Gawar-Bati or Narsati is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Chitral region of northern Pakistan, and across the border in Afghanistan. It is also known as Aranduyiwar in Chitral because it is spoken in Arandu, which is the last village in lower Chitral and is also across the border from Berkot in Afghanistan. There are about 9,000 speakers of Gawar-Bati, with 1,500 in Pakistan, and 7,500 in Afghanistan. The name Gawar-Bati means "speech of the Gawar",[2] a people detailed by the Cacopardos in their study of the Hindu Kush.[3]

Gawar-Bati
Narsati
Native to	Pakistan, Afghanistan
Region	Chitral, Kunar Province
Native speakers	(9,500 cited 1992)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Dardic Kunar Gawar-Bati
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gwt
Glottolog	gawa1247
ELP	Gawar-Bati

Study and classification

The Gawar-Bati language has not been given serious study by linguists, except that it is mentioned by George Morgenstierne (1926) and Kendall Decker (1992).

It is classified as an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic subgroup. However, the term Dardic is not linguistic but merely geographic.[4]

Phonology

The following tables set out the phonology of the Gawar-Bati language:[5]

Vowels

The status of short /e/ and /o/ is unclear.

Consonants

A breathy voiced series, /bʱ dʱ gʱ/, existed recently in older speakers—and may still do so.

Orthography

It is rarely written. This alphabet is used in Pakistan:[6]

Notes and references

Further reading

• Decker, Kendall D. (1992) Languages of Chitral Islamabad, Pakistan: National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, ISBN 969-8023-15-1 http://www.ethnologue.com/show_work.asp?id=32850
• Morgenstierne, Georg (1926) Report on a Linguistic Mission to Afghanistan Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning, Serie C I-2. Oslo. ISBN 0-923891-09-9

External links

• Georg Morgenstierne multimedia database
• Gawar-Bati online keyboard

35°19′38″N 71°35′05″E

На других языках

[fr] Gawar-bati

[ru] Гавар-бати