Gawar-Bati or Narsati 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 ...
spoken in 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 ...
of northern Pakistan, and across the border in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. It is also known as Aranduyiwar in Chitral because it is spoken in
Arandu, which is the last village in lower Chitral and is also across the border from Berkot in Afghanistan. There are about 9,000 speakers of Gawar-Bati, with 1,500 in Pakistan, and 7,500 in Afghanistan. The name ''Gawar-Bati'' means "speech of the Gawar",
a people detailed by the Cacopardos in their study of the
Hindu Kush
The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan, Quote: "The Hindu Kush mountains run along the Afghan border with the North-West Frontier Province ...
.
Study and classification
The Gawar-Bati language has not been given serious study by linguists, except that it is mentioned by George Morgenstierne (1926) and Kendall Decker (1992).
It is classified as 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 ...
of the
Dardic subgroup. However, the term Dardic is not linguistic but merely geographic.
Phonology
The following tables set out the phonology of the Gawar-Bati language:
Vowels
The status of short /e/ and /o/ is unclear.
Consonants
A breathy voiced series, /bʱ dʱ gʱ/, existed recently in older speakers—and may still do so.
Orthography
It is rarely written. This alphabet is used in Pakistan:
[http://fli-online.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Gawarbati-Alif-Be11-Feburary-2016.pdf ]
Notes and references
Further reading
* Decker, Kendall D. (1992) ''Languages of Chitral'' Islamabad, Pakistan: National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, http://www.ethnologue.com/show_work.asp?id=32850
* Morgenstierne, Georg (1926) ''Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan''
Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, Serie C I-2. Oslo.
External links
Georg Morgenstierne multimedia databaseGawar-Bati online keyboard
{{Dardic languages
Dardic languages
Languages of Chitral
Languages of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa