PAKISTAN is a linguistic paradise and anyone desiring to carry out some research on indigenous Pakistani languages would be surprised at the linguistic diversity and richness of the country: at least 75 indigenous languages and dialects are spoken in Pakistan. Of them, 12 are spoken in Chitral and adjoining areas.
But, alas! There are very few research students willing to do some research on Pakistani languages, albeit some of them are classified as either endangered or dying and need urgent attention. Most of our universities do not have a department of linguistics and usually their departments of English are entrusted with teaching linguistics. Ironically, syllabi at these departments of English are sometimes designed to prepare future lecturers to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) at college level and by ‘linguistics’ they usually mean ‘English’ linguistics. Even Urdu linguistics is looked down upon, let alone introducing Pakistani languages and their phonology or morphology.
A positive step taken some time ago was establishment of a Non-Profitable Organisation (NPO) at Islamabad for research on languages spoken in northern Pakistan. It may be recalled that the administrative region formerly called Northern Areas was renamed as Gilgit-Baltistan and here ‘northern Pakistan’ is used in a general sense as it includes Chitral and some other areas in the north.
This NPO, named Forum for Language Initiative (FLI), has not only helped researchers willing to work on languages spoken in the northern Pakistan but has also published over a dozen books on these languages in English and Urdu. One of FLI’s recent publications discusses languages spoken in Chitral and the surrounding valleys.
Titled Chitral Ki Zabaanen: Maazi, Haal, Mustaqbil (Chitral’s languages: Past, Present, Future) and written by Fakhruddin Akhunzada, the book covers all 12 languages. These languages — several of them belonging to Dardic, a group of Hindu-Kush Indo-Aryan languages — as introduced in the book, include:
Dameli: Spoken by about 5,000 natives in the Damel valley in southern parts of Chitral, Dameli is an Indo-Aryan language. Though it has its own script, It is classified as an endangered language.
Gawar-bati: People speaking Gawar-bati are settled on the both sides of Pak-Afghan border in lower Chitral. The exact number of native speakers is not known, but they are estimated to be around 4,000, writes Fakhruddin Akhunzada.
Gojari: Spoken by around 11,000 locals, authentic details about these speakers are not available. Some believe they are the descendants of migrating Gujjars who spoke Rajasthani dialects.
Kalasha: Kalasha language has been on retreat and is now limited to certain valleys, says the author. The culture of Kalash people has been recognised by Unesco as a living heritage under threat.
Katavari: Also known as Kati and Kamkatavari, Katavari belongs to Nuristani languages — a group of Indo-Iranian family of languages — and is spoken by about 5,000 people in the areas bordering Nuristan in Afghanistan.
Khowar: Khowar, a Dardic language, is the largest among the Chitrali languages as the number of its speakers has been estimated between 400,000 and 600,000. It serves in Chitral and adjoining areas, says the author, as a link language for the speakers of different languages.
Kamveri: According to the author, some experts believe Kamveri is a variety of Katavari. Less than 3,000 people speak Kamveri.
Madaklashti: Believed to be a sub-dialect of Badakhshani Persian, Madaklashti is an Indo-Iranian language and is spoken in far-flung areas that are barely accessible. Nearly 4,000 speak the language.
Palula: With around 11,000 speakers, Palula is spoken in two southern valleys of Chitral. Local traditions have it that Palula speakers had migrated from Chilas, an area in Gilgit-Baltistan. It has two dialects, one of which is influenced by Pashtu and the other by Kalasha and Khowar.
Pashtu: A major language in rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pashtu is spoken mostly in southern parts of Chitral. Pashtu spoken in Chitral belongs to northern dialect of Pashtu. Variation exists between the the Chitral version and the one spoken in Peshawar.
Wakhi: Wakhi is the language of Wakhan, Afghanistan. It is spoken in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. The speakers of Wakhi in Pakistan live in north of Chitral and in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Yidgha: Spoken by about 6,000 natives in north-west of Chitral Town, writes Akhunzada, Yidgha is an endangered language.
The book has valuable references and is research-based as the author surveyed in the valleys of Chitral to collect data. The work is commendable indeed, but just like some Urdu works on linguistics it occasionally uses the term lehja to mean ‘dialect’. The term lehja is incorrect here as it actually means ‘accent’ and it would be much better if the term tehti boli is used instead. Some recent works in Urdu have used the word ‘dialect’ (written in Urdu script) to avoid the confusion.
Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2024
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