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Khowar (کھوار), also known as Chitrali, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic branch, spoken by 240,000 people in Chitral in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in the Ghizer district of Gilgit-Baltistan (including the Yasin Valley, Phandar Ishkoman and Gupis), and in parts of Upper Swat. Speakers of Khowar have also migrated heavily to Pakistan's major urban centres with Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, having sizeable populations. It is spoken as a second language in the rest of Gilgit and Hunza. There are believed to be small numbers of Khowar speakers in Afghanistan, China, Tajikistan and Istanbul.

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.

The Norwegian Linguist Georg Morgenstierne wrote that Chitral is the area of the greatest linguistic diversity in the world. Although Khowar is the predominant language of Chitral, more than ten other languages are spoken here. These include Kalasha-mondr, Palula, Dameli, Gawar-Bati, Nuristani, Yidgha, Burushaski, Gojri, Wakhi, Kyrgyz, Persian and Pashto. Since many of these languages have no written form, letters are usually written in Urdu, Pakistan's national language.

Khowar is designated as one of 14 regional languages of Chitral, Pakistan.

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 /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.

Consonants

The phonemic status of /tsʰ/ is unclear in the sources

Tone

Khowar, like many Dardic languages, has either phonemic tone or stress distinctions.

Comparative Vocabulary

The follow is a list of the days of the week in Khowar, showing a comparison with Shina, Sanskrit, and English.

Dialects

• Standard Khowar
• Swati Khowar (Swat Kohistan)
• Lotkuhiwar (Lotkuh Valley)
• Gherzikwar (Ghizer Valley)
• Gilgiti Khowar (Gilgit-Baltistan), spoken by a few families in Gilgit city.

Writing system

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.

Khowar media

Television channels

Radio

These are not dedicated Khowar channels but play most programmes in Khowar.

Newspapers

Gallery

• Allama Iqbal’s poetry’s versified khowar translation by Rehmat Aziz Chitrali Allama Iqbal’s poetry’s versified khowar translation by Rehmat Aziz Chitrali
• Chitral Vision, Urdu and Khowar Language coloured newspaper of Chitral, Pakistan Chitral Vision, Urdu and Khowar Language coloured newspaper of Chitral, Pakistan

See also

• Chitrali people

References

1. Khowar at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
2. ^ Edelman, D. I. (1983). The Dardic and Nuristani Languages. Moscow: Institut vostokovedenii︠a︡ (Akademii︠a︡ nauk SSSR). p. 210.
3. ^ Bashir, Elena L. (1988), "Topics in Kalasha Syntax: An areal and typological perspective" (PDF), Ph.d Dissertation, University of Michigan: 37–40
4. Bashir, Elena L., Maula Nigah and Rahmat Karim Baig, A Digital Khowar-English Dictionary with Audio{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
5. Baart, Joan L. G. (2003), Tonal features in languages of northern Pakistan (PDF), National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University and Summer Institute of Linguistics, pp. 3, 6

Additional references

• Bashir, Elena (2001) Spatial Representation in Khowar. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
• Decker, D. Kendall (1992). Languages of Chitral. ISBN 969-8023-15-1.
• 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
• 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.

External links

• "Georg Morgenstierne". National Library of Norway. 2001. Retrieved 2009-01-11.
• Strand, Richard F. (2011). "Khow`ar Lexicon". Retrieved 2012-01-16.
• Strand, Richard F. (2012). "The Sound System of Khow`ar". Retrieved 2012-01-16.

• Dardic languages
• Languages of Chitral
• Khowar language
• Languages of Gilgit-Baltistan
• Languages of Pakistan