Dogri ( Name Dogra Akkhar: ;

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...

: डोगरी;

Nastaliq ''Nastaliq'' (; fa, , ), also romanized as ''Nastaʿlīq'', is one of the main calligraphic hands used to write the Perso-Arabic script in the Persian and Urdu languages, often used also for Ottoman Turkish poetry, rarely for Arabic. ''Na ...

: ; ) is an

Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...

primarily spoken in the Jammu region of

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

, India, with smaller groups of speakers in adjoining regions of western

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several pea ...

, northern

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...

, and north-eastern Pakistani Punjab. It is the ethnic language of the

Dogras The Dogras or Dogra people, are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group in India and Pakistan consisting of the Dogri language speakers. They live predominantly in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, and in adjoining areas of Punjab, Himacha ...

, and was spoken in the historical region of Greater Duggar. Currently in Districts :

Kathua Kathua is a city and municipal council located in Kathua district of Jammu Division of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, near its border with Punjab, India and Himachal Pradesh. The city is headquarters of Kathua district and is ...

, Jaamu,

Samba Samba (), also known as samba urbano carioca (''urban Carioca samba'') or simply samba carioca (''Carioca samba''), is a Brazilian music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Havi ...

, Udhampur, and

Reasi Reasi is a town and a notified area committee and tehsil in Reasi district of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Situated at the bank of River Chenab, It is the headquarters of the Reasi district. In the eighth century, Reas ...

, it is a majority language. Dogri is a member of the

Western Pahari The Western Pahari languages are a group of Northern Indo-Aryan languages that are spoken in the state of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Uttarakhand and Punjab Languages The following lists the languages c ...

group of languages. Unusually for an

Indo-European language The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Du ...

, Dogri is tonal, a trait it shares with other

languages and

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

. It has several varieties, all with greater than 80% lexical similarity (within Jammu and Kashmir). Dogri is spoken by 2.6 million people in India (as of the 2011 census). It has been among the country's 22 scheduled languages since 2003. It is also one of the 5 official languages of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Script

Dogri was originally written in the old Dogra Akkhar script – a modified version of

Takri The Tākri script (Takri (Chamba): ; Takri (Jammu/Dogra): ; sometimes called Tankri ) is an abugida writing system of the Brahmic family of scripts. It is derived from the Sharada script formerly employed for Kashmiri. It is the sister script ...

. A modified version of this script was created by the order of Maharaja Ranbir Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, which was then called Name Dogra Akkhar. Official documents were written in this new script; however it never caught on among the general Dogri-speaking populace. Currently,

is the officially recognised script for Dogri in India and virtually all Dogri literature is published in it. Lilavati

Phonology

Consonants

* Gemination occurs in all consonants except the consonants //. *Retroflex consonants // rarely occur in word initial position. *// only occur from Perso-Arabic loan words. // is also heard as an allophone of //. *// can also marginally be heard as trilled [] in some speech. * In some words, // can become more weakly pronounced, or even eliminated and replaced by a glottal fricative sound []. *A palatal nasal sound [] typically occurs when a dental nasal precedes a post-alveolar affricate consonant, rarely occurring in words word-initially or medially. * A velar nasal sound [] typically occurs when a dental nasal precedes a velar plosive consonant, and rarely occurs word-initially or medially.

Vowels

* There are nasalized variations of the following vowels //. *Vowel sounds are often nasalized when occurring before a word-medial or word-final //, except when // occurs before a word-final vowel. *// can have a marginal upgliding allophone [] when occurring before a /a/ vowel sound. *A word-final // is realized as a back sound [] and may also drift toward a centralized [] sound.

