Back to Main page

KHOWAR IN THE COMMUNITY OF WORLD LANGUAGES

It is believed (both in religion and science) that the human race has descended from a single couple. Therefore it is logical to think that there should have been a single original language, from which all the world languages have evolved. Languages are born and die like human beings, and like humans every dying language leaves behind its offspring. Today the world population speaks more than 5000 languages. Linguists have divided these languages into many groups and sub groups on the basis of their similarities in terms of vocabulary and structure. These groups are called Language Families.

Khowar is a small language, spoken by some 500,000 people in the mountainous region in the North of Pakistan. Khowar belongs to the main group called Proto Indo-European. Indo-European Group is the largest group in the World, spoken by some 46% of the world population, spread over a vast area from India to West Europe. Other major language groups are Semitic, Sino- Tibetan, Niger-Congo, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic etc. Following chart shows the place of Khowar language in the family of Indo-European Languages.

khowar family tree
MAHRAKA.COM
A Website on the Culture, History and Languages of Chitral.
Contact: mahraka.mail@gmail.com