Gojapuri

Gojapuri

Gojapuri is spoken in the village Khalu (The geo-coordinates of Khalu village are 33 degrees 2'47''N degrees 40'39E), which is around 40 km from the main city of Doda. District Doda is about 231 km from Srinagar; the village lies in the middle of the outer Himalayan ranges, and the district is mainly hilly. Khalu village lies in Tehsil Badarwah. In the village of Khalu, there is a small area known as Baraila, which is identified as the native place of the speakers of the Gojapuri language.

The community has Urdu and Kashmiri as lingua-franca for communication with people other than their village fellows. The languages like Punjabi, Bhadarwahi, Dogri, and Hindi also form the linguistic repertoire of the community. The community has its own native language known as Gojapuri which is grouped among endangered languages. Gojapuri, an Indo-Aryan language is spoken by Approx 400 people in Baraila. Gojapuri speakers highly respect their mother tongue and freely use this language in their day-to-day affairs. The language has no Script and has not been documented to date. The language is transmitted orally across generations. The people of this community are very poor they depend directly upon agriculture which forms their primary source of income. The main crops grown are pulses, corn, some vegetables, and apples. Cattle breeding is also one of the sources that support the income of the community. The Khalu village is inhabited by two major religious groups – Hindus and Muslims. The people living in Baraila area are Muslims. Eids are the main festivals for their society which they celebrate with great festivity and enthusiasm. The houses are known as dhoke/kotha and are made of mud, stones, wood, and straw. The roof is thatched and is also made of mud. Their houses are not very well built. These houses are rectangular or square in shape. Each house is a distance apart from the others. The houses of the community are built with materials obtained from the forest and local resources. Cereals, wheat, and maize comprise part of the staple food for the people. People are habitual of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian recipes. The favorite dishes of the people are maki ki roti/sarson ka saag.

The project aims to document the grammar and ethno-linguistic profile of the Gojapuri language. The grammatical sketch and major portion of the ethnolinguistic profile of Gojapuri are almost completed. At the moment, an electronic dictionary of Gojapuri has been developed.