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Domaaki |
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Domaakí – also known as Dumaki or Domaá – is a language spoken by a few hundred people living in the Northern Areas of Pakistan.
It belongs to the Indo-European language family, and can be affiliated to the Dardic group of the Indo-Iranian branch. Domaaki
is the traditional tongue of the Dóoma (sg. Dóom), a small ethnic group scattered in extended family units among larger host
communities. According to local traditions, the Dooma's ancestors came somewhere from the south; according to the Domaaki
speakers themselves their forbearers arrived in the Nager and Hunza Valleys from Kashmir, in separate groups and over an extended
period of time via Baltistan, Gilgit, Darel, Tangir, Punial and even Kashghar. In former times, Domaaki speakers traditionally
worked as blacksmiths and musicians, but nowadays they are also engaged in a variety of other professions. In almost all places
of their present settlement the Dooma, who are all Muslims, have long since given up their original mother tongue in favour
of the surrounding Dardic Shina. Only in the Nager and Hunza Valleys has Domaaki survived until the present day. Domaaki can
be divided into two dialects: Nager-Domaaki and Hunza-Domaaki. Although there are considerable differences between these two
varieties, they are not so severe as to prevent mutual intelligibility. All Domaaki speakers are proficient in the languages
of their host communities as well as in their own mother tongue. Many of them also know Urdu, which they have learned at school
or picked up while working in other parts of Pakistan. From a historical point of view Domaaki is a language of the North
Indian plains, affiliated to the Central Group of New Indo-Aryan languages. However, due to its long-standing separation from
its place of origin and (still on-going and ever increasing) intense contacts with other languages Domaaki has lost or transformed
many of its Central Group related features. This now places the language in many aspects much closer to its Dardic neighbours
than to its Midland cousins. Presently Domaaki counts less than 350 (mostly elderly) speakers – approx. 300 of them related
to Hunza; around 40 related to Nager – and is thus to be considered a highly endangered language. |
Names (more)[en] Domaaki language[ru] Думаки [th] ภาษาโดมาอากี [ur] ڈوماکی |
Language type : Living
Technical notes
This page is providing structured data for the language Domaaki. |
ISO 639 CodesISO 639-3 : dmkLinked Data URIshttp://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/dmkhttp://dbpedia.org/resource/ISO_639:dmk More URIs at sameas.org SourcesAuthority documentation for ISO 639 identifier: dmkFreebase ISO 639-3 : dmk GeoNames.org Country Information Publications Office of the European Union Metadata Registry : Countries and Languages |