Inspect FEL Endangered Language Communities

Key	009
Generic name of the language	Torwali (TRW)
Location of the community	Bahrain and Chail Valley in Northern Pakistan
Number of speakers (estimate)	130,000 (approx)
Variants (if any) and number of speakers	There are basically two variants (dialects) of Torwali language. One is called "Chail variant/dialect" whereas the other variant is called "Bahrain variant/dialect". The total number of speakers of "Chail variant" would approximately be 20 thousand whereas the total number of speakers of "Bahrain variant" will be approximately 110,000 speakers. Torwali is basically spoken in the north of Swat valley. Its main urban center is Bahrain, a small town, which is also a sub division administratively. Chail Valley is situated towards the south east of Bahrain.
How is the community organised	The community is organised in different ways which are: The Torwali community is organised in different clans and sub tribes. There are main four clans which are Narrate, Jaber, Kamin and Shahtoray. These main clans are further divided into many sub tribes in their respective clans. These clans abd their sub tribes have their own political inclinations. Some are affiliated with major political parties of Pakistan whereas some have no affiliation bjt still politically active as independent tribes or clans. Some clans like Narrate and Jaber have influence over the power structure and political dynamics in the area. The people are also geographically organised where different villages represent their village identities but all these villages consider themselves attached affiliated with the center which is the main town of Bahrain, their administrative, social and cultural hub.
Where can more information be found (website, publications, other documents)	More information can be found on www.wikipedia.com, www.torwali.org and www.ibtnorthpakistan.org. The later two websites are managed and run by a local organization Idara Baraye Taleem wa Taraqi-IBT, based in Bahrain Swat. Additionally IBT can be consulted for further information about the Torwali language and community.
Willingness to contribute to FEL website or newsletter	yes
Name of contact person	Aftab Ahmad
Email of contact person	aahmadangel@gmail.com
Role of contact person in community	Researcher, writer, author and language activist
FEL membership ID of contact person	1736
Updated	2023-02-06 17:08:05