Assignment 1

                                Endangered languages of Pakistan

                                                     Ushojo

                  

 

                                                               Submitted by  :huma khursheed

                                                                    

Introduction:

Ushojo is spoken in Kohistan and Swat districts of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province ofPakistan. Upper reaches of Bishigram (Chail) Valley, east of Madyan, Swat Kohistan. 12 villages. It is also known as ushuji language.

Classification:

Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Northwestern Zone

Dialects:

 Lexical similarity: 50% with Kolai Shina  48% with Palas Shina , 42% with Gilgiti Shina , 35% with Chail Torwali , 31% with Palula , 27% with Bateri , 23% with Kalami , 22% with Kalkoti. 

Word order:

Its word order is SOV

native speakers:

total 2,000 speakers worldwide 

More on vitality:

 "The vitality of Ushojo may be somewhat threatened by the use of Pashto, the dominant lingua franca of the Swat region. [...] An old man from Bishigram reported that the young people there know Ushojo but speak Pashto [...] it appears that attitudes toward Ushojo may be fairly positive. Respondents from both locations felt that Ushojo will not die out. Older men said that people would not stop using Ushojo. Children are reportedly still learning Ushojo in their homes; not mixing their languages, but speaking Ushojo purely. The younger men said they wanted their children to learn Ushojo first (they also want them to learn Pashto and Torwali). [...] It would seem that the future of Ushojo is in the hands of the younger generation. If they see an importance to teaching it to their children, Ushojo may indeed continue to be vital."

References:

1.    Ushoji at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)

2.   Jump up^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Ushojo". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.