Khowar () or Chitrali, is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in

Chitral Chitral ( khw, , lit=field, translit=ćhitrār; ur, , translit=ćitrāl) is situated on the Chitral River in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It serves as the capital of the Chitral District and before that as the capital of Chitral ...

and surrounding areas in Pakistan. Khowar is the lingua franca of

, 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, Lahore and Karachi 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 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 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 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 . /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, 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. ''Nas ...

. Prior to that, the language was carried on through oral tradition. Today Urdu 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

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