Some common words

Tone rules

These are rules of writing tones in Dogri using Devanagari Script. They are as follows:- * Just like

, Dogri also uses the letters घ (gʱə), झ (d͡ʒʱə), ढ (ɖʱə), ध (d̪ʱə), भ (bʱə) and ढ़ (ɽʱə) for tonal uses. When at the beginning of the word, it has a high-falling tone; i.e.:- घ (kə̀), झ (t͡ʃə̀), ढ (ʈə̀), ध (t̪ə̀), भ (pə̀) and ढ़ (ɽə̀). When in the middle and final position of the word, the preceding vowel has a low-rising tone; i.e.:- अघ (ə́ɡ), अझ (ə́d͡ʒ), अढ (ə́ɖ), अध (ə́d̪), अभ (ə́b) and अढ़ (ə́ɽ). Examples:- घड़ी (kə̀ɽiː)- clock, and बध (bə́d̪). * Unlike

, there is no ह (ɦə) sound and it has a high-falling tone in all positions; i.e.:- हत्थ (ə̀t̪ːʰə)- hand. * To indicate a low-rising tone in the middle of words, Dogri uses ह् (ह with a halant) to indicate it when the preceding vowel is long; i.e.:- आ (aː), ई (iː), ऊ (uː), ए (eː), ऐ (ɛː), ओ (oː) and औ (ɔː). Example:- साह्ब (sáːb)- sahab. When the preceding vowel is short, i.e., - अ (ə), इ (ɪ) and उ (ʊ); an apostrophe mark (') is used. Example:- ल'त्त (lə́tː)- leg. *The characters mentioned in the first point can also be used to indicate high-falling tone in the middle of the words when between a short vowel and a long vowel. Some examples are shown below.

Historical references

In the year 1317, Amir Khusro, the famous

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Persian poet, referred to Duger (Dogri) while describing the languages and dialects of India as follows: ''"Sindhi-o-Lahori-o-Kashmiri-o-Duger."''

Theories on name origin

Intellectuals in the court of Maharaja Ranbir Singh of

described '' Duggar'' as a distorted form of the word ''Dwigarta'', which means 'two troughs', a possible reference to the Mansar and Surinsar lakes. The linguist

George Grierson George Allison Grierson (April 11, 1867–October 18, 1931) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1914 to 1922, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Tobias Norris. Grierson ...

connected the term ''Duggar'' with the Rajasthani word ''Doonger'' which means 'hill', and ''Dogra'' with ''Donger''. This opinion has lacked support because of the inconsistency of the ostensible changes from Rajasthani to Dogri (essentially the question of how ''Doonger'' became ''Duggar'' while ''Donger'' became ''Dogra''), and has been contradicted by some scholars. Yet another proposal stems from the word ''Durgara'', the name of a kingdom mentioned in an eleventh century copper-plate inscription in the Bhuri Singh Museum in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh. The word ''Durgara'' means 'invincible' in several Northern Indo-Aryan languages, and could be an allusion to the ruggedness of the terrain of Duggar and the historically militarised and autonomous Dogra societies. In 1976, the experts attending the Language Session of the All India Oriental Conference held in Dharwad,

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

, could not reach consensus on the ''Dwigarta'' and ''Durgara'' hypotheses, but did manage agreement on a ''Doonger''-''Duggar'' connection. In a subsequent All India Oriental Conference held at

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known a ...

in 1982, the linguists agreed that the culture, language and history of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern ...

and Duggar share some similarities. It was also suggested that the words ''Duggar'' and ''Dogra'' are common in some parts of Rajasthan. Specifically, it was asserted that areas with many forts are called Duggar, and their inhabitants are accordingly known as Dogras. The land of Duggar also has many forts, which may support the above opinion. An article by Dharam Chand Prashant in the literary magazine ''Shiraza Dogri'' suggested that "the opinion that the word ''Duggar'' is a form of the word ''Duggarh'' sounds appropriate."

