Gawar-Bati language facts for kids

Gawar-Bati is a language spoken by a small group of people in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the Chitral area of Pakistan, it is also called Aranduyiwar. This name comes from Arandu Village, which is the last village at the end of Chitral. It sits right across the Kunar River from Berkot in Afghanistan. Arandu is an important place because Pakistan has a military base there to help keep the border safe.

Who Speaks Gawar-Bati?

About 9,000 people speak Gawar-Bati in total. Most of these speakers live in Afghanistan. Only about 1,500 people who speak Gawar-Bati live in Pakistan.

Studying the Gawar-Bati Language

Not many language experts, called linguists, have studied Gawar-Bati in great detail. It has been mentioned by a few researchers, like George Morgenstierne in 1926 and Kendall Decker in 1992. Gawar-Bati is often grouped with other languages called "Dardic languages." This grouping is mostly because these languages are spoken in a similar mountain region, not always because they are very similar in how they sound or are built.

Chitral: A Place of Many Languages

A famous Norwegian linguist named Georg Morgenstierne once said that Chitral is one of the most diverse places in the world for languages. This means many different languages are spoken there! Even though Khowar is the main language in Chitral, more than ten other languages are also spoken by different communities.

Other Languages in Chitral

Some of the other languages you can hear in Chitral include:

• Kalasha-mun
• Palula
• Dameli
• Nuristani
• Yidgha
• Burushaski
• Gujar
• Wakhi
• Kyrgyz
• Persian
• Pashto

Many of these languages do not have their own written form. Because of this, people usually write letters or important documents in Urdu or Persian.