Torwali is a Dardic language of the Northwestern Indo-Aryan family mainly spoken in the Bahrain and Chail areas of the Swat District in Northern Pakistan. It is said to have originated from the pre-Muslim Dardic communities of Pakistan. It has two dialects. The language and its community, like other communities, Gawri in Swat and in Dir, and the ones in Indus Kohistan, is often referred to as "Kohistani" which is a name given by the Swat Pathans. Fredrik Barth says "By the Swat Pathans, the people are known as Kohistanis, together with the other non-Pathan peoples given that name; together with the Torwalis, Kohistanis of Swat Kohistan". The Afghans call them 'Kohistani'--a name everywhere given by Pathans to 'the Mussulmans of Indic descent living' in Hindu Kush. Close to 30-35% of its speakers have migrated permanently to the bigger cities of Pakistan where their language is either being replaced by the national language Urdu, or by other languages of wider communication such as Pashto or Punjabi. The language Torwali is said to have originated from the pre-Muslim Dardic communities of Swat. Endangerment: Torwali is among the 27 endangered languages according to the UNESCO's Atlas of endangered languages.. Glottolog categorizes it as 'vulnerable. Efforts to revitalize the Torwali language were started back in 2004 and mother tonguecommunity schools were planned and established by Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi. Zubair Torwali founded Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi --the institute for education and development. He and his team introduced mother tongue based multilingual education in Bahrain Swat and started advocacy for its revitalization.
Phonology
Although descriptions of Torwali phonology have appeared in the literature, some questions still remain unanswered.
Vowels
Front
Central
Back
Close
Mid
Open
Edelman's analysis, which was based on Grierson and Morgenstierne, shows nasal counterparts to at least and also found a series of central vowels, transcribed as:,,.
Front
Central
Back
Close
Mid
Open
Lunsford had some difficulty determining vowel phonemes and suggested there may be retractedvowels with limited distribution: ,. Retracted or retroflex vowels are also found in Kalash-mondr.
Consonants
The phonemic status of the breathy voiced series is debatable. Sounds with particularly uncertain status are marked with a superscript question mark.
