C. Phonetics.---There is, as compared with Sanskrit, a con siderable extension of the vowel system. Ksh. possesses the vowels a, a, u, r, e, ai, ö, au, and the nasal symbol ', a flat a (like the a in "hat"), a flat é (like the e in "met"), a short (like the o in "hot"), and a broad a (like the a in "all") ; also a series of what natives call "mcitra-vowels," which, though slightly heard, yet exercise a great influence on the sound of the preceding syllable. The back-action of these mcitrci-vowels is technically known as umlaut or "epenthesis," and is the most striking feature of the Kashmiri language.
With one important exception, common to all Dardic lan guages, Kashmiri employs every consonant found in the Sanskrit alphabet. The exception is the series of aspirated consonants, gh, jh, clh, dh and bh, which are wanting in Ksh., the correspond ing unaspirated consonants being substituted for them. There is a tendency to use dental letters where Hindi employs cerebrals. Cerebral letters are, however, owing to Sanskrit influence, on the whole better preserved in Ksh. than in the other Dardic lan guages. The cerebral s has almost disappeared, .f being employed instead. The only common word in which it is found is the nu meral sah, six, which is merely a learned spelling for scih, due to the influence of the Skr. sat. From the palatals c, ch, j, a new series of consonants has been formed, viz., ts, tsh (aspirate of ts, i.e., ts+h, not t-I-sh), and z (as in English, not dz). The sibilant s, and occasionally s, are frequently represented by h. When such an h is followed by a palatal letter the s returns.
The palatal letters i, e, fi-matrd and y often change a preceding consonant. These changes are each subject to certain rules. Cerebral letters (t, th, d), change only before i, e or y, and not before fi-meitra. The others change before é, y or No sArd can end in an unaspirated surd consonant. If such a consonant falls at the end of a word it is aspirated.
D. Declension.—If the phonetic rules are borne in mind, de clension in Kashmiri is a fairly simple process.
Nouns substantive and adjective have two genders, a masculine and a feminine. Words referring to males are masculine, and to females feminine. Inanimate things are sometimes masculine and sometimes feminine. Pronouns have, three genders, arranged on a different principle. One gender refers to male living beings, an other to female living beings, and a third (or neuter) to all inanimate things whether they are grammatically masculine or feminine. Nouns ending in are masculine, and most, but not all,
of those ending in i, u, é or ii are feminine. Of nouns ending in consonants, some are masculine, and some are feminine. No rule can be formulated regarding these, except that all abstract nouns ending in ar (a very numerous class) are masculine. There are four declensions. The first consists of masculine nouns ending in a consonant, in a, é or is (very few of these last two). The second consists of the important class of masculine nouns in "; the third of feminine nouns in " or n (being the feminines corre sponding to the masculine nouns of the second declension) ; and the fourth of feminine nouns ending in a, a or a consonant.
The noun possesses two numbers, a singular and a plural, and in each number there are, besides the nominative, three organic cases, the accusative, the case of the agent, and the ablative. The accusative, when not definite, may also be the same in form as the nominative.
Other cases are formed by the addition of postpositions, some of which are added to the accusative, while others are added to the ablative case. The genitive terminations, and also the dative termination kite, are adjectives, and agree with the governing noun in gender, number and case and are declined regularly as substantives, the masculine ones belonging to the second de clension and the feminine ones to the third.
Adjectives ending in " (second declension) form the feminine in ", with the usual changes of the preceding consonant. Other adjectives do not change for gender. All adjectives agree with the qualified noun in gender, number and case, the postposition, if any, being added to the latter word of the two.
The first two personal pronouns are NM, I; me, me, by me; asi, we ; ase, us, by us ; and tsah, thou ; tse, thee, by thee ; tejhi, ye ; tohe, you, by you. Possessive pronouns are employed instead of the genitive. For the third person, we have sing. masc. suh, fern. soli, neut. tile; acc. sing. (masc. or fem.) tamis or tas, neut. tath; agent sing. masc. neut. tami, fem. tarni. The plural is of common gender throughout. The possessive pronoun is tasandn, of him, of her; tamyukn, of it; tiligndn, of them. The neuter gender is used for all things without life.