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Khowar has been influenced by Iranian languages to a greater degree than other Dardic languages, and less by Sanskrit than Shina or the Kohistani languages. John Biddulph (Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh) was among the first westerners to study Khowar and claimed that further research would prove Khowar to be equally derived from "Zend" (Avestan, Old Persian) and Sanskrit.
Khowar may also have nasalized vowels and a series of long vowels /aː/, /eː/, /iː/, /oː/, 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 has been written in the Nasta'liq script since the early twentieth century. Prior to that, the administrative and literary language of the region was Persian and works such as poetry and songs in Khowar were passed down in 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 written in the Roman script since the 1960s. Badshah Munir Bukhari worked on the language and its family.
Khowar alphabets
According to Rehmat Aziz Chitrali’s research before the 19th century, Khowar was an unwritten language. At the time princely state of Chitral, the official written language was Persian, although Khowar was still spoken from Arandu to Yarkhun valley and Ghizer Valley of Nothern Pakistan. During an interview to Akbar Ali Qazi a Ismaili religious scholor, Rehmat Aziz Chitrali said that ‘’British linguists and political historians wrote form with the Latin script, but following the independence of Pakistan, Chitrali scholars adopted Urdu Arabic script’’. The first humorous collection of poetry in Khowar, Guldasta-e-Rahmat (گلدستہء رحمت) by Rehmat Aziz Chitrali was published in 1996 and incorporated the Urdu Arabic Script. Rehmat Aziz also wrote a comprehensive guidance on the usage of Urdu Arabic script and standardized it as the Khowar Orthography. He has created Khowar alphabets and Romanized Khowar alphabets . This earned Rehmat Aziz the title of 'the Father of Khowar'. Rachitrali's alphabets are widely used in Perso-Arabic Script and Roman script. In Pakistan, however, Khowar is written in a modified Arabic script based on what is used for Urdu but the foreigners are using Rehmat Aziz’s Khowar Romanized script in their articles.
The following Latin-based alphabet was created by Rehmat Aziz, Director Khowar Academy and adopted by the Khowar Workshop on "Khowar Roman Orthography" (Khowar Academy, Karachi, April 25, 1996)
Alphabetical order (51 letters):
a å b c ç ĉ ċ d e f g ġ h i j ĵ k l ł m ɱ n ň Ŋ o p q ǭ r ŗ s š Ş t ŧ ts u v w Ŵ ϣ ῶ x y Ý ў ÿ z zh ž ź
Khowar poet, journalist and researcher Rehmat Aziz Chitrali on Monday said Chitral district is rich in cultural heritage which needs to be promoted for next generations. In a message on the launch of Khowar language TV programme by Khyber News (KNTV) in Islamabad, Khowar poet Rachitrali said the step would help promote the rich heritage of Khowar.
According to Rehmat Aziz Chitrali, a linguistic researcher from Chitral, these names are used in Gilgit, Hunza, Nager, Chitral, Ghizer and Swat, and have been in use since time immemorial in the country of the Indus. It would seem as if the natives, while introducing the Sanskrit days of the week, adopted in other respects the mode of computing time already existing in the country.
The Khowar names are from Persian.
Bashir, Elena (2001) Spatial Representation in Khowar. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
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
Mohammad Ismail Sloan (1981) Khowar-English Dictionary. Peshawar. ISBN 0-923891-15-3.
Decker, Kendall D. (1992). Languages of Chitral (Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, 5). National Institute of Pakistani Studies, 257 pp. ISBN 969-8023-15-1.
