The Kalami Alphabet

Kalami and Gawri are two names for the same language, both sharing the ISO 639-3 code gwc. The name "Kalami" is derived from the Kalam valley area and is the more widely used name in academic literature, while "Gawri" is another local name for the language and its speakers in Dir district.

Both names refer to the same Dardic language of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, with the same phonology, grammar, and writing system. SIL International registers the language under the code gwc with both Kalami and Gawri as recognised names. This is similar to the Gawar-Bati/Narsati (gwt) situation elsewhere in the same mountain region.

Kalami 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.

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

The language area is sometimes referred to as Kohistan (meaning "land of mountains"), and Kalami is also called Kohistani or Dir Kohistani to distinguish it from other Kohistani languages spoken in adjacent districts. The speaker population is estimated at approximately 200,000–400,000 people.

Kalami 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.

Kalami's nearest relatives within Dardic include Khowar (the prestige variety of Chitral), Kalasha, Gawar-Bati, Goaria, and Gowro. Dardic languages preserve ancient Indo-Iranian features including retroflex consonants and aspiration contrasts characteristic of the broader Indo-Aryan branch.

Dir district and neighbouring Chitral are home to several distinct Dardic languages, and Kalami exists alongside:

• Khowar: The dominant Dardic language of Chitral and a regional lingua franca, with ~200,000–300,000 speakers. Also used in parts of Upper Dir.
• Kalasha: A Dardic language of the ancient Kalash people in Chitral's three Kalash valleys, known for preserving pre-Islamic traditions.
• Gawar-Bati (Narsati): An endangered Dardic language of Chitral district's upper valleys, closely related to Kalami.
• Goaria: A Dardic language of Dir district, closely related to Kalami/Gawri.
• Gowro: Another Dardic language spoken in Dir and Swat districts.

This extraordinary linguistic diversity in Dir and Chitral reflects centuries of geographic isolation in the Hindu Kush mountains, where communities in adjacent valleys preserved distinct languages.

Kalami is one of several languages sometimes called "Kohistani" — a general term meaning "language of the mountains" (from Persian کوہستانی, kohestāni). This term is used for multiple distinct languages across the Kohistan and Dir regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which can cause confusion.

Kalami/Gawri (ISO 639-3: gwc) is specifically the Kohistani language of Dir district (Upper Dir). It is distinct from Indus Kohistani (ISO: mvy), spoken in Kohistan district along the Indus River, and other nearby Kohistani varieties. When linguists refer to "Dir Kohistani", they specifically mean Kalami/Gawri.