One another Chitral’s Language turned into written form

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.