-W
R,
CHITRL
,
OR ARNIYA. 08-02-133
133
KH-WR,
CHITRL,
OR ARNIYA.
This language passes under various names. It is called Kh
-w
r
by the people who speak it,-the Chitrl
s,
or as they call themselves, Khs.
It is usually called Chitrl
and sometimes Q
qr
by the English. It was called 'Arnyi
'
by Leitner, the name being based on the 
i
word Arinah, employed to designate a portion of Ysn
where Kh-wr
is spoken.
'Chitrr, or Qaqr
as it is called by the Pa
hns,
is bounded on the north by the Hind
Kush range, separating it from Bada
n
and Wan;
on the south by the Indus, wt,
and Panjkr
Khistns,
and the Asmar district: on the east by Kanjut, Gilgit, Punial, and Dir; and
on the west by the Hind Kush and
Kfiristn.'
Kh-wr
is the language generally spoken throughout Chitrl,
as far down as Drsh. It is also spoken
by people residing in the 
i
r
valley (east of the andur
Pass) as far as Gupis. In some parts such as Ysn,
Lutkoh, Madaglat
and Narst, the people have dialects
of their own, but they all know Kh-wr.
According to tradition the whole Chitral Valley was once occupied by Kfirs,
and some Kfir
tribes, e. g. the Kals,
still inhabit it. This tradition is borne out by the fact that the Kfir
languages are much more nearly related to those of the Dard Group than either
of these groups is to Kh-wr.
The last, though undoubtedly a Dardic language, differs from the other two in
some essential particulars, such, even, as the forms of the personal pronouns,
in which it agrees rather with the alchah
languages to the north. It looks as if the whole tract comprising the present
Kfiristn,
Chitrl, and
Gilgit was once occupied by one homogeneous race, which was subsequently split
into two by a wedge of Kh
invasion, representing members of a different, but related, tribe coming from
the north. In order to exemplify this, I here give a table showing a number
of words in Kh-wr
with the corresponding words in two Kfir
and two Dard languages.
|
English.
|
Kh
-wr. |
K
FIR
GROUP. |
DARD GROUP.
|
||
|
Ba
gal. |
F l
. |
i. |
K
shmr.
|
||
| Bad | um |
digar | khcha |
kch |
koch |
| Behind | ach |
pibar |
pi |
phat |
pata |
| Black | |
|
krna |
kin |
krhun |
| Bone | kol | att |
at |
at |
a ij |
| Cow | l |
g o |
gak | g |
gv |
| Deep | kulum | guru | gt |
gutm |
gtul |
| Dog | r ni |
ku i |
 |
 |
hn |
The word is 'Kh-wr,'
not '
-wr,'
as spelt by O'Brien. The people of Chitrl
pronounce it 'K-wr'
or 'K
-wr,'
k being a slightly
aspirated k. I am indebted to Major D. L. R. Lorimer, Assistant Political Agent
at Chitrl for this information.
O'Brien. owr
Grammar, I. I.