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'''Khowar''' ({{lang|khw|کهووار}}), is an ] of the ] group spoken primarily in the Chitral and Gilgit regions of Pakistan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dardestan-|title=DARDESTĀN – Encyclopaedia Iranica|last=electricpulp.com}}</ref>
'''Khowar''' ({{lang|khw|کهووار}}), also known as Chitrali {{nq|چترالی}}), is an ] of the ] group spoken primarily in the Chitral and Gilgit regions of Pakistan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dardestan-|title=DARDESTĀN – Encyclopaedia Iranica|last=electricpulp.com}}</ref>
Khowar is spoken by the ] in the whole of ], as well as in the ] and ] districts of Gilgit, in parts of Upper ] (Mateltan Village),{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}} and in a village of Tajikistan's Wakhan region called Vrang.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cardona|first=George|title=The Indo-Aryan Languages|year=2007|pages=843}}</ref>
Khowar is spoken by the ] in the whole of ], as well as in the ] and ] districts of Gilgit, in parts of Upper ] (Mateltan Village),{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}} and in a village of Tajikistan's Wakhan region called Vrang.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cardona|first=George|title=The Indo-Aryan Languages|year=2007|pages=843}}</ref>
Revision as of 03:14, 8 August 2021
Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic group spoken in Chitral and Gilgit region of Pakistan
"Khowar" redirects here. Not to be confused with Khowa, Khovar, or Khuwar.
"Chitrali language" redirects here. For other uses, see Chitrali language (disambiguation).
Khowar is a minor language of Pakistan which is mainly spoken in Chitral, it is given a space in this map.
Khowar special letter
Khowar (کهووار), also known as Chitrali چترالی), is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic group spoken primarily in the Chitral and Gilgit regions of Pakistan.
Khowar is spoken by the Kho people in the whole of Chitral, as well as in the Gupis-Yasin and Ghizer districts of Gilgit, in parts of Upper Swat (Mateltan Village), and in a village of Tajikistan's Wakhan region called Vrang.
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 (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 the 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.
Khowar may also have nasalized vowels and a series of long vowels /ɑː/, /ɛː/, /iː/, /ɔː/, and /uː/. 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.
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. 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 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.
Cardona, George (2007). The Indo-Aryan Languages. p. 843.
^ Grierson, George A. (1919). Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. VIII, Part 2, Indo-Aryan family. North-western group. Specimens of the Dardic or Piśācha languages (including Kāshmiri). Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. p. 133.
O'Brien, Donatus James Thomond (1895). Grammar and vocabulary of the K̲h̲owâr dialect (Chitrâli). Lahore: Civil and military gazette press. p. i.
Morgenstierne, Georg (1974). "Languages of Nuristan and surrounding regions". In Jettmar, Karl; Edelberg, Lennart (eds.). Cultures of the Hindukush: selected papers from the Hindu-Kush Cultural Conference held at Moesgård 1970. Beiträge zur Südasienforschung, Südasien-Institut Universität Heidelberg. Vol. Bd. 1. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner. pp. 1–10. ISBN978-3-515-01217-1.
^ Edelman, D. I. (1983). The Dardic and Nuristani Languages. Moscow: Institut vostokovedenii︠a︡ (Akademii︠a︡ nauk SSSR). p. 210.
Bashir, Elena (2001) "Spatial Representation in Khowar". Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
Decker, Kendall D. (1992). Languages of Chitral (Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, 5). National Institute of Pakistani Studies, 257 pp. ISBN969-8023-15-1.
Khowar written in the Arabic script
Khowar is a minor language of Pakistan which is mainly spoken in Chitral, it is given a space in this map.
