The significance of language for a community is not only cultural as language is not only the identity marker of a community but is also closely related with the empowerment of a community because the community’s goal of a sustainable development can only be achieved when it is built on the authentic and indigenous local cultures and identities (Baart 2003, Rahman 2003, Nettle and Romaine 2000, Posey 1999). At the same time, it is being feared that more than half of 6809 languages listed in www.ethnologue.com will disappear and will be replaced by stronger languages-the languages that are used in wider functional domains, due to numerous linguistic and extralinguistic factors. Fishman (2001:5), in this regard, opines, “ To abandon the language may be viewed as an abandonment not only of the traditional doings and knowings but an abandonment of personal ancestral kin and cultural ancestral heroes per se”.
      On the basis of twelve days field research, Decker (1992) has tentatively classified Ushojo as closely related to Shina-a language spoken in Indus Kohistan, Gilgit and Palas, and therefore part of the putative Dardic group of Northwestern Indo-Aryan languages. Ushojo is believed to be spoken by 1000 (Zaman 2002) or 2000 (Decker 1992) people, who are referred to Ushoji or Gekis in the Bishegram Valley of Madyan, District Swat Pakistan (Decker 1992, Keiser 1991, Zaman 2005). The language remained undocumented   until the Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan started working on the minority languages of Northern Pakistan. This was a collaboration of the Summer Institute of Linguistics and the National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad (Decker 1992). The paper by Sandra Decker also includes preliminary information regarding the demography and sociolinguistic factors, including levels of multilingualism among the Ushojo speakers. It seems to be an initial step towards the description and documentation of Ushojo.
           The present work intends to describe the use of Ushojo in diverse contexts, which can be divided into the domains of socio-political power and ‘family-neighborhood-community’ environments (Fishman 2001).  The socio-political power environment comprises literacy; market and administration while the second cluster of contexts includes home, cultural ceremonies, rituals and entertainment. This clustering of the functional domains, though, may not be a plausible scenario keeping in view the practicality of describing a language because the functional domains of language may overlap most of the times but for the purpose of data collection and data analysis, it may prove to be a useful methodology.  A quantitative methodology will be used to describe the data collected from the responses of some 300 randomly selected households. I will carry out simple frequency distribution to determine the levels of compartmentalization of Ushojo with respect to its strong neighbors i-e Pushto and Torwali. By compartmentalization I mean the way Ushojo speakers decide to use each language in various functional domains.  This will give us an understanding of the extent to which Ushojo speakers have switched to more widely spoken languages. It will also provide an indication of the magnitude of any threat and may suggest strategies for Reversing Language Shift.
            Specifically, the present work will attempt to reach conclusions regarding code mixing and code switching of the Ushojis, their attitude towards their language and culture, their level of multilingualism and models of intergenerational transmission of the language. This study will be based on both my first hand observations and responses to structured questionnaires.

References

Baart, Joan L.G. (2003). Sustainable development and the maintenance of Pakistan’s Indigenous languages. Paper submitted for presentation at the Conference of the Social Sciences and Humanities. Islamabad.

Baart, Joan L.G(n.d). Tonal Features in Languages of Northern Pakistan. Available online: http://www.geocities.com/kcs_kalam/tonefeat.pdf

Decker, Sandra J. (1992). USHOJO. In  Rensch, Decker and Hallberg (eds) Languages of Kohistan. Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan Vol. Summer Institute of Linguistics and National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quid-e-Azam University Islamabad Pakistan.

Fishman, A. Joshua (2001) Can threatened languages be survived? UTP,2250 Military Road, Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA.

Gordon, Raymond G., Jr(ed) (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http:/www.ethnologue.com
Grimes, Barbara F. (2001).  Ethnologue: Languages of the World 14th edition. Dallas, TX: SIL International. Available on www.ethnologue.com

Rahman, Tariq. (n.d) Language Policy and Localization in Pakistan: Proposal for a Pragmatic Shift. Available online: http://www.tariqrahman.com/language/Language%20Policy%20and%20Localization%20in%20Pakistan.htm
Rahman, Tariq(n.d) Language Policy, Multilingualism and Language Vitality in Pakistan. Available online: www.sil.org/asia/ldc/parrallel_papers/tariq_rahman.pdf
Keiser, Lincoln. (1991). Notes on the Ethnography of Bishegram. Paper presented at the 20th Annual Conference on South Asia, University of Wiscosin.