Kashmiri (English: /kæʃˈmɪəri/) or Koshur (كٲشُر, कॉशुर, 𑆑𑆳𑆯𑆶𑆫𑇀, /kəːʃur/) is a language from the Dardic subgroup of Indo-Aryan languages, spoken by around 7 million Kashmiris, primarily in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2020 the Parliament of India passed a bill to make Kashmiri an official language of Jammu and Kashmir along with Dogri, Hindi, English and Urdu. Kashmiri is also among the 22 scheduled languages of India.
Kashmiri has split ergativity and the unusual verb-second word order.
Geographic distribution and status
There are about 6.8 million speakers of Kashmiri and related dialects in Jammu and Kashmir and amongst the Kashmiri diaspora in other states of India. Most Kashmiri speakers are located in the Kashmir Valley and Chenab Valley of Jammu and Kashmir.
Kashmiri is also spoken in Pakistan, primarily in the territory of Azad Kashmir, where the speakers are mostly concentrated in the Neelam and Leepa valleys and in the district of Haveli. Their numbers are not known exactly, but in 2012 they were estimated at around 130,000. At the 2017 Census of Pakistan, as many as 350,000 people declared their first language to be Kashmiri. Further in Azad Kashmir, in last several decades due to encouragement of the Punjabi language and change in demography from nearby places the Kashmiri language is limited to small quarters of the area at present.
The Kashmiri language is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. It was a part of the eighth Schedule in the former constitution of the Jammu and Kashmir. Along with other regional languages mentioned in the Sixth Schedule, as well as Hindi and Urdu, the Kashmiri language was to be developed in the state.
Persian began to be used as the court language in Kashmir during the 14th centuries, under the influence of Islam. It was replaced by Urdu in 1907. Kashmiri became an official language in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for the first time.
Most Kashmiri speakers use Urdu or English as a second language. Since November 2008, the Kashmiri language has been made a compulsory subject in all government schools in the Valley up to secondary level.
Kashmiri is closely related to Poguli and Kishtwari, which are spoken in the mountains to the south of the Kashmir Valley and have sometimes been counted as dialects of Kashmiri.
Phonology
Kashmiri has the following vowel phonemes:
Vowels
-
Front Central Back High i iː ɨ ɨː u uː Mid e eː ə əː o oː Low a aː ɔ ɔː
Consonants
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Post-alv./ Palatal |
Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||
| Stop/ Affricate |
plain | p⠀b | t⠀d | t͡s | ʈ⠀ɖ | t͡ʃ⠀d͡ʒ | k⠀ɡ | |
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | t͡sʰ | ʈʰ | t͡ʃʰ | kʰ | ||
| Fricative | s⠀z | ʃ | h | |||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
Archaisms
Kashmiri, as also the other Dardic languages, shows important divergences from the Indo-Aryan mainstream. One is the partial maintenance of the three sibilant consonants s ṣ ś of the Old Indo-Aryan period. For another example, the prefixing form of the number ‘two’, which is found in Sanskrit as dvi-, has developed into ba-/bi- in most other Indo-Aryan languages, but du- in Kashmiri (preserving the original dental stop d). Seventy-two is dusatath in Kashmiri, bahattar in Hindi-Urdu and Punjabi, and dvisaptati in Sanskrit.
Certain features in Kashmiri even appear to stem from Indo-Aryan even predating the Vedic period. For instance, there was an /s/ > /h/ consonant shift in some words that had already occurred with Vedic Sanskrit (This tendency was complete Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian), yet is lacking in Kashmiri equivalents. The word rahit in Vedic Sanskrit and modern Hindi-Urdu (meaning ‘excluding’ or ‘without’) corresponds to rost in Kashmiri. Similarly, sahit (meaning ‘including’ or ‘with’) corresponds to sost in Kashmiri.
