Help building the largest human-edited directory of the web Suggest URL - Open Directory Project - Become an editor

directopedia.org uses links and structure from dmoz Open Directory Project.
The contents has been generating using technology developed by scientec.

Khowar is classified as a Dardic language. It is spoken by 400,000 people in Chitral in Northwest Pakistan, in Yasin Valley and Gupis in neighboring Gilgit, and in parts of Upper Swat. It is spoken as a second language in the rest of Gilgit and Hunza. There are believed to be a small number of Khowar speakers in Afghanistan, China, India, Tajikistan and Istanbul.

Khowar is clearly an Indo-European Language, as demonstrated by the following:

• I am = asum
  
• You are = asus
  
• He/She is = asur
  
• We Are = asusi
  
• You Are = asumi
  
• They are = asuni
  

Like all the other Dardic languages, Khowar is an Indo-Aryan language, but unlike most Indo-Aryan languages which are derived from Sanskrit Khowar is derived from Old Indo-Aryan. Khowar has also been influenced by Iranic languages to a greater degree than other Dardic languages.

The Norwegian Linguist Georg Morgenstierne wrote that Chitral is the area of the greatest linguistic diversity in the world. Although Khowar is the predominant language of Chitral, more than ten other languages are spoken here. These include Kalasha, Phalura, Dameli, Gawar-Bati, Nuristani, Yidgha, Burushaski, Gujar, Wakhi, Kyrgyz, Persian and Pashto. Since many of these languages have no written form, letters are usually written in Urdu or Persian.

Books

• Khowar English Dictionary (by Mohammad Ismail Sloan, 1981) (published in Pakistan) ISBN 188137307X

• Decker, Kendall D. (1992) Languages of Chitral http://www.ethnologue.com/show_work.asp?id=32850

• Morgenstierne, Georg (1926) Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan. Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, Serie C I-2. Oslo.

External links

• Khowar Word List

• Khowar Dictionary

• Dardic Languages of Chitral

• Kalasha Word List

• Nuristan: Hidden Land of the Hindu Kush

• Khowar, A Language of Pakistan

This article is based on the article "Khowar" from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License. Here you find the list of authors of this article. The article can only edited within Wikipedia. Edit this article in Wikipedia.