# Gawri language

Gawri (ګاوری), also known as Kalami (کالامي), Kalam Kohistani and Bashkarik, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Swat Kohistan (also called Kalam) region in the upper Swat District and in the upper Panjkora river valley of Upper Dir District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Gawri and Torwali are collectively classified as "Swat Kohistani".

## Classification

According to its genealogical classification (Strand, 1973:302 and 2004), Gawri belongs to the Kohistani subgroup of the north-western zone of Indo-Aryan languages, along with several closely related languages in its geographical vicinity: Torwali (in Swat south of Kalam), Indus Kohistani, Bateri, Chilisso, and Gawro (the latter four east of Kalam in Indus Kohistan). Together with a range of other north-western Indo-Aryan mountain languages, these languages are sometimes collectively referred to as ‘Dardic’ languages.

## Geographic distribution

Gawri is one of about thirty languages that are spoken in the mountain areas of northern Pakistan. Kohistan is a Persian word that means ‘land of mountains’ and Kohistani can be translated as ‘mountain language’. As a matter of fact, there are several distinct languages in the area that are all popularly called Kohistani. The language under study in this paper is spoken in the upper parts of the valley of the Swat River, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. The name of the principal village of this area is Kalam, and hence the area is known as Kalam Kohistan. In the older linguistic literature, the language of Kalam Kohistan is referred to as Bashkarik (Morgenstierne, 1940), or as Garwi or Gawri (Grierson, 1919; Barth & Morgenstierne, 1958). These names are hardly, if at all, known to the speakers of the language themselves, who normally just call their language Kohistani. However, very recently a number of intellectuals belonging to a local cultural society have started to call their language Gawri, a name that has old historical roots.
The same language is also spoken across the mountains to the West of Kalam Kohistan, in the upper reaches of the Panjkora river valley of Upper Dir District. When added together, the two Kalam-Kohistani-speaking communities comprised over 200,000 people.

## Alphabet

Gawri uses the Arabic script. The Gawri alphabet has 43 letters: all 39 letters of the Urdu alphabet plus 4 additional letters. One feature of the Gawri alphabet not found in Urdu is that it places the letterھ as the last letter of the alphabet, preceded by ے. All the 4 additional letters used in Gawri are also found in Gawar-Bati language.
| Letter | ا | ب | پ | ت | ٹ | ث | ج | چ | ڄ | څ | ح | خ | د | ڈ | ذ | ر | ڑ | ز | ژ | س | ش | ݭ | ص |
| Transliteration | ∅/ā/ǟ | b | p | t | ṭ | s | j | č | ĉ | c | h | x | d | ḍ | z | r | ṛ | z | ž | s | š | ṣ | s |
| IPA | [∅], [aː], [æː] | [b] | [p] | [t] | [ʈ] | [s] | [d͡ʒ] | [tʃ] | [ʈ͡ʂ] | [t͡s] | [h] | [x] | [d] | [ɖ] | [z] | [r] | [ɽ] | [z] | [ʒ] | [s] | [ʃ] | [ʂ] | [s] |
| Name | اٞلِف (älif) | بے (bē) | پے (pē) | تے (tē) | ٹے (ṭē) | ثے (sē) | جِیم (jīm) | چے (čē) | ڄے (ĉē) | بَڑِی حے (hē) | خے (xē) | دَال (dāl) | ڈَال (ḍāl) | ذَال (zl) | رے (re) | ڑے (ṛe) | زے (ze) | ژے (že) | سِین (sīn) | شِین (šīn) | ݭِین (ṣīn) | صوَاد (swād) |
| Letter | ض | ط | ظ | ع | غ | ف | ق | ک | گ | ل | ݪ | م | ن | ں | و | ہ | ء | ی | ے | ھ |
| Transliteration | z | t | z | ʼ | ğ | f | q | k | g | l | ł | m | n | ˜ | w/ū/ō | h | ʼ | y/ī/ē | ē | -h |
| IPA | [z] | [t] | [z] | [ʔ] | [ɣ] | [f] | [q] | [k] | [ɡ] | [l] | [ɬ] | [m] | [n] | [˜] | [w], [uː], [oː] | [h] | [ʔ] | [j], [iː], [eː] | [eː] | [ʰ] |
| Name | ضوَاد (zwād) | طوے (tōē) | ظوے (zōē) | عٞن (ʼän) | غین (ğän) | فے (fē) | قَاف (qāf) | کٞاف (kǟf) | گٞاف (gǟf) | لٞام (lǟm) | ݪٞام (łǟm) | مِیم (mīm) | نُون (nūn) | نُون غُنّہ (nūn ğunna) | وَاؤ (wāʼō) | چھوٹِی حے (čhōṭī he) | ءٞمزَہ (hämza) | چھوٹِی یے (čhōṭī ye) | بَڑِی یے (baṛī ye) | دُوچٞشمِی ہے (dūčäšmī hē |
* پھ (ph)
* تھ (th)
* ٹھ (ṭh)
* چھ (čh)
* ڄھ (ĉh)
* څھ (ch)
* کھ (kh)
* نڈ (nḍ) pronounced /ɳɖ/
* نڑ (nṛ): pronounced /ɽ/
* نگ (ng): pronounced /ŋ/ and palatalized before front vowels.

