Morphosyntactic Analysis of Khowar Verbs

Abstract

This study focuses on identifying and analyzing various morphological forms of Khowar verbs, which are characterized by tenacious preservation of various verb forms. Data is collected from three native speakers of Khowar and analyzed using Minimalist Program (MP). Qualitative syntactic analysis is applied throughout the study. The findings reveal that Khowar is a morphologically rich language with 17 different morphological forms adopted on the basis of person, 51 different forms on the basis of tense and aspects, and 2 different imperative and infinitive forms of verbs. Overall, every single verb in Khowar adopts 53 morphological forms. The study also reveals that Khowar is a grammatically gender-neutral language. Khowar, a language belonging to the Indo-Aryan family, is spoken by 332,200 speakers primarily in Chitral, Gilgit-Baltistan, KPK, and Swat (Eberhard, 2019). Despite its significance, Khowar is classified as an endangered language by the UNESCO World Atlas of Endangered Languages. Therefore, it is crucial to accumulate data and document Khowar in grammar or literature form. This descriptive study has the potential to contribute to the preservation, development, and documentation of Khowar language, especially for scholars and teachers seeking descriptive material on this language, as no significant study has been done on Khowar verb morphology and syntax.