Kataviri, also called Kati by the native speakers which is a Nooristani language in Chitral has turned into a literal language. The language was purely verbal just a year back which has now five books, all written by the native speakers have been produced and published. Beginning with the alphabet book, the researchers affiliated with Anjuman Tahaffuz e Kataviri (ATK) jointly brought up inspired the Kati researchers to pen down their cultural heritage which resulted in producing four other books in one year period. This all happened under a one year project FLI initiated last year enabling more than a dozen Kati researchers in language documentation. Nasir Mansoor, a Kati language researcher got motivation to collect folk stories of his language and produced under the title of Pran Jake. He also collected proverbs of his language under the title of Kasholan Vari which has also been published under the project. It triggered other researchers of Kati language community and Fazal Akbar had the idea of producing a conversation book for those researchers who may desire to look into from outside. This conversation books is trilingual; Kati-Urdu and English.

The last but not least is the translation of a famous English novel, Gulliver’s Travels in the Kati language which has been done by Najmul Haq. All the writers are working under the umbrella of ATK and establishment of this community based organization was encouraged by FLI.

FLI congratulates the Kati people not only for having their language evolved into the written form but also for uniting themselves under the platform of ATK. Indeed, publishing five books in the one go is a great achievement for which we appreciate their efforts and expect them to continue it in days to come.

The Kataviri language is spoken in various border villages of Chitral situated in distance from each other. Their villages include Shekhandeh in Bumburet, Konlasht in Rumbur and Gobor in Lotkuh valley. The community members claim that there are around 6000 speakers of Kati language in Chitral.  The local Khow people call the language ‘Bashgaliwar’ (means the language of those who came from Bashgal in the eastern Afghanistan). The Kati people are also called Nooristani. These people migrated to this region in last quarter of 19^th century from Nooristan in Afghanistan.

FLI took up this language in 2019 and conducted a language vitality survey in the community which provided base for further language strengthening activities. The survey was followed by many other activities. The community researchers were encouraged to establish an organization to use as a platform so that the community could claim the ownership of the language development program. They united themselves under the Anjuman e Tahaffuz Kataviri (ATK) and asked for cooperation from FLI. This led to initiation of the recently concluded project. The project provided the language with a writing system, and development of keyboard enabled the Kati writers to accelerate their literary work. The immediate outcome was in form of producing and publishing of five books as referred. We hope that the Kati researchers would find more opportunities to strengthen their language and FLI assures them of all the technical assistance in their quest.

The Indus Kohistani language, having a functional writing system, being used on Social Media and for literature development, and also having a Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education program is one of the few literate languages of Northern Pakistan. Spoken by more than 400, 000 people, this Dardic language has also been included in the primary school system of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the provincial government, like it already did for four languages in the past is very much likely to initiate book development in the language for curriculum in near future. This prospect has encouraged the researchers of the Indus Kohistani language (IK) to move forward with idea of facilitating the government with provision of trained people among the government schools’ teachers from the IK community so that once commenced the initiative could run smoothly and fittingly. For the purpose, the researchers from the Initiative for People in Need (IPN), a community based organization, working for the IK language contacted FLI asking for arrangements to train more people from the community in writing the language with major focus on government school teachers. The workshop took place last week benefitting 17 people from the community including six schools’ teachers who are hoped to be part of curriculum development process in the capacity of reviewers of the books in their native language. Other participants included people having interest to build their ability to use their language for writing. The participants appreciated the effort and showed their desire to attend more engagements on the pattern so as to enhance their abilities to serve their language. The activity is expected to boost the writing culture of the language as it provided more resource persons to the language. Since the language is on its way to become part of the government school’s curriculum, the trained people, especially the teachers are going to play their key role in standardizing the use of IK language for writing through their reviewing abilities they gained in the workshop. FLI reiterates its commitment to continue its support not only to materialize the dream of IK language to enter the government schools but also make the language eligible and resourceful medium among other languages in the curriculum. Standardizing the writing of lesser known languages is one of the objectives, FLI is pursuing to achieve. It’s hoped that the organization will find similar opportunities to smoothen the writing system of other languages too in future.

The Kalkoti language speakers have started celebrating a writing system they developed after attending a series of training workshops under the banner of FLI. The community people including teachers, students and other educated groups of the language gathered at night and, as per the tradition to mark the achievement of any milestone, slaughtered a goat. Earlier, they concluded their fifth day of the Basic Orthography Development workshop, FLI organized for them which was attended by more than a dozen community members. During the workshop, they reached an agreement to select script and symbols to represent the unique sounds of their language for writing. FLI’s training team guided them through the process and congratulated them on their accomplishment. So far, FLI has conducted two training workshops for Kalkoti researchers after they demanded training from the organization and formed a group of the community members to be trained. Following, the selected people were engaged in various types of training where they identified issues of their language, discovered vowels and consonants before formally deliberating on development of its writing system. The latest was the workshop of orthography development which turned the language into the written form. From now on, the educated people in the Kalkoti community can develop their literature in their own language.

The celebration was joined by the Executive Director of FLI, Mr. Fakhruddin who applauded the participants’ consistent interest to work for their language and congratulated them over their achievement in developing the writing system. Kalkotis is the 22nd language of northern Pakistan FLI reached out to and worked for its preservation. Belonging to the Shina group of Dardic languages, the Kalkoti is spoken in the Kalkot area of Dir Kohistan in KP province. Community members claim there are 15,000 people who speak the language as their mother tongue. As a result, the Kalkoti language has got its writing system and more than a dozen people trained to document it. We hope that now, the community people will take the lead and keep developing literature in their language. FLI will always be available for assistance and guidance so that the language could be preserved and promoted through a process of empowerment of the speakers.

Forum for Language Initiatives (FLI) in collaboration with International Islamic University, Islamabad arranged a two day-long workshop for the faculty members and research scholars of the Linguistic Department for strengthening their skills in advanced linguistics research and language documentation. The participants were introduced to new tools, techniques, and technology used in field linguistic and language documentation.

The participants have appreciated the workshop, content, and the FLI’s efforts to work on the lesser-known languages of Pakistan. The faculty has resolved to assign each language to a group of students to work on during their final year project. The HoD of the English Department Dr. Akhtar Aziz pledged to introduce the course of field linguistics in the curriculum and expose the students to the practical field and tools.

The Rector of International Islamic University Dr. Masoom Yasinzai, while addressing the final session of the event said that Pakistan was linguistically diverse and it was like a bunch of flowers with each language having its own color and beauty. “We must preserve this identity of Pakistan”, he added. He also appreciated FLI’s contribution towards preserving and promoting the lesser known languages of the country.

The purpose of the activity was to collaborate with academia for working on languages. It is inspiring to observe that relevant departments of the universities in Pakistan are increasingly focusing on Pakistan’s languages and guiding their faculties and students to look into them. This is a great change, for which, FLI has been collaborating with the universities since long and it does hope to accelerate its cooperation with them providing the needful according to its capacity in future.

A good news for those interested authors who were unable to submit their abstracts within the timeline, who now can be part of the event as the organizing committee of the 4^th International Hindukush Cultural Conference has extended the deadline for abstracts submission up to May 31, 2022. Earlier, the set deadline was mid-May and many interested writers demanded an extension in the date arguing that they were unable to meet the deadline due to Ramadhan fasting and the Eid celebrations.

The interested authors are asked to submit their abstracts without waiting for the deadline. The conference has been planned to be organized in September (14-16), 2022 in Chitral.

Please visit the conference website for more information about the event, its themes and others (https://fli-online.org/site/ihcc4/