Kalami language

Kalami
Kohistani
Spoken in	Pakistan
Native speakers	60,000–70,000  (1995)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Dardic Kohistani Kalami
Writing system	Arabic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gwc
Linguasphere	59-AAC-c

Kalami is a Dardic language spoken in northern Pakistan.

The language is also known as Gawri or Garwi (IPA: [ɡaːwriː]), but this name is considered pejorative by some speakers.

Classification

According to its genealogical classification (Strand, 1973:302 and 2004), Kalam Kohistani 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 the Swat valley 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

Kalam Kohistani (also called 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.

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		m	n	ɳ		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	ʈ		k	(q)
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d	ɖ		ɡ
Affricate	voiceless		ts	tʂ	tʃ
	aspirated		tsʰ	tʂʰ	tʃʰ
	voiced				dʒ
Fricative	voiceless	(f)	s	ʂ	ʃ	x		h
	voiced		z			ɣ
Lateral	voiceless		ɬ
	Voiced		l
Flap			ɾ	ɽ
Approximant					j	w

/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

Kalami has 5 contrastive tones: high level, high falling, delayed high falling, low level, low rising.

Grammar

Syntax

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

See also

• Kohistani language

External links

• The Gawri Language of Kalam and Dir Kohistan
• Ethnologue report for language code:gwc
• Tone and song in Kalam Kohistani