From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Khowar has been influenced by Iranian languages to a greater degree than other Dardic languages and has less Sanskritic elements than Shina or the Kohistani languages. Colonel Biddulph (Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh) was amongst 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-mun, Palula, 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.

Khowar has been written in the Arabic Nastaliq 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 writing poetry. Khowar has also been written in the Roman script since the 1960's.

• Khowar English Dictionary (by Mohammad Ismail Sloan, 1981) ISBN 0-923891-15-3 published in Pakistan, reprinted in 2006

• Decker, Kendall D. (1992) Languages of Chitral ISBN 969-8023-15-1 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. ISBN 0-923891-09-9

• Morgenstierne, Georg (1929) Report on a Linguistic Mission to North-Western India. ISBN 0-923891-14-5

• Guldan-e-Rahmat (Urdu Humorous Poetry of Chitrali poet Rahmat Aziz Chitrali published by the Khowar Academy Pakistan

• Guldaasta-e-Rahmat (Khowar (Chitrali) Humorous Poetry of Khowar poet Rahmat Aziz Chitrali published by the Khowar Academy Pakistan

• Khowar (Chitrali) Versified translation of Allama Iqbal's Books i.e. Baang-e-Dara, Baal-e-Jibreel, Zarb-e-Kaleem, Zaboor-e-Ajam and Armughan-e-Hijaz translated into Khowar by Chitrali poet, journalist Rahmat Aziz Chitrali

• Collection of Khowar Letters by Rahmat Aziz Chitrali published by the Khowar Academy Pakistan

• Khowar-English Dictionary (by the lexicographer, writer, author and journalist and Chitrali poet Rahmat Aziz Chitrali to be published by the Khowar Academy Pakistan very soon
• Kohwar Font was developed by Atta ur Rehman of Owir.

• Khowar, A Language of Pakistan
• Webster's Khowar-English Dictionary
• Hindi/Urdu-English-Kalasha-Khowar-Nuristani-Pashtu Comparative Word List

(Amin ur rehman chughtai)