Gawri language

Gawri (ګاوری), also known as Kalami (کالامي), Kalam Kohistani and Bashkarik, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Swat Kohistan (also called Kalam) region in the upper Swat District and in the upper Panjkora river valley of Upper Dir District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Gawri and Torwali are collectively classified as "Swat Kohistani".

Classification

According to its genealogical classification (Strand, 1973:302 and 2004), Gawri belongs to the Kohistani subgroup of the north-western zone of Indo-Aryan languages, along with several closely related languages in its geographical vicinity: Torwali (in Swat south of Kalam), Indus Kohistani, Bateri, Chilisso, and Gawro (the latter four east of Kalam in Indus Kohistan). Together with a range of other north-western Indo-Aryan mountain languages, these languages are sometimes collectively referred to as ‘Dardic’ languages.

Geographic distribution

Gawri is one of about thirty languages that are spoken in the mountain areas of northern Pakistan. Kohistan is a Persian word that means ‘land of mountains’ and Kohistani can be translated as ‘mountain language’. As a matter of fact, there are several distinct languages in the area that are all popularly called Kohistani. The language under study in this paper is spoken in the upper parts of the valley of the Swat River, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. The name of the principal village of this area is Kalam, and hence the area is known as Kalam Kohistan. In the older linguistic literature, the language of Kalam Kohistan is referred to as Bashkarik (Morgenstierne, 1940), or as Garwi or Gawri (Grierson, 1919; Barth & Morgenstierne, 1958). These names are hardly, if at all, known to the speakers of the language themselves, who normally just call their language Kohistani. However, very recently a number of intellectuals belonging to a local cultural society have started to call their language Gawri, a name that has old historical roots.

The same language is also spoken across the mountains to the West of Kalam Kohistan, in the upper reaches of the Panjkora river valley of Upper Dir District. When added together, the two Kalam-Kohistani-speaking communities comprised over 200,000 people.

Alphabet

Gawri uses the Arabic script. The Gawri alphabet has 43 letters: all 39 letters of the Urdu alphabet plus 4 additional letters. One feature of the Gawri alphabet not found in Urdu is that it places the letterھ as the last letter of the alphabet, preceded by ے. All the 4 additional letters used in Gawri are also found in Gawar-Bati language.

Letter	ا	ب	پ	ت	ٹ	ث	ج	چ	ڄ	څ	ح	خ	د	ڈ	ذ	ر	ڑ	ز	ژ	س	ش	ݭ	ص
Transliteration	∅/ā/ǟ	b	p	t	ṭ	s	j	č	ĉ	c	h	x	d	ḍ	z	r	ṛ	z	ž	s	š	ṣ	s
IPA	[∅], [aː], [æː]	[b]	[p]	[t]	[ʈ]	[s]	[d͡ʒ]	[tʃ]	[ʈ͡ʂ]	[t͡s]	[h]	[x]	[d]	[ɖ]	[z]	[r]	[ɽ]	[z]	[ʒ]	[s]	[ʃ]	[ʂ]	[s]
Name	اٞلِف (älif)	بے (bē)	پے (pē)	تے (tē)	ٹے (ṭē)	ثے (sē)	جِیم (jīm)	چے (čē)	ڄے (ĉē)	بَڑِی حے (hē)	خے (xē)	دَال (dāl)	ڈَال (ḍāl)	ذَال (zl)	رے (re)	ڑے (ṛe)	زے (ze)	ژے (že)	سِین (sīn)	شِین (šīn)	ݭِین (ṣīn)	صوَاد (swād)
Letter	ض	ط	ظ	ع	غ	ف	ق	ک	گ	ل	ݪ	م	ن	ں	و	ہ	ء	ی	ے	ھ
Transliteration	z	t	z	ʼ	ğ	f	q	k	g	l	ł	m	n	˜	w/ū/ō	h	ʼ	y/ī/ē	ē	-h
IPA	[z]	[t]	[z]	[ʔ]	[ɣ]	[f]	[q]	[k]	[ɡ]	[l]	[ɬ]	[m]	[n]	[˜]	[w], [uː], [oː]	[h]	[ʔ]	[j], [iː], [eː]	[eː]	[ʰ]
Name	ضوَاد (zwād)	طوے (tōē)	ظوے (zōē)	عٞن (ʼän)	غین (ğän)	فے (fē)	قَاف (qāf)	کٞاف (kǟf)	گٞاف (gǟf)	لٞام (lǟm)	ݪٞام (łǟm)	مِیم (mīm)	نُون (nūn)	نُون غُنّہ (nūn ğunna)	وَاؤ (wāʼō)	چھوٹِی حے (čhōṭī he)	ءٞمزَہ (hämza)	چھوٹِی یے (čhōṭī ye)	بَڑِی یے (baṛī ye)	دُوچٞشمِی ہے (dūčäšmī hē

There are 7 Aspirated consonants represented by digraphs with the letter ھ:

• پھ (ph)
• تھ (th)
• ٹھ (ṭh)
• چھ (čh)
• ڄھ (ĉh)
• څھ (ch)
• کھ (kh)

The sounds /k/ and /g/ are palatalized before Front vowels. There are 3 digraphs with the letter ن:

• نڈ (nḍ) pronounced /ɳɖ/
• نڑ (nṛ): pronounced /ɽ/
• نگ (ng): pronounced /ŋ/ and palatalized before front vowels.

