Khowar is a
language spoken by perhaps 100,000 people in
Pakistan, and is the
everyday language of the
remote valley of
Chitral, which is linked to the rest of
Pakistan only through the passes from the
Panjkora valley.
One of the Indo-Aryan languages, its closest linguistic relationships are not clear. Certainly it has been influenced by its physical neighbors :
as well as its
cultural neighbors such as
Sanskrit,
Persian and
Urdu; but, it shows
striking differences from all of these.
Existing alongside Urdu, Pakistan's national tongue, Khowar has some writing and publishing and a strong tradition of oral poetry.
How to count to ten in Khowar :
- i (ī)
- ju (jū)
- troi
- cor (cōr)
- ponj (pōnj)
- choi
- sot
- osht
- neoh (nəoh)
- josh