Kashmiri language

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, Sharada script
Official status
Official language in:	India,[1]
Regulated by:	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	ks
ISO 639-2:	kas
ISO 639-3:	kas
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Kashmiri (कॉशुर, کٲشُر Koshur) is a Dardic language spoken primarily in the valley of Kashmir, a region situated in the Indian state Jammu and Kashmir.^[2][3][4] It has about 4,391,000 speakers in India. Most of the 105,000 speakers or so in Pakistan are Immigrants from the Kashmir Valley and include only a few speakers residing in border villages in Neelum District. Kashmiri belongs to the geographical linguistic sub-grouping called Dardic part of the Indo-European Language Family.^[5] It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India.^[6]

Kashmiri is an official language of Jammu and Kashmir, along with Urdu, and is 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, although Urdu is much more common as a medium of instruction.

See also: States of India by Kashmiri speakers

Kashmiri is rich in Persian words.^[7]

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.

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. Kashmiri is written almost entirely in the Perso-Arabic script (with some modifications), while Kashmiri Hindu communities are attempting to promote a script based upon Devanagari script, especially on the internet - though such efforts have been almost exclusively amongst Hindus, with little to no impact on the wider Kashmiri Muslim community^[8]. Among Kashmiri speakers outside of Kashmir, Muslims tend to write in either Urdu, or in Kashmiri using the Urdu script. The smaller Kashmiri Hindu community tends to use Hindi and the Devanagari script in the same manner. Among languages written in the Perso-Arabic script, Kashmiri is one of the very few which regularly indicates all vowel sounds.^[9]

Grammar

Kashmiri, like English and unlike other Indo-Aryan languages, follows Subject Verb Object word order.^[10]

There are four cases in Kashmiri: nominative, genitive, and two oblique cases.^[11]

References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} "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. ↑ Krishna, Gopi (1967). Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man. Boston: Shambhala. p. 212. ISBN 978-1570622809. http://www.scribd.com/doc/7577310/KUNDALINI-the-evolutionary-energy-in-man. 
8. ↑ http://www.koausa.org/Languages/devan1.html
9. ↑ Daniels & Bright (1996). The World's Writing Systems. pp. 753-754. 
10. ↑ "V-2 and the Verb Complex in Kashmiri". University of Michigan and Central Institute of Indian Languages. Retrieved on 2008-06-04.
11. ↑ Edelman (1983). The Dardic and Nuristani Languages. 

See also

• Kashmiri literature
• List of topics on the land and the people of “Jammu and Kashmir”
• List of Kashmiri poets
• Neab International Kashmiri Magazine

External links

• Grierson, George Abraham. A Dictionary of the Kashmiri Language. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1932.
• Lexical Borrowings in Kashmiri by Ashok K KoulDelhi: Indian Institute of Language Studies,2008.
• Linguistic Studies in Kashmiri by Omkar N Koul New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 1977.
• An Intensive Course in Kashmiri by Omkar N Koul Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 1985.
• An Intermediate Course in Kashmiri by Omkar N. Koul Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 1994.
• Kashmiri Newspaper Reader by Omkar N Koul. Springfield: Dunwoody Press, 2008.
• Aspects of Kashmiri Linguistics edited by Omkar N Koul and Peter Edwin Hook New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 1984.
• Topics in Kashmiri Linguistics edited by by Omkar N Koul and Kashi Wali. New Delhi: Creative Books, 2002.
• Modern Kashmiri Grammar by Omkar N Koul and Kashi Wali. Springfield: Dunwoody Press, 2006.
• Kashmir history & Culture
• Kashmiri: A Cognitive-Descriptive Grammar by Kashi Wali and Omkar N Koul London: Routledge 1997.
• Kashmiri-English Dictionary for Second Language Learners by Omkar N. Koul, S. N. Raina and R. K. Bhat Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 2000.
• An Introduction to Spoken Kashmiri
• Koshur: An Introduction to Spoken Kasmiri
• Basic words and phrases in Kashmiri language
• Kashmiri literary magazine
• Kashmiri

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