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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 may be an Indo-Aryan language(yet to be ascertained), but unlike most Indo-Aryan languages which are derived from Sanskrit, Khowar may be derived from Old Indo-Aryan. Khowar has also been influenced by Iranic languages to a greater degree than other Dardic languages. Colonel Biddulph(Tirbes 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 Iranian) 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, 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) ISBN 0923891153 published in Pakistan, reprinted in 2006
- Decker, Kendall D. (1992) Languages of Chitral ISBN 9698023151 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 language"