### Vowels

Gawri language has 12 vowels (6 short and 6 long). They are:
* /a/ (a)
* /aː/ (ā)
* /æ/ (ä)
* /æː/ (ǟ)
* /i/ (i)
* /iː/ (ī)
* /u/ (u)
* /uː/ (ū)
* /e/ (e)
* /eː/ (ē)
* /o/ (o)
* /oː/ (ō)

### Tones

Gawri is a tonal language. It has 6 tones:
* level tone: unmarked.
* High tone: represented by ٝ, romanized with acute accent.
* High Falling tone: represented by ٛ, romanized with circumflex.
* low falling tone: represented by ٔ, romanized with Caron.
* Low tone: represented by ۧ, romanized with grave accent.
* Rising tone: represented by ٚ, romanized with ◌̚.

## Phonology
### Vowels

| | Front | Back |
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | ɑ |
Length (/ː/) and nasalization (/ ̃/) are probably contrastive for all vowels.

### Consonants

| | | Labial | Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal |
| Nasal | Nasal | m | n | ɳ | | ŋ | | |
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | ʈ | | k | (q) | |
| Stop | voiced | b | d | ɖ | | ɡ | | |
| Stop | aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | ʈʰ | | kʰ | | |
| Affricate | plain | | ts | tʂ | tʃ | | | |
| Affricate | aspirated | | tsʰ | tʂʰ | tʃʰ | | | |
| Affricate | voiced | | | | dʒ | | | |
| Fricative | voiceless | (f) | s | ʂ | ʃ | x | | h |
| Fricative | voiced | | z | | | ɣ | | |
| Lateral | voiceless | | ɬ | | | | | |
| Lateral | voiced | | l | | | | | |
| Approximant | Approximant | | | | j | w | | |
| Flap | Flap | | ɾ | ɽ | | | | |
/q f z x ɣ/ occur mainly in loanwords. /q f/ tend to be replaced by /x p/, respectively.
After the front vowels /i e a/, the velars /k ɡ ŋ/ are palatalized: [kʲ ɡʲ ŋʲ].

### Tone

Gawri has contrastive tones.

## Grammar
### Syntax

The default sentence order is SOV, but this can be changed for emphasis.

### Morphology

Approximately 50% of Gawri words can not be broken down to smaller morphological forms. Of the other half, most words are made up of about two to three morphemes. This language implements many modifications to the stem as opposed to using distinct morpheme additions. For example, many plural words are formed by changing the stem of words as opposed to modifying with a plural morpheme.
| | Word | Meaning |
| masc. sg. | yant | ‘is coming’ |
| masc. pl. | yänt | 'are coming’ |
| fem. | yent | ‘is coming, are coming’ |
Words can also be modified by suffixes and prefixes.
| Word | Meaning |
| gā | ‘went’ |
| gāt | 'has gone’ |
| gās̆ | ‘had gone’ |