Dawoodi (Pakistan) – Language Snapshot
- Qandeel Hussain
Abstract
Dawoodi is a severely endangered Indo-Aryan language spoken in Mominabad and Domyal villages, located in Hunza and Nager valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan, Northern Pakistan. Dawoodi speakers are known as Dom or Dooma and formerly worked as blacksmiths and musicians. Nowadays, they are involved in various other professions. Dawoodi is closely related to geographically-isolated Indo-Aryan languages like Romani and Domari spoken in Europe and Western Asia. There are few existing detailed descriptions of Dawoodi. The current status of Dawoodi as a severely endangered language calls for urgent work on a detailed phonetic description of its various phonological contrasts, a task which the author is currently involved in.
Keywords: Dawoodi, Indo-Aryan language, Endangered, Mominabad, Domyal, Hunza, Nager, Gilgit-Baltistan, Northern Pakistan
How to Cite:
Hussain, Q., (2020) “Dawoodi (Pakistan) – Language Snapshot”, Language Documentation and Description 19, 130-137. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd69
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