Roman Khowar
Roman Khowar is the name used for the Khowar language written with the Roman script.
According to the famous Khowar scholar Habib R. Sulemani: "Roman Khowar” and “Roman Urdu” is strongly opposed by the traditional Arabic script lovers. Despite this opposition it is still used by most on the internet and computers due to limitations of most technologies as they do not have the Urdu and Khowar scripts. Although, these script are under development and thus the net users are using the Roman script in their own ways. Popular websites like Jang Group have devised their own schemes for Roman Urdu. This is of great advantage for those who are not able to read the Arabic script. MSN, Yahoo and some desi-chat-rooms are working as laboratories for the evolving new script and language (Roman Urdu)."[1]
Although the idea of Romanization of Khowar and Urdu languages had been suggested several times, it was General Ayub Khan who most seriously suggested adopting the Roman script for Urdu and all Pakistani languages during his rule of the country.[2][3][4] The suggestion was inspired to an extent by Atatürk's adoption of Roman for Turkish in Turkey.
Khowar sample texts
Troyki
Perso-Arabic script
- اللہ مہ خودای تہ نام رحمان دی رحیم دی
- تو غفار دی، غفورالرحیم دی
- کرم کوس اسپہ سورا تو رب کریم دی
Roman Khowar
- Transliteration
- Allah ma khodai, ta nam Rahman di Raheem di
- tu ghaffar di, ghafoor-ur-Raheem di
- karam kos ispa sora tu Rabb-e-Karim di !!
- Translation
- O my Allah! Your name is Rahman and Raheem
- You are Ghaffar also, and you are Ghafoor-ur-Raheem
- O Allah Help us, you are Rabb-e-Karim
Alphabet
The khowar alphabet consists of 25 letters: five vowels (A, E, I, O U) and 16 consonants. The letters J, K, W, X and Y are not part of the proper alphabet, and are used only for loanwords (e.g. 'jeans') and foreign names (with very few exceptions, acute and circumflex accents may be used to modify vowel letters.
| Letter | Name | IPA | Diacritics |
|---|---|---|---|
| A, a | a | à | |
| B, b | bi [bi] | ||
| C, c | ci | ||
| D, d | di | ||
| E, e | e | è, é | |
| F, f | effe | ||
| G, g | gi | ||
| H, h | ayhce | ||
| I, i | i | ì, í, [î] | |
| L, l | elle [ˈɛlle] | ||
| M, m | emme | ||
| N, n | enn | ||
| O, o | o | ò, ó | |
| P, p | pi | ||
| Q, q | cu | ||
| R, r | erre | ||
| S, s | esse | ||
| T, t | ti | ||
| U, u | u | ù, ú | |
| V, v | vi, vu | ||
| X, v | eks , Xhur | ||
| Z, z | zi | ||
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ The News International, September 8, 2003,
- ↑ Paving new paths to romanise Urdu script, Mushir Anwar, Dawn (newspaper), Nov 27, 2008
- ↑ The Urdu-English Controversy in Pakistan, Tariq Rahman, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Feb., 1997), pp. 177-207
- ↑ The Language Movement: An Outline, Rafiqul Islam
Bibliography
- Khowar-English Dictionary (Romanized Khowar) Ismail Sloan (1991).