Khowar Language - Writing System

Writing System

According to Rehmat Aziz Chitrali’s research before the 19th century, Khowar was an unwritten language. At the time princely state of Chitral, the official written language was Persian, although Khowar was still spoken from Arandu to Yarkhun valley and Ghizer Valley of Nothern Pakistan. During an interview to Akbar Ali Qazi a Ismaili religious scholor, Rehmat Aziz Chitrali said that ‘’British linguists and political historians wrote form with the Latin script, but following the independence of Pakistan, Chitrali scholars adopted Urdu Arabic script’’. The first humorous collection of poetry in Khowar, Guldasta-e-Rahmat (گلدستہء رحمت) by Rehmat Aziz Chitrali was published in 1996 and incorporated the Urdu Arabic Script. Rehmat Aziz also wrote a comprehensive guidance on the usage of Urdu Arabic script and standardized it as the Khowar Orthography. He has created Khowar alphabets and Romanized Khowar alphabets . This earned Rehmat Aziz the title of 'the Father of Khowar'. Rachitrali's alphabets are widely used in Perso-Arabic Script and Roman script. In Pakistan, however, Khowar is written in a modified Arabic script based on what is used for Urdu but the foreigners are using Rehmat Aziz’s Khowar Romanized script in their articles.

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