Writing system
| Kashmiri alphabet |
|---|
| ا ب پ ت ٹ ث ج چ ح خ د ڈ ذ ر ڑ ز ژ س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ک گ ل م ن (ں) و ۆ ۄ ھ ء ی ؠ ے |
|
Arabic script |
|
There are three orthographical systems used to write the Kashmiri language: the Perso-Arabic script, the Devanagari script and the Sharada script. The Roman script is also sometimes informally used to write Kashmiri, especially online.
The Kashmiri language is traditionally written in the Sharada script after the 8th Century A.D. This script however, is not in common use today, except for religious ceremonies of the Kashmiri Pandits.
Today it is written in Perso-Arabic and Devanagari scripts (with some modifications). Among languages written in the Perso-Arabic script, Kashmiri is one of the scripts that regularly indicates all vowel sounds.
The Perso-Arabic script is recognised as the official script of Kashmiri language by the Jammu and Kashmir government and the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.
Nowadays, Kashmiri Perso-Arabic script has come to be associated with Kashmiri Muslims, while the Kashmiri Devanagari script has come to be associated with the Kashmiri Hindu community.
Perso-Arabic script
Consonants
| Name | Transliteration | IPA | Isolated glyph | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| بے | bē | b | ب | |
| پے | pē | p | پ | |
| پھٔ | phạ | ph | پھ | |
| تے | tē | t | ت | |
| تھٔ | thạ | th | تھ | |
| ٹے | ṭē | ṭ | ٹ | |
| ٹھٔ | ṭhạ | ṭh | ٹھ | |
| ثے | sē | s | ث | |
| جیٖم | jīm | j | ج | |
| چیٖم | chīm | ch | چ | |
| چھٔ | chhạ | chh | چھ | |
| حَے | hay | h | ح | |
| خَے | khay | kh | , | خ |
| دال | dāl | d | د | |
| ڈال | ḍāl | ḍ | ڈ | |
| ذال | zāl | z | ذ | |
| رے | rē | r | ر | |
| ڑے | ṛē | ṛ | ڑ | |
| زے | zē | z | ز | |
| ژے | tsē | ts | ژ | |
| ژھٔ | tshạ | tsh | ژھ | |
| سیٖن | sīn | s | س | |
| شـیٖـن | shīn | sh | ش | |
| صۄاد | sọ̄d | s | ص | |
| ضۄاد | zọ̄d | z | ض | |
| طـۄے | tọy | t | ط | |
| ظـۄے | zọy | z | ظ | |
| عٲن | ạn | – | ع | |
| غٲن | gạn | g | غ | |
| فے | fē | f | , | ف |
| قاف | qāf | q | ق | |
| كـیٖـف | kīf | k | ک | |
| کھٔ | khạ | kh | کھ | |
| گاف | gāf | g | گ | |
| لام | lām | l | ل | |
| مـیٖـم | mīm | m | م | |
| نـوٗن | nūn | n, ̃ | , | ن |
| نـوٗن غۄنہَ | nūn gọnā | ̃ | ں | |
| واو | wāw | v/w | و | |
| ہے | hē | h | ہ | |
| لۄکُٹ یے, بۆڈ یے | lọkuṭ yē, boḍ yē | y | ی, ے | |
| گول یایُگ, تالٕرؠ | gōl yāyuk, tālür’ | ya, ‘ | , | ؠ |
Vowels
| Name | Transliteration | IPA | Vowel combined with consonant ب (be) |
Final vowel glyph | Medial vowel glyph | Initial vowel glyph | Isolated vowel glyph | Unicode diacritic glyph details | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| زَبَر | zabar | a | بَ | –َ | –َ | اَ | اَ | U+064E ARABIC FATHA | |
