Torwali English Urdu Dictionary

About

About Torwali language According to Ethnologue (Hess, 2016) there are about 7,097 languages currently spoken in the world. Linguists estimate that 2,464 languages are endangered, 24 languages dominate that are spoken by one-half of the world’s population (Salsburg Global Seminar, 2017). One of the 27 highly endangered languages of Pakistan listed in the same atlas is the language called Torwali. Owing to the lack of a written tradition and has fast “language shift” towards the predominant language Pashto in the areas of Bahrain and Chail valleys in Swat, is rated definitely endangered. Torwali is a Dardic language of the Indo-Aryan family mainly spoken in the Bahrain and Chail areas of District Swat in Northern Pakistan. The level of its endangerment can also be assessed by its small community of speakers which is approximately 80,000 (Lunsford, 2001). A recent survey by Idara Baraye Taleem wa Taraqi (IBT), however, found that 60 % of the Torwali respondents estimate the Torwali population as more than 120,000 (Respondents, 2014). Close to half 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 Pakistan (Alian & Inam-ur-Rahim, 2002). The community speaking this language is called Torwalik or Torwal (Grierson, 1929). Like other Dardic communities, the Torwalik have no idea of their origin, most of them relate themselves to either Arabs or Pashtuns. This can be due to the fact that very little research has been done on the history of the Dardic people in Pakistan. In the Torwali folklore we find that the area where the Torwali community lives was referred to as Tuuaal, translated in other language as Torwal. For instance, these couplets: Tuuaal Shid Hu Maasho Aa Khae Buraee Ingolaa Mherey Shaa Ye Theli Hey Mhee…