KASHMIRI LANGUAGE (properly Kamiri), the name of the vernacular spoken in the valley of Kashmir (properly Kaimir) and in the hills adjoining. By origin it is the most southern member of the Dard group of the Dardic languages (see INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES). The other members of the group are Shina, spoken to its north in the country round Gilgit, and Kahistani, spoken in the hill country on both sides of the River Indus before it debouches on to the plains of India. The Dardic languages also include Khowar, the vernacular of Chitral, and the Kafir group of tongues, of which the most important is the Bashgali of Kafiristan. Kashmiri alone possesses a literature, or indeed an alphabet. The whole family occupies the three-sided tract of country between the Hindu-Kush and the north-western frontier of British India.
The Dardic languages are Aryan, but are neither Iranian nor Indo-Aryan. They have developed a phonetic system of their own, while they have retained unchanged forms of extreme antiquity that have long passed out of current use both in Persia and in India. They thus represent a stage of linguistic progress later than that of Sanskrit, and earlier than that recorded in the Iranian Avesta.
The language has lost most of its original Dardic character, and is now a mixed form of speech. Sanskrit has been actively studied in Kashmir for many centuries, and the Kashmiri vocab ulary, and even its grammar, are now largely Indian.
Kashmiri has few dialects. The only important variety is Kishtwari, spoken in the hills south-west of Kashmir. Smaller dialects, such as Pogul and Rambani of the hills south of the Banihal pass, may also be mentioned.
General Character of the Language.—The two principal features are the numerous epenthetic changes of vowels and con sonants, and the employment of pronominal suffixes. In both cases the phenomena are perfectly plain, cause and effect being presented in the complicated systems of declension and con jugation. The Indo-Aryan languages proper long ago passed through this stage, and a study of Kashmiri explains a number of difficulties found by the student of Indo-Aryan vernaculars.'
In the following account the contractions employed are : D= 'See G. A. Grierson, "On Pronominal Suffixes in the Kacmirl Languages," and "On the Radical and Participial Tenses of the Modern Indo-Aryan Languages," in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. lxiv. (1895), pt. i. pp. 336 and 352.
Dardic ; Ksh.=Kashmiri; Skr.= Sanskrit ; Sh.=Shina.
A. Vocabulary.—The vocabulary of Kashmiri is mixed. At Its basis it has a large number of words which are also found in the neighbouring Shina, such as connote the most familiar ideas and are in most frequent use. Thus, the personal pronouns, the earlier numerals, the words for "father," "mother," "fire," "sun," are all closely connected with corresponding Shina words. There is also a large Indian element, consisting partly of words derived from Sanskrit vocables introduced in ancient times, and partly of words borrowed in later days from the vernaculars of the Punjab. Finally, there is a considerable Persian (including Arabic) element owing to the long Muslim domination of the Happy Valley. Many of these have been considerably altered in accordance with Kashmiri phonetic rules, so that they some times appear in strange forms. The difference of religion has strongly influenced the vocabulary. The Muslims employ Persian and Arabic words with great freedom, while the Hindus, or "Pundits" as they are called, borrow almost entirely words de rived from Sanskrit. The literary class being mostly Hindu, Kashmiri literature, taken as a whole, hardly represents the actual language spoken by the mass of the people.
B. Written Characters.—The Persian character is quite un suited for representing the very complex Kashmiri vowel system. Hindus employ the Sarada alphabet, of Indian origin and akin to the well known Nagari. Kashmiri vowel sounds can be recorded very successfully in this character, but there is, unfortunately, no fixed system of spelling. The Nagari alphabet is also coming into use in printed books, no Sarada types being yet in existence.