| مَد | mad | ā | با | ا | ا | آ | آ | (آ) U+0622 ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH MADDA ABOV (Initial & Isolate)(ا) U+0627 ARABIC LETTER ALEF (Medial & Final) | |
| اَمالہٕ | amālü | ạ (ö) | بٔ | –ٔ | –ٔ | أ | أ | U+0654 ARABIC HAMZA ABOVE | |
| اَمالہٕ مَد | amālü mad | ạ̄ (ȫ) | بٲ | ٲ | ٲ | ٲ | ٲ | (ٲ) U+0672 ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH WAVY HAMZA ABOVE | |
| زیر | zēr | i | بِ | –ِ | –ِ | اِ | اِ | U+0650 ARABIC KASRA | |
| کَشہِ زیر | kashi zēr | ī | بی | ی | ـیٖـ | ایٖـ | ای | (ای) U+06CC ARABIC LETTER FARSI YEH & U+0656 ARABIC SUBSCRIPT ALEF (Initial & Medial)U+06CC ARABIC LETTER FARSI YEH (Final & Isolate) | |
| سایہِ | sāyi | u’,ü | بٕ | –ٕ | –ٕ | إ | إ | U+0655 ARABIC HAMZA BELOW | |
| سایہِ مَد | sāyi mad | ū’,ǖ | بٟ | –ٟ | –ٟ | ٳ | ٳ | (ٳ) U+0673 ARABIC LETTER ALEF WITH WAVY HAMZA BELOW | |
| پیش | pēsh | u | بُ | –ُ | –ُ | اُ | اُ | U+064F ARABIC DAMMA | |
| کَشہِ واوُک | kashi wāwuk | ū | بوٗ | ـوٗ | ـوٗ | اوٗ | اوٗ | (وٗ) U+0648 ARABIC LETTER WAW & U+0657 ARABIC INVERTED DAMMA | |
| نیٖمہٕ واوُک | nīmü wāwuk | o | بۆ | ـۆ | ـۆ | اۆ | اۆ | (ۆ) U+06C6 ARABIC LETTER OE | |
| واوُک | wāwuk | ō | بو | ـو | ـو | او | او | (و) U+0648 ARABIC LETTER WAW | |
| لٔٹؠ واوُک | lạṭ’ wāwuk | ọ | بۄ | ـۄ | ۄ | اۄ | اۄ | (ۄ) U+06C4 ARABIC LETTER WAW WITH RING | |
| لٔٹؠ واوُک مَد | lạṭ’ wāwuk mad | ọ̄ | بۄا | ـۄا | ۄا | اۄا | اۄا | (ۄ + ا) U+06C4 ARABIC LETTER WAW WITH RING & U+0627 ARABIC LETTER ALEF | |
| خیٖمہٕ یایُک | khīmü yāyuk | e | بـٚے | ـٚے | ـێـ | ێـ | اےٚ | ( ٚ) U+065A ARABIC VOWEL SIGN SMALL V ABOVE combined with (ے) U+06D2 ARABIC LETTER YEH BARREE | |
| یایُک | yāyuk | ē | بے | ے | ـیـ | یـ | اے | (ی) U+06CC ARABIC LETTER FARSI YEH | |
Devanagari
Consonants
| Letter | क | ख | ग | च | छ | ज | च़ | छ़ | ज़ | ट | ठ | ड | त | थ | द | न | प | फ | ब | म | य | र | ल | व | श | स | ह |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transliteration | k | kh | g | č | čh | j | c | ch | z | ṭ | ṭh | ḍ | t | th | d | n | p | ph | b | m | y | r | l | w | š | s | h |
Vowels
There have been a few versions of the devanagari script for Kashmiri. The 2002 version of the proposal is shown below. This version has readers and more content available on the Internet, even though this is an older proposal. This version makes use of the vowels ॲ/ऑ and vowel signs कॅ/कॉ for the schwa-like vowel and elongated schwa-like vowel that also exist in other Devanagari-based scripts such as Marathi and Hindi but are used for the sound of other vowels.
| Letter | अ | आ | ॲ | ऑ | इ | ई | ॶ | ॷ | उ | ऊ | ऎ | ए | ऐ | ऒ | ओ | औ | -व | ँ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA |