FLI hosted a seminar on Chitral’s languages, bringing together numerous language enthusiasts, researchers, activists, poets, and singers from ten out of the twelve languages spoken in the valley during the first week of May 2024. This gathering in Chitral town marked the introductory participation of many language communities, with over 150 attendees recorded, providing an opportunity for interaction among the valley’s linguistic groups. Represented languages included Khowar, Gawarbati, Dameli, Palula, Kalasha, Kateviri, Pashto, Yadgha, Dari, and Wakhi.

A feature of the event was the launching of Yadgha songs produced by FLI, alongside a multilingual poetry symposium which liked by the participants. The seminar comprised nine sessions, commencing with an inaugural address by Mr. Fakhruddin Akhunzada, Executive Director of FLI, emphasizing the importance of uniting language enthusiasts to foster mutual learning and understanding.

Subsequent sessions featured presentations on language development initiatives, academic insights into linguistic structures, and practical experiences in language education. Noteworthy discussions included the challenges and opportunities of integrating Khowar language into school curricula and initiatives to promote writing in Chitral’s languages.

A unique aspect was the sixth session, showcasing multilingual poetry performances representing the languages of Chitral, each adding its flavor to the cultural beauty of the event. The session culminated in the launch of Yadgha songs, a moment celebrated by attendees.

The event concluded with a multilingual musical showcase, featuring performances by singers representing various linguistic groups, including the melodies of Kalasha music and Wakhi bands. FLI’s commitment to uplifting lesser-known language groups of Chitral was widely appreciated, garnering positive coverage from local media outlets. The seventh session had a unique activity of launching Yadgha songs. FLI recently produced four songs in the language and one of them was launched in the event. The librarian of Public Library Chitral, where the event was being organized presided the session, and a Khowar Poet from Dros, Ejaz Ahmad Ejaz moderated the event. Alaudin Hyderi, a Yadgha language poet introduced the session and items of the session. This session was much appreciated by the audience.

At the end, a multilingual musical show had so many singers who represented their languages. Kalasha language group started the session, and the traditional flute of Kalasha music mesmerized the participants. The Wakhi band went over the platform then and presented some beautiful performance. The audience much appreciated FLI’s efforts to encourage lesser-known language groups of Chitral. The event was given good coverage by the local as well as the national media, some highlights are given under.

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FLI has published a collection of Shina folk stories authored by Iram Jafar, one of FLI’s Shina language group trainees. Iram, who participated in FLI’s training activities aimed at standardizing the Shina writing system, deserves congratulations on her debut book. We extend our best wishes to her for continued success in the future. The standardization efforts for the Shina writing system have significantly contributed to the increase in publications in the language. Remarkably, this marks FLI’s third publication in Shina within a short span of time, reflecting our commitment to promoting linguistic diversity.

 

Moreover, Iram’s achievement as a female writer is particularly significant, for being pioneering in our mountainous region. We hope that her book will serve as inspiration, especially to women within the Shina community and beyond, encouraging them to share their work confidently.

 

We commend the Shina writers for reaching a consensus on the writing system for their language, which has spurred literary activities within the community. This collective effort has sparked interest in developing further literary materials. We urge other ethnolinguistic communities in the region to follow the example set by the Shina writers and collaborate on establishing standardized writing systems. FLI remains committed to facilitating collective endeavors for the development of indigenous languages. We aspire to extend similar support to other languages in the future.

Forum for Language Initiatives, in collaboration with the Directorate of Professional Development (DPD), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa organized a three-day training for Primary School teachers of the Upper Chitral district in Booni. A total of 85 teachers, half of whom were women participated in the activity. The workshop aimed to enhance the teaching skills of govt schools’ teachers in newly inducted languages with a special focus on the Khowar language.

The government schools’ teachers are usually trained pre- or post-induction, and they are familiar with English and Urdu language books. Keeping in view the importance of the local language, FLI felt the need for training in Khowar Book teaching in primary schools.

The Khowar language has become part of primary education in the Chitral Valley as a subject and teachers find it challenging to encounter the unique sounds, characters, and orthography of the Khowar language. This training has explained many questions the participants had in their minds before they attended training sessions. Many of the participants expressed their views in the pre-training assessment that they were underestimating the importance of the activity, but it was encouraging that their perspective was changed in the post-training assessment.

The Khowar language is being taught as a subject up to Grade VI in Government Schools of KP. FLI initially executed a pilot project by training 85 school teachers, enhancing their skills in Khowar Book teaching as drawn above, and has a plan to cover the maximum number of teachers to make regional language teaching applicable and effective. The idea of inclusion of regional languages was initiated in 2016 and four regional languages; Pashto, Saraiki, Hindko, and Khowar have become part of the curriculum.

FLI adopted a cascade training module and trained Master Trainers from the local government schools’ teachers. Four men and four women attended FLI’s Master Trainers training process who were the master trainers for all 85 trainees. Earlier, FLI in collaboration with DPD carried out a Language Need Assessment (LNA) in Booni to baseline collect data on what was needed in the training which led to the Development of a comprehensive Training Manual which will be helpful for all languages.

The Master Trainers who facilitated this training have been playing a key role in this process from the very start and became a resource for not only FLI but also for DPD. Private schools in the area can also be facilitated by these trained master trainers in their local language. The KP government has issued instruction to private schools in the province to ensure the implementation of KP Cabinet’s notification regarding regional language teaching and FLI’s trained trainers can be handy in this regard. These all efforts will contribute to developing resources for Khowar language reading, writing, and literature development in the future.

Almost all children in Kalkoti language community in Dir Kohistan of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa learn and speak their heritage language, a rare case in northern Pakistan. No age group in the community appears to be seen leaving their language for another. This was known in a vitality survey, FLI conducted in the last week of August 2023. For the activity, typically a five to six days long workshop is organized involving people from the community and start the discussion. Seven people from the Kalkoti speech community participated in the event as mother tongue facilitators who learned how to assess their native language’s vitality. The mother tongue facilitators then got out to the community and involved more people for larger assessment. A guide, Planning for the Future of Language was used during the workshop helping them plan how to strengthen the language in future in areas of literacy. This planning is based on the said assessment.

According to the results, the Kalkoti language was found to be sound in orality as mentioned that all the age groups, especially the young people were acquiring their language. What concerned the team is that almost all age groups were multilingual from the very childhood. Additionally, no written literature was available, however, Kalkoti speakers, with assistance from FLI have recently developed their writing system and it is hoped they will begin producing literature in their language soon.

At the end of the workshop, the participants developed a plan to promote their language. For the purpose, they are optimistic to find poets within their community to organize first ever Kalkoti Poetry Session in their village. FLI has assured them of its cooperation in strengthening their language.

The Kalkoti language, belonging to the Shina subgroup of the Dardic languages, is spoken in the Kalkot village of Upper Dir district. According to the community people, around 15,000 people speak Kalkoti as their native language.