Prasun (Wasi) is the most aberrant of the Nuristani languages, part of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European languages. It is spoken in the Prasun Valley of the Pech River in northeast Afghanistan. Prasun is a non-literary, unwritten language, and it varies from village to village. Materialien zur Prasun-Sprache des Afghanischen Hindukusch is the fruit of many years of work by Georg Buddruss, assisted in the last few years by Almuth Degener. The texts, in prose and a few songs, were collected by Buddruss in 1956 and 1970. Included are all the texts collected, along with a German translation, a glossary, lists of numbers, place and personal names, and the Prasun calendar system. The volume also includes a brief Introduction in English. A second volume to come will contain an extensive grammar.
Apart from its linguistic value, the present book is also very important as it includes many “Kafiri” myths, still known in 1956, from the time before the forced Islamization in 1895. The ancient pagan religion has survived only in the texts and in some customs described in this book.
