User:IqraSajjad1/Torwali language



Torwali is a Dardic language of the Northwestern Indo-Aryan family spoken by 80,000 - 110,000 people in the Bahrain and Chail areas of the Swat District in Northern Pakistan. It is said to have originated from the pre-Muslim Dardic communities of Pakistan. It has two dialects, Bahrain and Chail. The language and its community, like other communities, Gawri in Swat and in Dir, and the ones in Indus Kohistan, is often referred to as "Kohistani" which is a name given by the Swat Pashtuns. Fredrik Barth says "By the Swat Pashtuns, the people are known as Kohistanis, together with the other non-Pashtun peoples given that name; together with the Torwalis, Kohistanis of Swat Kohistan". The Afghans call them 'Kohistani'--a name everywhere given by Pashtuns to 'the Musulmans of Indic descent living' in Hindu Kush. Torwalik, like other Dardic communities, are unaware of their origins due to invasions by outsiders. Thus, most of them today identify themselves with either Arabs or Pashtuns. Additionally, the language lacked a writing system until 2007 when it adapted a Perso-Arabic script. Presently, close to 30-35% of its speakers have migrated permanently to the bigger cities of Pakistan where their language is either being replaced by the national language Urdu, or by other languages of wider communication such as Pashto or Punjabi.

Torwali is an endangered language: it is characterized as "definitely endangered" by UNESCO's Atlas of Endangered Languages, and as "vulnerable" by the Catalogue of Endangered Languages. Its endangerment is due to various reasons such as " political organization, marred identities, no written tradition, and marginalization, globalization, the rule of dominant languages over these languages, rough terrain, poverty and so forth". There have been efforts to revitalize the language since 2004, and mother tongue community schools have been established by Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi (IBT).

Phonology
Although descriptions of Torwali phonology have appeared in the literature, some questions still remain unanswered.

Vowels
Edelman's analysis, which was based on Grierson and Morgenstierne, shows nasal counterparts to at least and also found a series of central (reduced?) vowels, transcribed as: $⟨ä⟩$, $⟨ü⟩$, $⟨ö⟩$.

Lunsford had some difficulty determining vowel phonemes and suggested there may be retracted vowels with limited distribution: (which may be ),. Retracted or retroflex vowels are also found in Kalash-mondr.

Consonants
The phonemic status of the breathy voiced series is debatable.

Sounds with particularly uncertain status are marked with a superscript question mark.