| Khowar | |
|---|---|
 Khowar written in the Arabic script | |
| Native to | Pakistan |
| Region | Chitral District |
| Ethnicity | Kho |
Native speakers | 290,000 (2004)[1] |
| Khowar alphabet (Arabic script) | |
| Language codes | |
khw | |
| Glottolog | khow1242 |
| Linguasphere | 59-AAB-aa |
 Khowar is a minor language of Pakistan which is mainly spoken in Chitral, it is given a space in this map. | |
Khowar (), is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic group spoken in Chitral and Gilgit region of Pakistan.[2]
Khowar is spoken by the Kho people in the whole of Chitral, as well as in the Gupis-Yasin and Ghizer districts of Gilgit, and in parts of Upper Swat (Mateltan Village).[] 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 region.
Names
The native name of the language is Kh?-w?r,[3] meaning "language" (w?r) of the Kho people. During the British Raj it was known to the English as Chitr?l? (a derived adjective from the name of the Chitral region) or Q?shq?r?.[3] Among the Pathans and Badakshis it is known as Kashk?r.[4] Another name, used by Leitner in 1880, is Arnyiá[5] or Arniya, derived from the Shina language name for the part of the Yasin (a valley in Gilgit-Baltistan) where Khowar is spoken.[3]
History
Morgenstierne noted that "Khowar, in many respects [is] the most archaic of all modern Indian languages, retaining a great part of Sanskrit case inflexion, and retaining many words in a nearly Sanskritic form."[6]:3
Phonology
Khowar has a variety of dialects, which may vary phonemically.[7] The following tables lay out the basic phonology of Khowar.[8][9][10]
Vowels
Khowar may also have nasalized vowels and a series of long vowels /?:/, /?:/, /i:/, /?:/, and /u:/. 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."[7] Unlike the neighboring and related Kalasha language, Khowar does not have retroflex vowels.[8]
Consonants
| Labial | Coronal | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Post- velar |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | ? | k | q | ||
| voiced | b | d | ? | g | ||||
| aspirated | p? | t? | k? | |||||
| Affricate | voiceless | ts | t | |||||
| voiced | dz | d | ||||||
| aspirated | ts? | t | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ? | ? | x | h | |
| voiced | z | ? | ? | ? | ||||
| Approximant | ? | l(?) ? | j | (w) | ||||
| Rhotic | ? | |||||||
Allophones of /x ? h ? ?/ are heard as sounds [? ? ? w ?].[10]
Tone
Khowar, like many Dardic languages, has either phonemic tone or stress distinctions.[11]
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
- Standard Khowar
- Chitrali Khowar(Torkhow and Mulkhow Valley)
- Chitrali Khowar (Chitral Town)
- Swati Khowar (Swat Kohistan)
- Lotkuhiwar (Lotkuh Valley/ Gramchashma Valley)
- Gherzikwar (Ghizer Valley)
- Gilgiti Khowar (Gilgit-Baltistan), spoken by a few families in Gilgit city.
Khowar media
Television channels
| TV Channel | Genre | Founded | Official Website |
| Khyber News TV (? ? ? ?) | News and current affairs | http://www.khybernews.tv/ | |
| AVT Khyber TV ( ?) | Entertainment | http://www.avtkhyber.tv/ | |
| K2 TV ( ) | Entertainment, news and current affairs | http://www.kay2.tv/ | |
| Zeal News ( ?) | News and Current Affairs | 2016 | http://www.khowar.zealnews.tv |
Radio
These are not dedicated Khowar channels but play most programmes in Khowar.
| Radio Channel | Genre | Founded | Official Website |
| Radio Pakistan Chitral FM93 | Entertainment | http://www.radio.gov.pk/ | |
| Radio Pakistan Peshawar | Entertainment | http://www.radio.gov.pk/ | |
| Radio Pakistan Gilgit | Entertainment | http://www.radio.gov.pk/ | |
| FM97 Chitral | Entertainment | http://www.hotfm.com.pk |
Newspapers
| Newspaper | City(ies) | Founded | Official Website |
| Chitral Vision ( ) | Karachi, Chitral, Pakistan | https://www.chitralvision.com | |
| Chitral Today | http://chitraltoday.net |
References
- ^ Khowar at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
- ^ electricpulp.com. "DARDEST?N - Encyclopaedia Iranica".
- ^ a b c Grierson, George A. (1919). Linguistic Survey of India. Volume VIII, Part 2, Indo-Aryan family. North-western group. Specimens of the Dardic or Picha languages (including K?shmiri). Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. p. 133.
- ^ O'Brien, Donatus James Thomond (1895). Grammar and vocabulary of the K?h?owâr dialect (Chitrâli). Lahore: Civil and military gazette press. p. i.
- ^ Leitner, Gottlieb William (1880). Kafiristan. Section 1: the Bashgeli Kafirs and their language. Lahore: Dilbagroy. p. 43. Retrieved 2016.
- ^ Morgenstierne, Georg (1974). "Languages of Nuristan and surrounding regions". In Jettmar, Karl; Edelberg, Lennart (eds.). Cultures of the Hindukush: selected papers from the Hindu-Kush Cultural Conference held at Moesgård 1970. Beiträge zur Südasienforschung, Südasien-Institut Universität Heidelberg. Bd. 1. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner. pp. 1-10. ISBN 978-3-515-01217-1.
- ^ a b Edelman, D. I. (1983). The Dardic and Nuristani Languages. Moscow: Institut vostokovedenii?a? (Akademii?a? nauk SSSR). p. 210.
- ^ a b Bashir, Elena L. (1988), "Topics in Kalasha Syntax: An areal and typological perspective" (PDF), Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan: 37-40
- ^ Bashir, Elena L.; Nigah, Maula; Rahmat Karim, A Digital Khowar-English Dictionary with Audio
- ^ a b Liljegren, H.; Khan, A. (2017). "Khowar". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 47: 219-229.
- ^ 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 [Reprinted in Morgenstierne (1973): Irano-Dardica, 267-72]
- 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.
- Zeal News
External links
- "Georg Morgenstierne". National Library of Norway. 2001. Retrieved 2009.
- Strand, Richard F. (2011). "Khow`ar Lexicon". Retrieved 2012.
- Strand, Richard F. (2012). "The Sound System of Khow`ar". Retrieved 2012.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia page available here. It is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.