Khowar

Khowar is classified as a Dardic Language. It is spoken by 400,000 people in Chitral in Northwest Pakistan, in Yasin Valley and Gupis in neighboring Gilgit, and in parts of Upper Swat. It is spoken as a second language in the rest of Gilgit and Hunza. There are believed to be a small number of Khowar speakers in Afghanistan, China, India, Tajikistan and Istanbul.

Khowar is clearly an Indo-European Language, as demonstrated by the following:

I am = asum You are = asus He/She is = asur We Are = asusi You Are = asumi They are = asuni

Like all the other Dardic languages Khowar is an Indo-Aryan language, but unlike most Indo-Aryan languages which are derived from Sanskrit Khowar is derived from Old Indo-Aryan. Khowar has also been influenced by Iranic languages to a greater degree than other Dardic languages.

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, Phalura, Dameli, Gawar-Bati, Nuristani, Yidgha, Burushaski, Gujar, Wakhi, Kyrgyz, Persian and Pashto. Since many of these languages have no written form, letters are usually written in Urdu or Persian.

Books

• Khowar English Dictionary (by Mohammad Ismail Sloan, 1981) (published in Pakistan) ISBN 188137307X

• Decker, Kendall D. (1992) Languages of Chitral 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

• Khowar Word List

• Khowar Dictionary

• Dardic Languages of Chitral

• Kalasha Word List

• Nuristan: Hidden Land of the Hindu Kush

• Khowar, A Language of Pakistan