Khowar () or Chitrali, is an

Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...

primarily spoken in Chitral and surrounding areas in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. Khowar is the lingua franca of Chitral, and it is also spoken in the Gupis-Yasin and Ghizer districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, as well in the Upper

Swat district Swat District (, ps, سوات ولسوالۍ, ) is a district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. With a population of 2,309,570 per the 2017 national census, Swat is the 15th-largest district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pro ...

. Speakers of Khowar have also migrated heavily to Pakistan's major urban centres, with

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

and

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

having significant populations. It is also spoken as a second language by the

Kalash people The Kalasha (Kalasha: کالؕاشؕا, romanised: ''Kaḷaṣa)'', or Kalash, are an Indo-Aryan indigenous people residing in the Chitral District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The Kalash population in Pakistan numbers only i ...

Names

The native name of the language is ''Khō-wār'', meaning "language" (''wār'') of the

Kho people The Kho (, khw, ) or Chitrali people, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to the Chitral and Ghizer Districts of Gilgit-Baltistan. They speak an Indo-Aryan language called Khowar. History The Kho people are likely descendants ...

. During the

British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

it was known to the English as ''Chitrālī'' (a derived adjective from the name of the

Chitral region Chitral District ( ur, ) was the largest district in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, covering an area of 14,850 km², before splitting into Upper Chitral District and Lower Chitral District in 2018. Part of the Malakand Div ...

) or ''Qāshqārī''. Among the Pashtuns and Badakhshanis it is known as ''Kashkār''. Another name, used by Leitner in 1880, is ''Arnyiá'' or ''Arniya'', derived from the

Shina language Shina ( ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Shina people. In Pakistan, Shina is the major language in Gilgit-Baltistan spoken by an estimated 1,146,000 people living mainly in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan.{{Cite book , last1=Saxena , ...

name for the part of the Yasin (a valley in Gilgit-Baltistan) where Khowar is spoken. Lastly, the Wakhis and Sanglechis refer to the language and its speakers as ''Kivi''.

History

Georg Morgenstierne Georg Valentin von Munthe af Morgenstierne (2 January 1892 – 3 March 1978) was a Norwegian professor of linguistics with the University of Oslo (UiO). He specialized in Indo-Iranian languages. Studies During the years 1923 to 1971, Morgens ...

noted, "Khowar, in many respects sthe most archaic of all modern Indian languages, retaining a great part of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

case inflexion, and retaining many words in a nearly Sanskritic form".

Phonology

Khowar has a variety of dialects, which may vary phonemically. The following tables lay out the basic phonology of Khowar.

Vowels

Khowar may also have nasalized vowels and a series of

long vowels In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, ...

, , , , and . Sources are inconsistent on whether length is phonemic, with one author stating "vowel-length is observed mainly as a substitute one. The vowel-length of phonological value is noted far more rarely." Unlike the neighboring and related Kalasha language, Khowar does not have retroflex vowels.

Consonants

Allophones of are heard as sounds . /q x ɣ f/ are restricted to Perso-Arabic loanwords in most IA languages but they occur natively in Khowar.

Tone

Khowar, like many

Dardic languages The Dardic languages (also Dardu or Pisaca) or Hindu-Kush Indo-Aryan languages, are a group of several Indo-Aryan languages spoken in northern Pakistan, northwestern India and parts of northeastern Afghanistan. The term "Dardic" is stated to b ...

, has either phonemic tone or stress distinctions.

Writing system

Since the early twentieth century Khowar has been written in the

Khowar alphabet The Khowar alphabet is the right-to-left alphabet used for the Khowar language. It is a modification of the Urdu alphabet, which is itself a derivative of the Persian alphabet and Arabic alphabet and uses the calligraphic Nastaʿlīq script. ...

, which is based on the

Urdu alphabet The Urdu alphabet (), is the right-to-left alphabet used for Urdu. It is a modification of the Persian script, which is itself a derivative of the Arabic script. The Urdu alphabet has up to 39 or 40 distinct letters with no distinct letter ...

and uses the Nasta'liq script. Prior to that, the language was carried on through

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985) ...

. Today

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Roman Khowar The Khowar alphabet is the right-to-left alphabet used for the Khowar language. It is a modification of the Urdu alphabet, which is itself a derivative of the Persian alphabet and Arabic alphabet and uses the calligraphic Nastaʿlīq script. ...

since the 1960s.

Dialects

* Standard Khowar * Chitrali Khowar(Torkhow and Mulkhow Valley) * Chitrali Khowar (Chitral Town) * Swati Khowar (Swat Kohistan) * Lotkuhiwar (Lotkuh Valley/ Gramchashma Valley) * Gherzikwar (Ghizer Valley) * Gilgiti Khowar (Gilgit-Baltistan), spoken by a few families in Gilgit city.

Media

Television channels

Radio

These are not dedicated Khowar channels but play most programmes in Khowar.

Newspapers

References

Additional references

* Bashir, Elena (2001) "Spatial Representation in Khowar". ''Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society''. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. * * L'Homme, Erik (1999) ''Parlons Khowar. Langue et culture de l'ancien royaume de Chitral au Pakistan''. Paris: L'Harmattan * Morgenstierne, Georg (1936) "Iranian Elements in Khowar". ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies'', Vol. VIII, London. * Badshah Munir Bukhari (2001) ''Khowar language''. University publisher. Pakistan * Morgenstierne, Georg (1947) "Some Features of Khowar Morphology". ''Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap'', Vol. XIV, Oslo. * Morgenstierne, Georg (1957) ''Sanskritic Words in Khowar''. Felicitation Volume Presented to S. K. Belvalkar. Benares. 84–98 eprinted in Morgenstierne (1973): Irano-Dardica, 267–72* Mohammad Ismail Sloan (1981
''Khowar-English Dictionary''
Peshawar. . * Decker, Kendall D. (1992). ''Languages of Chitral (Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, 5)''. National Institute of Pakistani Studies, 257 pp. . *Zeal News ″https://www.chitraltoday.net/2015/06/cultural-diversity-of-chitral/#:~:text=Chitral%20is%20also%20the%20most,lived%20together%20peacefully%20for%20centuries.

External links

* * * {{Authority control Khowar language Dardic languages Languages of Chitral Languages of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Languages of Pakistan Languages of Gilgit-Baltistan