| Urtsuniwar | |
|---|---|
| Urchuniwar | |
| اُرچؕنوار | |
 | |
| Native to | Pakistan |
| Region | Urtsun Valley |
| Ethnicity | Southern Kalash |
Native speakers | (2,900–5,700 cited 1992)[1] |
| Perso-Arabic script (Nastaliq) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
Urtsuniwar orUrchuniwar (اُرچؕنوار) is a dialect of theKalasha-mun spoken in theUrtsun Valley ofChitral,Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Pakistan.[2] The total number of speakers is estimated to be around 2,900–5,700 peoples.[2]
It has been debated whether Urtsuniwar is a distinct language or a dialect ofKalasha-mun. Urtsuniwar andKalasha-mun exhibit 70% mutual intelligibility.[3] Urtsuniwar also shares some similarities with theUshojo.[4]
TheKafirs of Urtsun were among the last pagans inAfghanistan andPakistan to convert toIslam in the mid-1900s. The last Urtsun Kafir was Mranzi, who had married a Kalasha from the Biriu valley and moved out of the valley in 1940, just as the conversion to Islam was completed.[5][6] They renamed their language fromKalasha-mun to Urtsuniwar and later borrowed heavily from theKhowar, changing their identity.[7] Subsequently, Urtsuniwar started to diverge into a distinct dialect of Kalasha-mun.
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