Khowar Language
Khowar belongs to the Dardic Group of the Indo-Arian Languages. It is considered more archaic of all the Indo-Arian languages. Many words of Indo-Arian origin, in their most original form, are found in Khowar. Khowar has borrowed a lot of words from other languages within and without the Group. Today, Khowar has become highly Persianized due to the proximity of Badakhshan and Afghanistan. Words of Turkic and Pashto origin are also common in this language.
Khowar is basically the language of Chitral, or to be more precise, of the Upper Chitral. The original speakers of this language are called Khow, who live in the valleys of Mulkhow and Torkhow. With the expansion of Khow people, the language rapidly spread towards the South, in the Lower Chitral, and to the East in Ghizer, Ashkoman and Yasin valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan. Today some 500,000 people in various parts of Pakistan speak this language. It is the lingua franca of the former Princely State of Chitral. The people of the lower part of Chitral originally spoke a number of distinct languages, but with the expansion of Khowar, these small languages could not compete with it. These smaller languages are now in danger of extinction.
Khowar being an old language is rich in folk literature. Folk songs and stories are the main elements of Khowar literature. Most of the songs are of anonymous origin, but some were composed by well-known poets like Muhammad Siyar, Muhammad Shakur and Gul Azam Khan, Aman, Sher e Mulk, Ziarat Khan and Rustam. Love is the main theme of Khowar Poetry, however social and political issues frequently find place in the love songs.
All this literature has been transmitted orally, because Khowar lacked its own script, till recent times. Some earlier writers tried to write Khowar in Persian script. But this practice was not successful, as Khowar had many phonemes, for which there were no characters in Persian. The first attempt for developing Khowar alphabets was made by Prince Nasirul Mulk and Mirza Muhammad Ghufran in 1919. In 1961, Prince Samsamul Mulk published the first Khowar Reader for schools. Khowar was included in the curriculum of the State elementary schools for some time. In 1957, a forum was founded for the development of Khowar, named Anjuman e Taraqi e Khowar. This forum has been the spearhead of the development of Khowar language and literature. The latter half of twentieth Century witnessed an explosion in the productivity of Khowar writers, especially in poetry. Beside poetry, Khowar writers have produced considerable amount of literate in other forms like short story, novel, and drama, during recent years. Now the literature of Khowar can make comparison with other world languages, both in volume and quality.
Recent inclusion of Khowar Characters in the UNICODE Standards made it easier to write Khowar. The development of Khowar Unicode has made it possible to make web contents in Khowar.
Click: For Further Reading on Khowar
Khowar is basically the language of Chitral, or to be more precise, of the Upper Chitral. The original speakers of this language are called Khow, who live in the valleys of Mulkhow and Torkhow. With the expansion of Khow people, the language rapidly spread towards the South, in the Lower Chitral, and to the East in Ghizer, Ashkoman and Yasin valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan. Today some 500,000 people in various parts of Pakistan speak this language. It is the lingua franca of the former Princely State of Chitral. The people of the lower part of Chitral originally spoke a number of distinct languages, but with the expansion of Khowar, these small languages could not compete with it. These smaller languages are now in danger of extinction.
Khowar being an old language is rich in folk literature. Folk songs and stories are the main elements of Khowar literature. Most of the songs are of anonymous origin, but some were composed by well-known poets like Muhammad Siyar, Muhammad Shakur and Gul Azam Khan, Aman, Sher e Mulk, Ziarat Khan and Rustam. Love is the main theme of Khowar Poetry, however social and political issues frequently find place in the love songs.
All this literature has been transmitted orally, because Khowar lacked its own script, till recent times. Some earlier writers tried to write Khowar in Persian script. But this practice was not successful, as Khowar had many phonemes, for which there were no characters in Persian. The first attempt for developing Khowar alphabets was made by Prince Nasirul Mulk and Mirza Muhammad Ghufran in 1919. In 1961, Prince Samsamul Mulk published the first Khowar Reader for schools. Khowar was included in the curriculum of the State elementary schools for some time. In 1957, a forum was founded for the development of Khowar, named Anjuman e Taraqi e Khowar. This forum has been the spearhead of the development of Khowar language and literature. The latter half of twentieth Century witnessed an explosion in the productivity of Khowar writers, especially in poetry. Beside poetry, Khowar writers have produced considerable amount of literate in other forms like short story, novel, and drama, during recent years. Now the literature of Khowar can make comparison with other world languages, both in volume and quality.
Recent inclusion of Khowar Characters in the UNICODE Standards made it easier to write Khowar. The development of Khowar Unicode has made it possible to make web contents in Khowar.
Click: For Further Reading on Khowar
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