Khowar
کھووار
Khowar written in the Khowar alphabet in Nastaliq style.
Native to	Pakistan
Region	Chitral District
Ethnicity	Kho
Native speakers	332,200 (2016)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Dardic Khowar
Writing system	Khowar alphabet (In Nastaliq style.)
Official status
Regulated by	Association for the Promotion of Khowar[2]
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) or Chitrali, is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in Chitral and surrounding areas in Pakistan.^[3]

Khowar is the lingua franca of Chitral,^[4] and it is also spoken in the Gupis-Yasin and Ghizer districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, as well in the Upper Swat district.^[5]

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

The native name of the language is Khō-wār,^[6] 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.^[6] Among the Pashtuns and Badakhshanis it is known as Kashkār.^[7] Another name, used by Leitner in 1880, is Arnyiá^[8] or Arniya, derived from the Shina language name for the part of the Yasin (a valley in Gilgit-Baltistan) where Khowar is spoken.^[6] Lastly, the Wakhis and Sanglechis refer to the language and its speakers as Kivi.

History

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".^[9]: 3

Phonology

Khowar has a variety of dialects, which may vary phonemically.^[10] The following tables lay out the basic phonology of Khowar.^[11][12][13]

Vowels

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."^[10] Unlike the neighboring and related Kalasha language, Khowar does not have retroflex vowels.^[11]

Consonants

Allophones of /x ɣ h ʋ ɾ/ are heard as sounds [χ ʁ ɦ w ɹ].^[13] /q x ɣ f/ are restricted to Perso-Arabic loanwords in most IA languages but they occur natively in Khowar.^[14]

Tone

Khowar, like many Dardic languages, has either phonemic tone or stress distinctions.^[15]

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
• Kalam Khowar (Swat Kohistan)
• Lotkuhiwar (Lotkuh Valley/ Gramchashma Valley)
• Gherzikwar (Ghizer Valley)
• Gilgiti Khowar (Gilgit-Baltistan), spoken by a few families in Gilgit city.

Media

Television channels

Radio

These are not dedicated Khowar channels but play most programmes in Khowar.

Newspapers