Khowar language
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Khowar | |
---|---|
کھووار | |
Native to | Pakistan |
Region | Chitral District |
Ethnicity | Kho |
Native speakers | 290,000 (2004)[1] |
Khowar alphabet (In Nastaliq style.) | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | khw |
Glottolog | khow1242 |
ELP | Khowar |
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 (کھووار), is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic group spoken primarily in the Chitral and Ghizer 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, in parts of Upper Swat (Mateltan Village),[citation needed] and in a village of Tajikistan's Wakhan region called Vrang.[3]
Speakers of Khowar have also migrated heavily to Pakistan's major urban centres, with Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi having significant populations. It is also spoken as a second language by the Kalash people.
Names[edit]
The native name of the language is Khō-wār,[4] 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.[4] Among the Pashtuns and Badakhshanis it is known as Kashkār.[5] Another name, used by Leitner in 1880, is Arnyiá[6] or Arniya, derived from the Shina language name for the part of the Yasin (a valley in Gilgit-Baltistan) where Khowar is spoken.[4] Lastly, the Wakhis and Sanglechis refer to the language and its speakers as Kivi.[7]
History[edit]
Georg Morgenstierne noted, "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".[8]: 3
Phonology[edit]
Khowar has a variety of dialects, which may vary phonemically.[9] The following tables lay out the basic phonology of Khowar.[10][11][12]
Vowels[edit]
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
Open | ɑ |
Khowar may also have nasalized vowels and a series of long vowels /ɑː/, /ɛː/, /iː/, /ɔː/, 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."[9] Unlike the neighboring and related Kalasha language, Khowar does not have retroflex vowels.[10]
Consonants[edit]
Labial | Coronal | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Post- velar |
Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ||||||
Stop | voiceless | p | t | ʈ | k | q | ||
voiced | b | d | ɖ | g | ||||
aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | ʈʰ | kʰ | ||||
Affricate | voiceless | ts | ʈʂ | tɕ | ||||
voiced | dz | ɖʐ | dʑ | |||||
aspirated | tsʰ | ʈʂʰ | tɕʰ | |||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʂ | ɕ | x | h | |
voiced | z | ʐ | ʑ | ɣ | ||||
Approximant | ʋ | l(ʲ) ɫ | j | (w) | ||||
Rhotic | ɾ |
Allophones of /x ɣ h ʋ ɾ/ are heard as sounds [χ ʁ ɦ w ɹ].[12]
Tone[edit]
Khowar, like many Dardic languages, has either phonemic tone or stress distinctions.[13]
Writing system[edit]
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[edit]
- 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.
Media[edit]
Television channels[edit]
TV Channel | Genre | Founded | Official Website |
Khyber News TV (خیبر نیوز ٹیلی ویژن) | News and current affairs | http://www.khybernews.tv/ | |
AVT Khyber TV (اے وی ٹی خیبر) | Entertainment | http://www.avtkhyber.tv/ | |
K2 TV (کے ٹو) | Entertainment, news and current affairs | http://www.kay2.tv/ | |
Zeal News (ذیل نیوز) | News and Current Affairs | 2016 | http://www.khowar.zealnews.tv |
Radio[edit]
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[edit]
Newspaper | City(ies) | Founded | Official Website |
Chitral Vision (چترال وژن) | Karachi, Chitral, Pakistan | https://www.chitralvision.com | |
Chitral Today | http://chitraltoday.net |
References[edit]
- ^ Khowar at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
- ^ electricpulp.com. "DARDESTĀN – Encyclopaedia Iranica".
- ^ Cardona, George (2007). The Indo-Aryan Languages. p. 843.
- ^ a b c Grierson, George A. (1919). Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. VIII, Part 2, Indo-Aryan family. North-western group. Specimens of the Dardic or Piśācha languages (including Kāshmiri). Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. p. 133.
- ^ O'Brien, Donatus James Thomond (1895). Grammar and vocabulary of the K̲h̲owâr 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 6 June 2016.
- ^ Morgenstierne, George (1932). "Report on a Linguistic Mission to North-Western India" (PDF). Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning: 47.
- ^ 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. Vol. 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 vostokovedenii︠a︡ (Akademii︠a︡ 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; Baig, 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[edit]
- 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[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Khowar language. |
Khowar language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
- "Georg Morgenstierne". National Library of Norway. 2001. Retrieved 11 January 2009.
- Strand, Richard F. (2011). "Khow`ar Lexicon". Retrieved 16 January 2012.
- Strand, Richard F. (2012). "The Sound System of Khow`ar". Retrieved 16 January 2012.