Vowels

Gawri language has 12 vowels (6 short and 6 long). They are:

• /a/ (a)
• /aː/ (ā)
• /æ/ (ä)
• /æː/ (ǟ)
• /i/ (i)
• /iː/ (ī)
• /u/ (u)
• /uː/ (ū)
• /e/ (e)
• /eː/ (ē)
• /o/ (o)
• /oː/ (ō)

8 of these vowels (a, ā, i, ī, u, ū, ē, ō) have the same orthography as in Urdu. The vowel ä (/æ/) is written with a Zabar with two dots (ٞ) and the long version ǟ as ٞا (آٞ at the beginning of a word).

Short e and o are represented by و, ی or ے followed by ۡ.

Unlike in Urdu where vowel diacritics are optional, in Gawri they are mandatory.

Tones

Gawri is a tonal language. It has 6 tones:

• level tone: unmarked.
• High tone: represented by ٝ, romanized with acute accent.
• High Falling tone: represented by ٛ, romanized with circumflex.
• low falling tone: represented by ٔ, romanized with Caron.
• Low tone: represented by ۧ, romanized with grave accent.
• Rising tone: represented by ٚ, romanized with ◌̚.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Mid	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Open	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link

Length () and nasalization () are probably contrastive for all vowels.

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Stop	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	(Template:IPA link)
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
	aspirated	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Affricate	plain		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	aspirated		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced				Template:IPA link
Fricative	voiceless	(Template:IPA link)	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
	voiced		Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
Lateral	voiceless		Template:IPA link
	voiced		Template:IPA link
Approximant					Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Flap			Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link

occur mainly in loanwords. tend to be replaced by , respectively.

After the front vowels , the velars are palatalized: .

Tone

Gawri has contrastive tones.

Grammar

Syntax

The default sentence order is SOV, but this can be changed for emphasis.

Morphology

Approximately 50% of Gawri words can not be broken down to smaller morphological forms. Of the other half, most words are made up of about two to three morphemes. This language implements many modifications to the stem as opposed to using distinct morpheme additions. For example, many plural words are formed by changing the stem of words as opposed to modifying with a plural morpheme.

	Word	Meaning
masc. sg.	yant	‘is coming’
masc. pl.	yänt	'are coming’
fem.	yent	‘is coming, are coming’

Words can also be modified by suffixes and prefixes.

Word	Meaning
gā	‘went’
gāt	'has gone’
gās̆	‘had gone’

See also

• Indus Kohistani language

Further reading

• Baart, Joan and Muhammad Zaman Sagar. 2020. THE GAWRI LANGUAGE OF KALAM AND DIR KOHISTAN. Online access
• Zaman, S. M., & Baart, J. L. (2004). Gaawri zaban-o-adab (Inmal Haq Javed ed.). Islamabad: Department of Pakistani Languages, Allama Iqbal Open University.
• Stahl, J. L. (1988). Multilingualism in Kalam Kohistan.
• Rensch, C. R., Decker, S. J., & Hallberg, D. G. (1992). Patterns of languages use among the Kohistanis of the Swat Valley. Languages of Kohistan. Islamabad, Pakistan: National Institute of Pakistan Studies Quaid-i-Azam University.
• Lothers, M. D. (1996). Deixis in Kalam Kohistani narrative discourse.
• Barth, F., & Morgenstierne, G. (1954). Vocabularies and specimens of some S.E. Dardic dialects. Oslo: Universitets forleget
• Baart, J.L. (2006). Report on local names and uses of plants in Kalam Kohistan. FLI Language and Culture Series, Anthropology.

External links

• Gawri Community Development Programme, contains various materials in and about the language
• The Gawri Language of Kalam and Dir Kohistan
• Tone and song in Kalam Kohistani
• A Sketch of Kalam Kohistani Grammar
• Names of Plants in Kalam Kohistani (Pakistan)
• The Gawri Language of Kalam and Dir Kohistani
• Kalam Kohistani Texts
• Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh
• LAPSyD Online page for Kalami
• SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY OF NORTHERN PAKISTAN
• Endangered Languages Project