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Paddari Documentation
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The People and Language
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Paddari is the language of Paddar valley, a mountainous region situated towards
extreme north of Pangi, Kistiwar District of Jammu & Kashmir. Paddari language has
been placed under Indo-Aryan language family and is the mother tongue of inhabitants
of Paddar Tehsil. In rural areas pure Paddari is spoken as they have least contact
with the other languages while in urban areas language is influenced by other languages.
In general, Paddari language is influenced by urdu, hindi, pahari, kashmiri, Bhaderwahi,
Lahauli and Ladakhi etc. There are more than 30 villages in the paddar area in which
paddari is spoken; the villages are sparsly located. They have least or no connectivity
with city centers. As far as present status of the Paddari language is concerned,
there are less than 3000 speakers who speak Paddari as their mother tongue and the
number of speakers is decreasing on an alarming rate as other dominant languages
are being opt by the locals for better connectivity to the rest of the region. There
is no recorded literature in any form and ‘Devnagari script’ has been adopted for
writing the language at present.
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Religion and occupation
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Rich availability of natural resources and plenty of vegetation, the occupation
of Paddar is agricultural and there are several Hindu temples which are considered
very old and famous site of pilgrimage, also called Michail yatra. Hindu followers
visit Paddar in large numbers every year. There are Muslim inhabitants in Paddar
as well but majority of the population is Hindu.
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Present work
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Presently, an attempt to document Paddari grammar and to produce a Paddari-English-Hindi
dictionary and Paddari ethno-linguistic profile is undergoing.
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