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Gojapuri Documentation
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Gojapuri is spoken in the village Khalu (Geo-coordinates of Khalu village is 33
degrees 2’47’’N degrees 40’39E) which is around 40km from the main city
of Doda. District Doda is located about 231kms from Srinagar, the village lies in
the middle of the outer Himalayan ranges and the district is mostly a hilly area.
Khalu village lies in Tehsil Badarwah. In the village Khalu there is a small area
known as Baraila which is identified as the native place of the speakers of Gojapuri
language.
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The Language, Economy, Religion, Houses and Food
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The community has Urdu and Kashmiri as lingua-franca for communication with the
people other than their village fellows. The languages like Punjabi, Bhadarwahi,
Dogri or 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
till 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 Apple. Cattle breeding are also one of the sources that support the income for
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 at a distant apart from
each other. The houses of the community are built with material obtained from the
forest and local resources. Cereals, wheat and maize comprise the part of the staple
food for the people. The people are habitual of both vegetarians and non-vegetarians
recipe. The favourite dishes of the people are maki ki roti/sarson ka saag.
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The Present Work
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The project is aimed to document the grammar and ethno linguistic profile of Gojapuri
language. The grammatical sketch and major portion of ethno linguistic profile of
Gojapuri is almost completed. At the moment the development of electronic dictionary
of Gojapuri has been taken up.
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