Torwali language

{{Short description|Indo-Aryan language spoken in Pakistan}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Torwali

| nativename = {{nq|توروالی}}

| region = Swat District

| speakers = 130,000

| date = 2020

| ref = e26

| familycolor = Indo-European

| fam2 = Indo-Iranian

| fam3 = Indo-Aryan

| fam4 = Dardic

| fam5 = Kohistani
Gandhari?

| 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

| image = 200px

| imagecaption = Torwali written in Perso-Arabic in Nastaliq style.

}}

File:Bahrain town in Swat.jpg, the main town of the Torwali community ]]

Torwali (Torwali: {{nastaliq|توروالی}}), also known as Bahrain Kohistani,{{Cite book |last=Baart |first=Joan L. G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JQlkAAAAMAAJ |title=The Sounds and Tones of Kalam Kohistani: With Wordlist and Texts |date=1997 |publisher=National Institute of Pakistan Studies |isbn=978-969-8023-03-4 |pages=1 |language=en}} is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Torwali people, and concentrated in the Bahrain and Chail areas in the Swat Kohistan region of the Swat District in northern Pakistan.{{cite journal |last1=Kreutzmann |first1=Hermann |title=Linguistic diversity in space and time: A survey in the Eastern Hindukush and Karakoram |journal=Himalayan Linguistics |date=2005 |volume=4 |page=7 |publisher=Center for Development Studies, Free University of Berlin}}{{cite journal|last1=Torwali |first1=Zubair |title=Reversing Language Loss through an Identity Based Educational Planning: The Case of Torwali language |journal=Eurasian Journal of Humanities |date=2016 |volume=1 |issue=2 |page=24 |url=http://www.eurasianjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Article-2.-Reversing-language-loss-through-an-identity-based-educational-planning%E2%80%94the-case-of-Torwali-2.docx-1.pdf}}{{cite book|last1=Biddulph |first1=John |title=Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh |date=1880 |publisher=1971 edition Akadmeische Druck u Verlagasasntalt |location=Graz, Austria |page=69 |url=http://www.mahraka.com/pdf/TribesOfTheHindooKoosh.pdf}}{{cite book|last1=Barth |first1=Fredrik |title=Indus and Swat Kohistan: an Ethnographic Survey |url=https://archive.org/details/indusswatkohista0002bart |url-access=registration |date=1956 |location=Oslo |page=[https://archive.org/details/indusswatkohista0002bart/page/52 52]}} The Pathans call them, and all other Muhammadans of Indian descent in the Hindu Kush valleys, Kohistanis. The Torwali language is said to have originated from the pre-Muslim communities of Swat.{{cite web |last1=Torwali |first1=Zubair |title=Revitalization of Torwali poetry and music |url=https://wemountains.com/03/04/1143/ |website=We Mountains – Regional Website of North Pakistan |date=4 March 2019 |publisher=IBT |access-date=5 March 2019}} It is the closest modern Indo-Aryan language still spoken today to Niya, a dialect of Gāndhārī, a Middle Indo-Aryan language spoken in the ancient region of Gandhara.{{Cite journal |last=Burrow |first=T. |date=1936 |title=The Dialectical Position of the Niya Prakrit |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/608051 |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London |volume=8 |issue=2/3 |pages=419–435 |jstor=608051 |issn=1356-1898 |quote=... It might be going too far to say that Torwali is the direct lineal descendant of the Niya Prakrit, but there is no doubt that out of all the modern languages it shows the closest resemblance to it. A glance at the map in the Linguistic Survey of India shows that the area at present covered by "Kohistani" is the nearest to that area round Peshawar, where, as stated above, there is most reason to believe was the original home of the Niya Prakrit. That conclusion, which was reached for other reasons, is thus confirmed by the distribution of the modern dialects.}}{{Cite book |last=Salomon |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYrG07qQDxkC&pg=PA79 |title=Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan Languages |date=1998-12-10 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-535666-3 |pages=79 |language=en}} Torwali and Gawri languages are collectively classified as "Swat Kohistani".{{Cite book |last=Rensch |first=Calvin Ross |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ghliAAAAMAAJ&q=Languages+of+Kohistan.+Sociolinguistic+Survey+of+Northern+Pakistan |title= Languages of Kohistan |date=1992 |publisher=National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University |language=en|series=Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan |volume=1|author2=Decker, Sandra J. |author3=Hallberg, Daniel G. |isbn =969-8023-11-9 |page=xiii}}

The words "Kohistan" and Kohistani are generic [https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1284909-what-is-kohistani terms]. Kohistan in Persian and in Urdu means as "land of mountains" whereas "Kohistani" refers to 'language spoken in the land mountains" or 'people of the mountains.{{Cite book |last=Baart |first=Joan L. G. |title=The sounds and tones of Kalam Kohistani: with wordlist and texts |date=1997 |publisher=National Institute of Pakistan Studies ; Summer Institute of Linguistics |others=National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Summer Institute of Linguistics (United Kingdom) |isbn=978-969-8023-03-4 |series=Studies in languages of Northern Pakistan |location=Islamabad : United Kingdom}} Joan Baart is the only author who used the term "Bahrain Kohistani" for the Torwali language. Ethnologue, twenty seventh edition suggests Kohistani, Torwalak, Torwalik and Turvali as alternative names for the language while Torwali as an autonym for it.{{Cite book |last1=Eberhard |first1=David M. |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/reference/id/675787 |title=Ethnologue: Languages of the World |last2=Simons |first2=Gary F. |last3=Fennig |first3=Charles D. |date=2024 |publisher=SIL International |edition=27 |location=Dallas}}

Torwali is an endangered language: it is characterised as "definitely endangered" by UNESCO's Atlas of Endangered Languages,{{cite journal |last1=Torwali |first1=Zubair |title=Reversing Language Loss through an Identity Based Educational Planning: The Case of Torwali language |journal=Eurasian Journal of Humanities |date=2016 |volume=1 |issue=2 |page=24 |url=http://www.eurasianjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Article-2.-Reversing-language-loss-through-an-identity-based-educational-planning%E2%80%94the-case-of-Torwali-2.docx-1.pdf}} and as "vulnerable" by the Catalogue of Endangered Languages.{{cite web |last1=Hammarström |first1=Harald |title=Torwali |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/torw1241 |website=Glottolog |access-date=17 April 2019}} There have been efforts to revitalize the language since 2004, and mother tongue community schools have been established by Idara Baraye Taleem wa Taraqi (Institute for Education and Development) (IBT).{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9781315561271-54 |chapter=Supporting and Sustaining Language Vitality in Northern Pakistan |title=The Routledge Handbook of Language Revitalization |year=2018 |last1=Liljegren |first1=Henrik |pages=427–437 |isbn=978-1-315-56127-1}}