khw

Khw is the ISO 639-3 code for Khowar, a Dardic language spoken in the northern part of Pakistan. It belongs to the Indo-European language family, within the Indo-Iranian branch, the Indo-Aryan subgroup, and the Dardic group. Khowar is primarily spoken in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with smaller communities in surrounding areas and among the Khowar-speaking diaspora.

Estimates of the number of speakers vary, but Khowar is described as having hundreds of thousands of speakers, with some assessments approaching or exceeding a million. The language is used in daily communication, local media, folklore, and regional education, though Urdu and English are widely used in formal contexts.

Writing systems for Khowar are centered on a Perso-Arabic script adapted for local phonology; this script is common in education and literature. Latin transliterations are also employed in linguistic work and some academic publications.

Linguistically, Khowar is typically described as a subject–object–verb language with postpositions. It has a diverse consonant inventory and features characteristic of many Indo-Aryan languages, including inflectional verb forms and nominal morphology that marks grammatical relations.

In terms of status, Khowar is not an official national language, but it holds regional status and cultural importance in its heartland. Efforts exist to standardize orthography, promote literacy, and support language maintenance among speakers, including educational and cultural programs.

See also: Khowar language, Dardic languages, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Further information can be found in linguistic reference works such as Ethnologue and Glottolog.