Changed Publisher

Khowar is the primary language of the Chitral District of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. Although at least ten languages are spoken in Chitral, including those spoken by minority groups in areas such as Lotkuh, Arandu, Ashret and Yarkhun and the closely related language spoken in the Kalash valleys of Bumboret, Rumbur and Birir, more than 90% of all residents of Chitral speak Khowar as their mother tongue and the remainder have become fluent in Khowar as their second language. Khowar is an Indo-European language but otherwise it is not considered to be closely related to any of the major languages of Pakistan such as Urdu or Pashtu but rather to have come to Chitral and parts of Gilgit and Swat from areas north of the Hindu Kush more than two thousand years ago. Here it survived to the present due to the isolated position of Chitral valley, which is snowbound most of the year. Cut off as it is from the outside by some of the highest mountains in the world, Chitral itself remained an independent state until 1947. The Khowar language has aroused considerable interest among linguists and others particularly, because of its archaic features. At the same time, it is an easy language to learn by any standard.This is the first dictionary of Khowar ever to be published. Because Khowar is primarily a spoken language and has no written from in popular use. the author first had to conduct a scientific linguistic analysis of the language in order to determine its basic sound system. In his introduction, he explains how he went about doing this. Based upon this analysis, the author then developed an original system for writing Khowar in the Roman alphabet. The author took trips to different parts of Chitral spread over a number of years and interviewed well over one hundred native speakers representing all regions of Chitral to collect the vocabulary for this book. This painstaking research has resulted in a dictionary which has tremendous value both for its readers and for the language itself. In addition, even the reader who has no interest in learning the language will benefit because this dictionary and its accompanying introduction clarifies the historical, cultural and linguistic background of the people of Chitral and its neighboring regions.PRINTING CORPORATION OF FRONTIER LTD. PO BOX 351 PESHAWAR PHONE NO. 8396Sloan, Mohammad Ismail is the author of 'Changed Publisher', published 1981 under ISBN 9781881373070 and ISBN 188137307X.