Dogri (डोगरी or ) is an
Indo-Aryan language spoken by about five million people in
India and
Pakistan, chiefly in the
Jammu region of
Jammu and Kashmir and
Himachal Pradesh, but also in northern
Punjab, other parts of
Jammu and Kashmir, and elsewhere. Dogri speakers are called
Dogras, and the Dogri-speaking region is called Duggar. Since
Kashmiri,
Punjabi,
Urdu and
Hindi are spoken in a region that has witnessed significant ethnic and identity conflict, all have been exposed to the
dialect-versus-language question. Each of these languages possesses a central standard on which its literature is based, and from which there are multiple dialectal variations. At various times, Dogri and Himachali have been claimed to be dialects of Punjabi. Similarly, some Western Pahari languages (such as Rambani) have been claimed to be dialects of Kashmiri. Dogri is a member of the
Western Pahari group of languages. The language is referred to as Pahari (पहाड़ी or ) in Pakistan. Unusually for an
Indo-European language, Dogri is
tonal, a trait it shares with other Western Pahari languages and
Punjabi.