Reposted from the Center for Language Engineering website:
On the occasion of International Mother Languages Day (21st February 2011), Center for Language Engineering at Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science, University of Engineering and Technology is pleased to announce the launch of Online Torwali Dictionary (OTD).
Torwali is an indigenous language spoken by more than one hundred thousand people in Bahrain and Chail areas of the beautiful valley of Swat district in the north of Pakistan. It is an Indo-Aryan language, known as ‘Kohistani’ among locals.
This pioneering work of Torwali dictionary is an essential resource for language learning and instruction for the community and researchers, particularly because Torwali was previously unwritten and is a less studied language. This addresses issues of orthography, documentation, and language preservation for future generations and promotes the community’s identity and culture. This project has been recognized by UNESCO as ‘Good Practice in Language Preservation.’
This work has been undertaken by CLE researcher Mr. Inam Ullah, who is a native speaker, and supported by Torwali community. The project is funded by The Genographic Project of National Geographic and PAN Localization Project of International Development Research Centre, Canada.
Online Torwali Dictionary contains 7,988 entries. These entries comprise of:
- Words = 7387
- Idioms = 402
- Proverbs = 199
