2023 [1998, 2000]),Henrik Liljegren (2008, 2009, 2010), and Henrik Liljegren & Naseem Haider (2009, 2011).

It is classified as aDardic language, but this is more of a geographical classification than a linguistic one.

The following table sets out the vowels of Palula.^[4][5]

Nasalization is found; however, it typically limited to vowels preceding sibilants and nasals and word finally.

Theconsonant inventory of Palula is shown in the chart below.^[6]

Notes

• The phonemes /ʐ, ʐʱ, ʑʱ/ have a limited distribution throughout the language.^[7]
• The aforementioned /ʐ/ phoneme appears to have an even more rare realization; ⟨ɖʐ⟩, which appears in the word ẓhaṇẓíir: [ɖʐʰaɳɖʐîːɾ], meaning chain. ⟨ɖʐ⟩ and ⟨ʐ⟩ are most likely allophones.^[7]
• The phonemes /q/ and /f/, which are only used in loanwords from foreign languages, are often realized as the native consonants ⟨x⟩ and ⟨pʰ⟩ respectively.^[8]
• The phonemic status of the voiceless aspirate and breathy voiced series are debatable. The breathy voiced series is generally considered lexical—a cluster of a consonant + /h/.^[5][9]
• Neither voiceless aspiration nor breathy voicing co-occur with the voiceless fricatives /(f) s ʂ ɕ x h/, the distributionally limited /ɳ ɽ/, along with the newly borrowed phonemes /ɣ (q)/ in a syllable onset.^[10]
• The phonemes /t/ and /d/ are realized as ⟨t̪⟩ and ⟨d̪⟩ respectively.^[11]
• Similarly to the ⟨ʐ⟩~⟨ɖʐ⟩ connection, the phoneme /ʑ/ is often realized with an affricate pronunciation, similar to ⟨dʑ⟩.^[7] This might be because /ʑ/ represents both ج and ژ.
• The phoneme /n/ has many different realizations depending on context. It is realized as a palatal nasal ⟨ɲ⟩ when /n/ precedes a palatal consonant. Similarly, /n/ is realized as a velar nasal ⟨ŋ⟩ when /n/ precedes a velar stop. When preceding a retroflex consonant, nasals assimilate and are thus realized as ⟨ɳ⟩. However, /ɳ/ appears to be a phoneme independent from /n/ as it distinguishes from it and can create minimal pairs such as "/kan/: shoulder" and "/kaɳ/: ear".
  In all other cases, /n/ is realized as its baseline pronunciation of ⟨n̪⟩, thus classifying /n/ as a dental nasal as opposed to an alveolar one.^[7]
• The phoneme /r/ is realized as a ⟨ɾ⟩, often being a tap instead of a trill.^[12]
• As with the case ofUrdu, /ɽ/ cannot occur word-initially. However inAshret, word-initially, /ɽ/ may be realized as a variation of /l/ (/lo/~/ɽo/: he, that).^[12]
• The lateral approximant /l/ is velarized ⟨ɫ⟩ if preceded by a back vowel (a, aa, o, oo, u, uu), otherwise, it's realized as ⟨l⟩. This means that the word "khéeli" is pronounced as "[kʰêːli]", but the word "khúulu" is pronounced as "[kʰûːɫu]".^[12]
• Depending on the speaker, the phoneme /w/ can be realized as either bilabially ⟨β̞⟩, or similar to a labiodental ⟨ʋ⟩, as is the case withUrdu.^[12]

Like manyDardic languages, Palula shows eithertone or, as in Palula, apitch accent.^[13] Words may have only one accentedmora, which is associated with high pitch; the remaining mora have a default or low pitch.^[14]

In 2004, Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-e-Palula, the Society for the promotion of Palula, was founded by people in the Palula community to promote the continued use of their language and to encourage research and documentation of their language, history and culture. After the establishment of a written form of the language, the society is now engaged in producing literature and educational material in Palula. In 2006, Palula Alifbe (Palula alphabet book) and Palula Shiluka (Palula stories) were jointly published by the Anjuman-e-taraqqi-e-Palula and the Frontier Language Institute in Peshawar.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, a mother-tongue based educational programme was launched by a local school management committee in Ashret and a first batch of Palula children could start learning to read and write in their own language. Since 2010, two schools operate within this programme in Ashret, using a curriculum developed by the community itself with assistance from the Forum for Language Initiatives (a regional language resource centre based in Islamabad).^{[citation needed]}

The writing system made by Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-e-Palula is as follows:^[15]

The used of diacritics seems to fluctuate depending on the writer, however, it is almost always used when needing to distinguish from another word with similar vowels, but can be dropped otherwise.

Palula language test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

• Phalula Community Welfare Organization, contains various materials in and about the language
• Liljegren PhD dissertation full text
• Palula research (Henrik Liljegren)
• Palulaforskning(in Swedish)
• Palula phonology
• Palula morphology
• Palula sample text
• Anjuman-e-taraqqi-e-Palula
• Georg Morgenstierne multimedia database
• Strand, Richard F. (1998)."An Account of Aćhar'îta History in Aćharêtâ'". Retrieved2012-01-16.
• Strand, Richard F. (1998)."Genealogy of the Aćhar'îta". Retrieved2012-01-16.
• Strand, Richard F. (2000)."Aćharêtâʹ Lexicon". Retrieved2012-01-16.
• Strand, Richard F. (2000)."The Sound System of Aćharêtâʹ". Retrieved2012-01-16.
• Strand, Richard F. (2000)."The Cognitive Geometry of Object Relationships: Case Markers and Subject Reference [in Aćharêtâʹ]". Retrieved2012-01-16.
• Henrik Liljegren. (2019). dictionaria/palula: Palula Dictionary (Version v1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo.doi:10.5281/zenodo.3066952

• Dardic languages
• Languages of Lower Chitral District
• Languages of Upper Chitral District

• Language articles citing Ethnologue 25
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles lacking in-text citations from June 2025
• All articles lacking in-text citations
• Articles containing Phalura-language text
• Pages with plain IPA
• Ill-formatted infobox-language images
• Pages with Phalura IPA
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from September 2017
• Articles with Swedish-language sources (sv)