Native to Pakistan Ethnicity Kho people | Region Chitral District Native speakers 290,000 (2004) | |
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Language family Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Indo-Aryan
Dardic
Chitrali
Khowar Writing system Khowar alphabet (Arabic script) | ||
Khowar, also known as Chitrali, Qashqari and Arniya, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic branch.
Contents
"Kho" means the people of Chitral, "War" means language. It is spoken by the Kho people in Chitral district, Ghizer district of Gilgit-Baltistan (including the Yasin Valley, Golaghmuli 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 significant 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 and Tajikistan.
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 Pathans and Badakshis 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 where Khowar is spoken.
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.
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
Radio
These are not dedicated Khowar channels but play most programmes in Khowar.