Urtsuniwar

Urtsuniwar or Urchuniwar (اُرچؕنوار) is a dialect of Kalasha-mun spoken in the Urtsun Valley in Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.[2] The total number of speakers of this dialect are estimated to be around 2,900–5,700 peoples.[2]

Urtsuniwar
Urchuniwar
اُرچؕنوار
Native toPakistan
RegionUrtsun Valley
EthnicitySouthern Kalash
Native speakers
(2,900–5,700 cited 1992)[1]
Perso-Arabic script (Nastaliq)
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)

Similarity

It has been debated whether Urtsuniwar is a different language or a dialect of Kalasha-mun. Urtsuniwar and Kalasha are mutually intelligible by 70%.[3] Urtsuniwar also shares some similarity with Ushojo language.[4]

History

The Kafirs of Urtsun were one of the last pagans of Afghanistan-Pakistan to convert to Islam in the mid 1900s.The last Urtsun Kafir was Mranzi who had married a Biriu valley Kalasha & moved out of the valley in 1940 just as the conversion to Islam was completed .[5] [6] They renamed their language Kalasha-mun to Urtsuniwar and later borrowed heavily from Khowar and changed their identity.[7] Later, Urtsuniwar started to diverge into a distinct dialect of Kalasha-mun.

References
  1. Rahman, Tariq. "Language Policy and Localization in Pakistan: Proposal for a Paradigmatic Shift". 2. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. "Sociolinguistic Survey Of Northern Pakistan: Volume 5: Languages Of Chitral". 5. National Institute of Pakistan Studies , Summer Institute of Linguistics. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. "Languages of Hindukush - University of Chitral". uoch.edu.pk. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  4. Kukreja, Veena; Singh, M P (2005). Pakistan: Democracy, Development and Security Issues. SAGE Publications, 23 Nov 2005. ISBN 9780761934165.
  5. the Kalasha of Urtsun - A Cacopardo 1991 east & west magazine
  6. "Bisyndetic Contrast Marking in the Hindukush: Additional Evidence of a Historical Contact Zone in: Journal of Language Contact Volume 10 Issue 3 (2017)". brill.com. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  7. "Bisyndetic Contrast Marking in the Hindukush: Additional Evidence of a Historical Contact Zone in: Journal of Language Contact Volume 10 Issue 3 (2017)". brill.com. Retrieved 2022-10-11.


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