Dawoodi (), also known as Domaakí (), Ḍumāki, or Domaá, is an endangered

Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus river in Ba ...

spoken by a few hundred people living in the

Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative units of Pakistan, administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has b ...

territory in northern Pakistan. It is historically related to the

Central Indo-Aryan languages The Central Indo-Aryan languages or Hindi languages are a group of Indo-Aryan languages spoken across Northern and Central India. They historically form a dialect continuum that descends from the Middle Prakrits. Located in the Hindi Belt, ...

of the Indian Midlands, though it has been significantly influenced by its neighbours. The speakers of the language belong to a small ethnic minority that lives dispersed among the larger regional groups. The majority of Doma communities have in the past switched to the dominant Shina language, with their original language surviving only in the Burushaski areas of Nagar and Hunza. There is a distinct dialect in each of those two areas; they are still mutually intelligible despite numerous differences. According to local traditions, the Dooma's ancestors came somewhere from the south; according to the speakers themselves their forebears arrived in the Nager and Hunza Valleys from

Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...

, and north

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

in separate groups and over an extended period of time via

Baltistan Baltistan (); also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet, is a mountainous region in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilgit-Baltistan and constitutes a northern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute bet ...

Gilgit Gilgit (; Shina language, Shina: ; ) is a city in Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, Gilgit–Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kas ...

, Darel, Tangir,

Punial The valley of Punial (Urdu: پونیال) is situated in Ghizer District in the Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, where hundreds of thousands of tourists visit annually. Punial is a mountainous valley situated at an elevation of about 5000–9000 fee ...

and even Kashghar. All Dawoodi speakers are proficient in the languages of their host communities (

Burushaski Burushaski (; , ) is a language isolate, spoken by the Burusho people, who predominantly reside in northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. There are also a few hundred speakers of this language in northern Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu ...

and/or Shina) as well as in their own mother tongue. Many of them also know

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

, which they have learned at school or picked up while working in other parts of Pakistan. The name ''Domaki'' is perceived as

pejorative A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hosti ...

by the speakers, who nowadays prefer the term ''Dawoodi'', which is associated with the Islamic figure of Dawood.

References

Bibliography

* Backstrom, Peter C. ''Languages of Northern Areas (Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, 2)'', 1992. 417 pp. . * * Lorimer, D. L. R. 1939. ''The Dumaki Language: Outlines of the Speech of the Doma, or Bericho, of Hunza'', Dekker & Van De Vegt, 244 pp. * * Weinreich, Matthias. 2010. Language Shift in Northern Pakistan: The Case of Domaakí and Pashto. ''Iran and the Caucasus'' 14: 43-56. {{Indo-Aryan languages Indo-Aryan languages Languages of Gilgit-Baltistan