| Also Known As: Patu,Chitrali,Citrali,Khawar,Arniya,Chitrari,Kashkari,Qashqari,Khowar
Description:
For the ethnic group, see Kho people.
Khowar,(کھوار )also known as Chitrali, is a Dardic language spoken by 250,000 people in Chitral in Northwest Pakistan, in Yasin Valley and Gupis in neighboring Gilgit, and in parts of Upper Swat. Speakers of Khowar have also migrated heavily to Pakistan's major urban centres with Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, having sizeable populations. It is spoken as a second language in the rest of Gilgit and Hunza. There are believed to be small numbers of Khowar speakers in Afghanistan, China, Tajikistan and Istanbul.
Khowar has been influenced by Iranian languages to a greater degree than other Dardic languages and has less Sanskritic elements than Shina or the Kohistani languages. Colonel Biddulph (Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh) was amongst the first westerners to study Khowar and claimed that further research would prove Khowar to be equally derived from Zend (Avestan, Old Persian) and Sanskrit.
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-mun, Palula,..... full article at Wikipedia |
Location of Khowar Language Speakers
<googlemap zoom="1" width=400 height=300 lat="40.927113" lon="88.756448" type="map">
32.016245, 71.692582, Pakistan
49.837982, 105.820313, Asia</googlemap>
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