Recent history

In modern times, a notable Dogri translation (in the New Dogra script) of the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

classic mathematical opus '' Lilavati'', by the noted mathematician Bhaskaracharya (b. 1114 AD), was published by the Vidya Vilas Press, Jammu in 1873. As Sanskrit literacy remained confined to a few, the late Maharaja Ranbir Singh had the ''Lilavati'' translated into Dogri by Jyotshi Bisheshwar, then principal of Jammu Pathshala. Dogri has an established tradition of poetry, fiction and dramatic works. Recent poets range from the 18th-century Dogri poet Kavi Dattu (1725–1780) in Raja Ranjit Dev's court to Professor

Ram Nath Shastri Padma Shri Ram Nath Shastri, known as the "Father of Dogri" for his pivotal role in the revival and resurgence of the Dogri language, was born on 15 April 1914. In 2001, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, awarded by the Sahitya Aka ...

and Mrs. Padma Sachdev. Kavi Dattu is highly regarded for his ''Barah Massa'' (Twelve Months), ''Kamal Netra'' (Lotus Eyes), ''Bhup Bijog'' and ''Bir Bilas''. '' Shiraza Dogri'' is a Dogri literary periodical issued by the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, which is a notable publisher of modern Dogri literary work, another being the Dogri Sanstha. Popular recent songs include ''Pala Shapaiya Dogariya'', ''Manne di Mauj'' and ''Shhori Deya''. The noted Pakistani singer Malika Pukhraj had roots in Duggar, and her renditions of several Dogri songs continue to be popular in the region. Some devotional songs (

bhajan Bhajan refers to any devotional song with a religious theme or spiritual ideas, specifically among Indian religions, in any language. The term bhajanam ( Sanskrit: भजनम्) means ''reverence'' and originates from the root word ''bhaj'' ...

s) composed by

Karan Singh Karan Singh (born 9 March 1931) is an Indian politician and philosopher. He is the son of the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, Sir Hari Singh. He was the prince regent of Jammu and Kashmir until 1952. From 1 ...

have gained increasing popularity over time, including ''Kaun Kareyaan Teri Aarti''. Dogri programming features regularly on Radio Kashmir (a division of

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All ...

), and

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest b ...

(Indian state television) broadcasts in

. However, Dogri does not have a dedicated state television channel yet, unlike Kashmiri (which has the Doordarshan Koshur channel, available on cable and satellite television throughout India). Official recognition of the language has been gradual, but progressive. On 2 August 1969, the General Council of the

Sahitya Academy The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

, Delhi recognized Dogri as an "independent modern literary language" of India, based on the unanimous recommendation of a panel of linguists. Dogri is one of the official languages of the Indian union territory of

. On 22 December 2003, in a major milestone for the official status of the language, Dogri was recognized as a national language of India in the Indian constitution. In 2005, a collection of over 100 works of prose and poetry in Dogri published over the last 50 years was made accessible online at the

Central Institute of Indian Languages The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) is an Indian research and teaching institute based in Mysuru, part of the Language Bureau of the Ministry of Education. It was founded on 17 July 1969. Centres The Central Institute of Indian Lang ...

(CIIL), Mysore. This included works of eminent writer Dhinu Bhai Panth, Professor Madan Mohan Sharma, B.P. Sathai and Ram Nath Shastri.

Sample text

The following text is from Article 1 of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt ...

References

Bibliography

* Gopal Haldar (2000). ''Languages of India''. New Delhi: National Book Trust

External links

The Dogri Language
article by Ved Kumari Ghai
Duggar Times.com
for more on Dogri language, literature and writers

"One Hundredth Amendment," news report on the recognition of Dogri as a national language.
Modifications to Devanagri to represent Dogri tones

Pahari.org
Alami Pahari Adabi Sangat (Global Pahari Cultural Association)

The Takri script.
Crulp.org
paper on tonality and intonation in Punjabi.
Dogri computing resources at TDIL (Devanagari Script)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dogri Language Northern Indo-Aryan languages Languages of Punjab, Pakistan Official languages of India Languages of Jammu and Kashmir Languages officially written in Indic scripts Jammu Division Arabic alphabets for South Asian languages Sahitya Akademi recognised languages