| Torwali | |
| Region: | Swat District |
| Speakers: | 130,000 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| Ref: | e26 |
| Familycolor: | Indo-European |
| Fam2: | Indo-Iranian |
| Fam3: | Indo-Aryan |
| Fam4: | Dardic |
| Fam5: | Kohistani |
| Iso3: | trw |
| Glotto: | torw1241 |
| Glottorefname: | Torwali |
| Script: | Arabic script (primarily Nastaliq) |
| Map: | Minor languages of Pakistan as of the 1998 census.png |
| Mapcaption: | Torwali is a minor language of Pakistan which is mainly spoken by Torwali nation of Central Swat District, it is given a space in this map. |
| Ethnicity: | Torwali people |
Torwali (Torwali:), also known as Bahrain Kohistani,[1] is an Indo-Aryan language of Kohistani group spoken by the Torwali people in the Bahrain and Chail areas of the Swat Kohistan region in northern Pakistan.[2] [3] [4] [5] It has been proposed to be the closest modern Indo-Aryan language still spoken today to Niya dialect of Gāndhārī, a Middle Indo-Aryan language spoken in the ancient region of Gandhara.[6] [7] Torwali and Gawri languages are collectively classified as "Swat Kohistani".[8]
The Torwali language is said to have originated from the pre-Muslim communities of Swat. Torwali is an endangered language: it is characterised as "vulnerable" by the Catalogue of Endangered Languages. There have been efforts to revitalise the language since 2004, and mother tongue community schools have been established by Idara Baraye Taleem wa Taraqi (Institute for Education and Development) (IBT).[9]
The words "Kohistan" (lit. Land of mountains) and "Kohistani" (lit. Language or people of Kohistan) are generic terms.[10] Kohistani can thus refer to any of about a dozen Kohistani languages spoken in the Kohistan region of Pakistan. Joan Baart is the only author who used the term "Bahrain Kohistani" for the Torwali language. Ethnologue, 27th edition suggests Kohistani, Torwalak, Torwalik and Turvali as alternative names for the language while Torwali as an autonym for it.[11]
Although descriptions of Torwali phonology have appeared in the literature, some questions still remain unanswered.[12] [13]
| Close | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ |
Edelman's analysis, which was based on Grierson and Morgenstierne, shows nasal counterparts to at least pronounced as //e o a// and also found a series of central (reduced?) vowels, transcribed as: (ä), (ü), (ö).[12]
| Close | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /e ẽ (e̙)/ | pronounced as /ə (ə̙)/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | |
| Open | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ |
Lunsford had some difficulty determining vowel phonemes and suggested there may be retracted vowels with limited distribution: pronounced as //ɨ// (which may be pronounced as /[i̙]/), pronounced as //e̙/, /ə̙//.[13] Retracted or retroflex vowels are also found in Kalash-mondr.
The phonemic status of the breathy voiced series is debatable.
Sounds with particularly uncertain status are marked with a superscript question mark.
| Labial | Coronal | Retroflex | Post-alv./ Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | width=20px style="border-right: 0;" | width=20px style="border-left: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ | width=20px style="border-right: 0;" | width=20px style="border-left: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ | width=20px style="border-right: 0;" | width=20px style="border-left: 0;" | (pronounced as /ink/) | width=20px style="border-right: 0;" | width=20px style="border-left: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
| Stop | pronounced as /ink/ pʰ | pronounced as /ink/ bʱ | pronounced as /ink/ tʰ | pronounced as /ink/ dʱ | pronounced as /ink/ ʈʰ | pronounced as /ink/ ɖʱ | width=20px style="border-right: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ kʰ | width=20px style="border-left: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ ɡʱ | ||||||||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ ʈʂʰ | pronounced as /ink/ | width=20px style="border-right: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ tʃʰ | width=20px style="border-left: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||||||||
| Fricative (Lateral) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | width=20px style="border-right: 0;" | pronounced as /ink/ | width=20px style="border-left: 0;" | |||||||||
| (t)pronounced as /ink/? | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Approximant (Lateral) | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||||||||||||
| pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/? | ||||||||||||||||||
The Torwali language does not have a fixed orthography. The existing and widely used Torwali Character set was proposed by Inam Ullah, who proposed representations for unique sounds in Torwali language which later received official designations from the Unicode with the support of University of Chicago in 2005.[14]
The Torwali orthography was developed by Idara Baraye Taleem wa Taraqi (IBT) i.e. institute for education and development from 2005–2008 wherein text books for children were developed along with the Alphabet book and primer in Torwali under the Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education program by the abovementioned organisation.[15]
The Torwali alphabet has 46 letters. It uses all 39 letters of the Urdu alphabet plus 7 additional letters. There are 16 aspirated consonants in Torwali represented by digraphs with the letter ھ:
There is also another digraph, نگ, (transliterated in Latin script as ng), and it represents the sound /ŋ/. The letter ے is used for the /e/ sound, and can also appear at the middle of a word, unlike in Urdu where it appears only at the end of a word. The letters ځ and ݨ are used in Pashto loanwords (ݨ for Pashto ڼ), while the letters ث, ح, ذ, ز, ص, ض, ط, ظ, ع, ف and ق are only used in loanwords from Urdu, Arabic and Persian.[16] Torwali also uses the letter ٲ for the /æ/ sound, at the beginning, middle or end of word, and is transliterated æ in Latin script. This letter is not part of the Alphabetical order. The letter ا can represent both /a/ (also represented by zabar / fatha َ) or /ə/.
An online source, the website of IBT where efforts of revitalising the Torwali language can be found along with resources in and about the Torwali language:
