Kashmiri language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Kashmiri (disambiguation)
Kashmiri
कॉशुर کٲشُر kạ̄šur
Spoken in: India (Jammu and Kashmir; Pakistan (Azad Kashmir)[1] 
Region: Kashmir
Total speakers: 4.6 million[1]
Language family: Indo-European
 Indo-Iranian
  Dardic
   Kashmiri 
Writing system: Perso-Arabic script, Devanagari script 
Official status
Official language in: Flag of India India,[1]
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: ks
ISO 639-2: kas
ISO 639-3: kas
Indic script
This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Kashmiri (कॉशुर, کٲشُر Koshur) is a Dardic language spoken primarily in the valley of Kashmir, a region situated in the Jammu and Kashmir state of India.[2][3][4] It has about 4,391,000 speakers in India. The 105,000 or so speakers in Pakistan are mostly Immigrants from the Kashmir Valley to Pakistan and include only a few speakers residing in border villages in the Neelum District of Azad Kashmir.[1] Kashmiri belongs to the geographical linguistic sub-grouping called Dardic part of the Indo-European Language Family .[5] It is one of the 23 scheduled languages of India.[6]

Kashmiri is the state official language of Jammu and Kashmir and also one of the national languages of India. Some Kashmiri speakers use English or Urdu as a second language.[1] In the past few decades, Kashmiri was introduced as a subject at the university and the colleges of the valley. At present, attempts are on for inclusion of Kashmiri in school curriculum.

Contents

[edit] Literature

In 1919 George Abraham Grierson wrote that “Kashmiri is the only one of the Dardic languages that has a literature”. Kashmiri literature dates back to over 750 years, this is, more-or-less, the age of many a modern literature including English.

[edit] Writing system

Kashmiri has remained a spoken language up to the present times, though some manuscripts were written in the past in the Sharada script, and then in Perso-Arabic script. Currently, Kashmiri is written in either the Perso-Arabic script (with some modifications) or the Devanagari script. Among languages written in the Perso-Arabic script, Kashmiri is practically unique, in that it regularly indicates all vowel sounds [7]

[edit] Grammar

Kashmiri, like English, follows Subject Verb Object word order.[8]

There are four cases in Kashmiri: nominative, genitive, and two oblique cases.[9]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Kashmiri: A language of India. Ethnologue. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
  2. ^ Koshur: An Introduction to Spoken Kashmiri. Kashmir News Network: Language Section (koshur.org). Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
  3. ^ Kashmiri Literature. Kashmir Sabha, Kolkata. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
  4. ^ Kashmiri Language: Roots, Evolution and Affinity. Kashmiri Overseas Association, Inc. (KOA). Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
  5. ^ Kashmiri language. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
  6. ^ Scheduled Languages of India. Central Institute of Indian Languages. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
  7. ^ Daniels & Bright (1996). The World's Writing Systems, 753-754. 
  8. ^ V-2 and the Verb Complex in Kashmiri. University of Michigan and Central Institute of Indian Languages. Retrieved on 2008-06-04.
  9. ^ Edelman (1983). The Dardic and Nuristani Languages. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Wikipedia
Kashmiri language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia