The Gawri Alphabet

Yes. Gawri and Kalami are two names for the same language, both assigned the ISO 639-3 code gwc. The name "Gawri" is a local name used by speakers in the Dir region, while "Kalami" is another commonly used name derived from the Kalam valley area. Both names refer to the same Dardic language community of Dir district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In linguistic literature, the language appears under both names. SIL International registers it under code gwc with Kalami and Gawri as recognised alternate names. This two-name situation is similar to the Gawar-Bati/Narsati (gwt) relationship in Chitral — two names, one language.

Gawri is written using the Urdu Nastaliq script — the South Asian form of the Perso-Arabic abjad used across Pakistan. The Nastaliq script is an abjad of 38 letters written from right to left. It includes the 28 Arabic letters, 4 letters unique to Persian (پ, چ, ژ, گ), and 6 letters unique to South Asian Nastaliq.

The 6 South Asian letters are: ٹ (tte /ʈ/), ڈ (ddal /ɖ/), ڑ (rre /ɽ/) for retroflex sounds, ں (noon ghunna) for nasalisation, ھ (do chashmi he) for aspiration, and ے (bari ye) for a final /eː/ vowel.

Gawri (Kalami) is spoken in Dir district — particularly Upper Dir tehsil — of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Province in northwest Pakistan. The Dir region sits in the foothills and lower valleys of the Hindu Kush mountains, bordering Chitral to the north and Swat to the east.

The name "Dir Kohistani" — another name for Gawri/Kalami — reflects the mountainous character of the region (Kohistan = "land of mountains"). Speaker estimates range from approximately 200,000 to 400,000 people spread across the upper valley communities of Dir district.

Gawri belongs to the Dardic subgroup of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. The Dardic languages are spoken across Chitral, Dir, Swat, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Kashmir — one of the world's most linguistically diverse mountain regions.

Within the Dardic group, Gawri's nearest relatives include Khowar (the dominant Dardic language of Chitral), Kalasha, Gawar-Bati, Goaria, and Gowro. All Dardic languages preserve ancient Indo-Iranian features including retroflex consonants and aspiration contrasts.

Gawri (Kalami) faces varying degrees of language pressure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Endangered Languages Project documents the language under the code gwc. Pashto is the dominant regional language of KP and is widely spoken in Dir district, while Urdu serves as Pakistan's national language of education and administration.

However, with an estimated 200,000–400,000 speakers concentrated in the upper Dir valleys, Gawri has a larger speaker community than many other Dardic languages of the region. The language remains actively spoken across generations in its home territory.

The term "Kohistani" is a general label meaning "mountain language" applied to several distinct languages in the Hindu Kush and Karakoram mountain regions. Gawri/Kalami is specifically the Dir Kohistani language — distinct from:

• Indus Kohistani (ISO: mvy): Spoken in Kohistan district along the Indus River, a different district from Dir.
• Torwali (ISO: trw): A Dardic language of Swat Kohistan, spoken in Swat district.
• Kalam Kohistani / Ushojo (ISO: ish): A distinct Kohistani variety of the Kalam Valley in Swat.

Despite sharing the "Kohistani" label, these are separate languages with distinct phonologies and lexicons. Gawri/Kalami (gwc) of Dir district is its own distinct Dardic language, most closely related to the other Dir–Chitral Dardic languages like Khowar and Kalasha.