Torwali An Account of a Dardic Language of the Swat Kohistan (An Old and Rare Book)

Törwali is one of a number of languages generally grouped together under the name of "Kohistani", as being spoken in the Panjkōră, Swat, and Indus Kōhistans lying. to the north of the Peshawar and Hazara Districts of British India. Other members of the group are Gårwi, spoken in the Swat Kōhistan above Tōrwäli, and Maiya, spoken in the Mayo district of the Indus Kōhistan. Both of these are described in the Linguistic Survey, and are Dardic forms of speech. They belong to the Dard group of that linguistic family, being more nearly connected with Sina and the Indianized Kasmiri than with the Khöwär of Chitral spoken to their immediate north.

Sir. George A. Grierson a very famous linguist.

When Sir Aurel Stein, in the course of his inquiries regarding the track of Alexander the Great in his march to the Indus, visited the valley of Tórwál, he recorded the three folktales and the list of typical words and sentences that form the basis of the present work. These he very kindly placed at my disposal, and I found that the linguistic information to be gathered from them was so full and of such importance, that it was impossible to refrain from subjecting them to a minute investigation. The results of this are contained in the following pages.

When Sir Aurel Stein, in the course of his inquiries WH regarding the track of Alexander the Great in his march to the Indus, visited the valley of Torwäl, he recorded the three folktales and the list of typical words and sentences that form the basis of the present work. These he very kindly placed at my disposal, and I found that the linguistic information to be gathered from them was so full and of such importance, that it was impossible to refrain from subjecting them to a minute investigation. The results of this are contained in the following pages.

Very little has hitherto been known about Torwäli, the language of Torwäl. Biddulph, in his Tribes of the Hindoo Koosh, called it "Torwâlâk", and devoted a page and a half to the main features of its grammar, and about twelve pages to a very useful vocabulary. In the Linguistic Survey of India, I have given a somewhat fuller account of the grammar, based on materials supplied by the late Sir Harold Deane. In neither case was the information sufficient for giving a complete description of the language. The folktales provided by Sir Aurel Stein now enable me to deal with it in much greater detail, and my account, if not pretending to be complete, can at least claim to be full enough to enable us to classify the language, and to describe its main features with some accuracy.

**Contents and Sample Pages**