Khowar () or Chitrali, is an
Indo-Aryan language 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 List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
.
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.
Speakers of Khowar have also migrated heavily to Pakistan's major urban centres, with
Peshawar,
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 Capita ...
,
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 ...
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 ...
having significant populations. It is also spoken as a second language by the
Kalash people.
Names
The native name of the language is ''Khō-wār'',
meaning "language" (''wār'') of the
Kho people. During the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi language, Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Q ...
it was known to the English as ''Chitrālī'' (a derived adjective from the name of the
Chitral region) 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 Yasin, Yassin, Yassine, Yacine or Yaseen may refer to:
People
* Yasin (name), an Arabic-based name
* Yassin (name), an Arabic-based name
* Yassine (name), an Arabic-based name
* Yacine (name), an Arabic-based name
* Yaşın (name), a Turkish-based ...
(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 noted, "Khowar, in many respects
sthe most archaic of all modern Indian languages, retaining a great part of
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...
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 , , , , 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
Kalasha (locally: ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Kalash people, in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. There are an estimated 4,100 speakers of Kalasha. It is an endangered language and there is an o ...
, Khowar does not have retroflex vowels.[
]
Consonants
Allophones of are heard as sounds .
Tone
Khowar, like many Dardic languages, has either phonemic tone or stress distinctions.
Writing system
Since the early twentieth century Khowar has been written in the Khowar alphabet, which is based on the Urdu alphabet and uses the Nasta'liq script
''Nastaliq'' (; fa, , ), also romanized as ''Nastaʿlīq'', is one of the main calligraphic hands used to write the Perso-Arabic script in the Persian and Urdu languages, often used also for Ottoman Turkish poetry, rarely for Arabic. ' ...
. Prior to that, the language was carried on through oral tradition. Today and English are the official languages and the only major literary usage of Khowar is in both poetry and prose composition. Khowar has also been occasionally written in a version of the Roman script called 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
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{{Authority control
Khowar language
Dardic languages
Languages of Chitral
Languages of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Languages of Pakistan
Languages of Gilgit-Baltistan