Abstract

Previously known as Domaaki in the literature, Dawoodi is a severely endangered language spoken in two villages in Pakistan’s northernmost Gilgit-Baltistan Province. Each village is home to a separate dialect, one in Hunza Valley and the other in Nagar Valley, though the two are mutually intelligible. Dawoodi belongs to the central zone of the Indic branch of the Indo-Iranian language family and is believed to be a close relative of Romani and Domari. Due to negative attitudes and pressure from regional languages, language shift is well underway. It is estimated today that there are only four or five dozen speakers of the Hunza dialect and roughly a dozen speakers of the Nagar dialect. This article provides an overview of the language, its history, sociolinguistic situation, and grammar. The latter, based on the analysis of natural discourse data from dozens of speakers, sheds greater light on the lexicon, phonology, morphology and syntax of this little-known language.