KHOWAR LANGUAGE: THE ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION THROUGH HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore the origins and evolution through historical and cultural perspective of Khowar language in Chitral by applying qualitative content analysis. The findings revealed that the Prototype Khowar came into existence due to the admittance and interaction of Dravidian speech community with the indigenous inhabitance of Chitral (known as “Pisacha” who spoke “Pisacha” language, “seemed to be “Kalash”). The language in turn developed six speech sounds different from the languages whose origins do not go to the Indo-Iranian roots. Besides, the finding revealed that Khowar language there are a number of lexis particular to agriculture seemed to be from Dravidian origins. Moreover, the findings also explored that Khowar language has its distinct inflectional system; and the words with medial and terminal /k/ sound have their close affinity with Dravidian language rather than the languages coming from the Indo-Iranian origins.