Khowar
| Khowar | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Pakistan : Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ( Chitral District ), Gilgit-Baltistan ( Gilgit District ) | |
| speaker | 250,000 | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | - | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
inc (other Indo-Aryan languages) |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
khw |
|
Khowar (pronounced: 'Kowar, not Chowar with ch; this word means in Khowar "poor, belonging to the lower class") is an Indo-European language spoken in northern Pakistan . Together with the neighboring language Kalasha-mun, it forms the Chitral subgroup of the Dardic branch of the Indo-Aryan languages .
Name and distribution
The neighboring Pashtuns call the language and its speakers "Kashkari", the Kalasha call it "Patu", the Shina living in neighboring Gilgit "Arinah". "Khowar" means: language of the Kho, it is the mother tongue of the Kho ethnic group , which is located in the northern part of Chitral ("Upper Chitral") and until 1969 was the prince (called Mehtar ) of Chitral . In the upper Chitral it is spoken almost exclusively (with the exception of a small group of speakers of the Iranian Wakhi ); in the southern part of Chitral ("Lower Chitral") nine other languages are also spoken. The distribution area ends south of the town of Drosh in the valley of the Chitral river . Smaller groups of Khowar speakers live in the Swat district and in the western part of Gilgit . The area of the Chitral district can only be reached from southern Pakistan via the Lowari Pass, which is impassable in winter , and via the valley of the Chitral River (in Afghanistan: Kunar ) from Afghanistan ; from the north it can be reached via the Shandur Pass . Due to the difficult accessibility of the language area, the Khowar retained a more archaic character than most other Indo-Aryan languages.
Sounds and grammar
There are 39 consonants and five vowels in khowar. The labial consonants are p, ph, b, f, w, m; Apicals : t, th, d, s, z, n, l, r; apical affricates : ts, tsh, dz; Retroflexes : T, Th, D, Sh, Zh, L; retroflex affricates: C, Ch, J; Palatals : c, ch, j, sh, zh, y; Velare : k, kh, g, x, gh, Subvelare: q, h. The vowels are a, e, i, o, u. In contrast to most of the Indo-Aryan languages, “inanimate” nouns are inflected with six cases . Loan words were particularly taken from Persian ; Morgenstierne (1936) distinguishes between four groups:
- from modern Persian
- from various Central Iranian languages
- from different Pamir dialects
- from an indefinable or unknown Iranian language
Sociolinguistic situation
As the mother tongue of the politically dominant ethnic group in Chitral, Khowar became the lingua franca of the principality. As the language of the Princely House, it enjoyed great prestige. It was customary among the nobles of Chitral to give the children to a foster mother in a befriended family in another part of the country. Furthermore, marriages were usually arranged between families living apart from each other, the bride moved into the husband's house. That worked in favor of a uniform language. In a study carried out in 1989, however, various dialects were found, the correctness and proximity of which to the high-level language are sometimes fierce controversies:
- the city of Chitral and Drosh
- Torkhow and Mulkhow
- Biyar (the largest valley in Mastuj)
- Lotkoh, Karimabad and Arkari
- Laspur (near Shandur Pass)
- Ghizar and Yasin outside Chitral
In its range, Khowar is spoken in everyday life at home and in the village. In school lessons it is used by teachers up to 9th or 10th grade because most students do not understand Urdu , but it is not a subject; Also Friday sermons are held in many communities in Khowar. The language is also used at sporting events, e.g. B. buDi dik (Chitrali cricket ), polo or football tournaments. There is a rich tradition of poems and songs and stories ( shilogh ), which are sung at social gatherings ( mushaira ) to various instruments, especially the sitar , or told by the women when they work together; the songs are also sold on audio cassettes. Khowar is used as a second language by members of smaller language groups in Chitral. On the larger bazaars in the cities of Chitral and Drosh is 1980s since the beginning, due to the influx of refugees from Afghanistan next Khowar increasingly Pashto spoken. Most of the Kho pride themselves on their sonorous, melodic language, which also benefits from the Chitralis' good image as honest, civilized and peaceful people in the rest of Pakistan.
Language maintenance and writing
Despite its role as the language of the ruling house, Khowar was not written down until the 1950s, until then Farsi was used in correspondence . At the time of British colonial rule, a program was set up for officers in Chitral to learn the language under the guidance of a Khowar native speaker; successful completion of the program was rewarded with a scholarship. In Pakistan, the program is formally still in force, but is no longer being implemented. After independence, Urdu , written in Arabic- Persian letters, became the national language; teaching in other languages is permitted, but is only granted restrictively with a view to national unity. The writing of the language was largely carried out by the last Mehtar Chitrals, Prince Hisam Ul-Mulk, and his son Samsam Ul-Mulk, who wrote the first Khowar grammar; Hisam Ul-Mulk was in correspondence with the Norwegian linguist Morgenstierne, who was doing pioneering work in the study of languages in northern Pakistan. To codify and maintain the language, the two princes founded the Anjuman-e-Taraqqi Khowar society in 1956 . First of all, a written version in Latin letters was considered, in which the language, according to Hisam Ul-Mulk, could be written much better. However, this was rejected for technical, religious and political reasons. The Urdu alphabet, which is based on Arabic, has been expanded by six letters to write the Khowar-specific umlauts / J /, / Sh /, / C /, / Zh /, / ts / and / dz /. Today, magazines are printed and radio programs are broadcast in Khowar.
Foreign studies on Khowar were written by Leitner (1870), Biddulph (1880), O'Brien (1895), Grierson (1919), Buddruss (1965–1980) and Elena Bashir (1990). By far the most important linguist was the Norwegian Georg Morgenstierne (1892–1978).
literature
- Decker, Kendall D. (1992) Languages of Chitral ISBN 969-8023-15-1
- Morgenstierne, Georg (1926) Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan. Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, Series C I-2. Oslo.
- Khowar English Dictionary (by Mohammad Ismail Sloan, 1981) ISBN 0-923891-15-3 published in Pakistan, reprinted in 2006
- Buddruss, Georg. 1995. “Khowar matal. 50 khowar proverbs. Transcription, annotated translation, glossary. ” JV Vasil'kov & NV Gurov (eds.). Sthapakasraddham, Prof. GA Zograph Commemorative Volume. St. Petersburg: Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Oriental Studies. 162-79
- L'Homme, Erik. 1999. Parlons Khowar. Langue et culture de l'ancien royaume de Chitral au Pakistan. Paris: L'Harmattan
- Faizi, Inayatullah. 1998. “Language as a Phenomenon of Social Change. Khowar in Laspur, Chitral (Pakistan). " I. Stellrecht (ed.). Karakoram-Hindukush-Himalaya: Dynamics of Change. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe. (Culture Area Karakorum, Scientific Studies, 4)
