THE KASHMIRI LANGUAGE 1 The Kashmiri Language Omkar N. Koul 1. Introduction 1.1. Area and Speakers The Kashmiri language is called k :šur or k :šir zaba:n by its native speakers. It is ? ? primarily spoken in the Kashmir Valley of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India. According to the 1981 census there were 30,76,398 speakers of the language. The census was not conducted in the year 1991. Keeping in view the rise of the population over last many years, the current number of its speakers will be around four million. Kashmiri is also spoken by Kashmiris settled in other parts of India, and other countries. The language spoken in and around Srinagar is regarded as the standard variety. It is used in literature, mass media and education. 1.2. Classification and Dialects There is a general consensus amongst historical linguists that Kashmiri belongs to the Dardic branch of the Indo-Aryan family. Grierson (1919), Morgenstierne (1961), and Fussman (1972) classify Kashmiri under Dardic group of Indo-Aryan languages. The term Dardic is stated to be only a geographical convention and not a linguistic expression. The classification of Kashmiri and other Dardic languages, has been reviewed in some works (Kachru 1969, Strand 1973, Koul and Schmidt 1984), with different purposes in mind. Kachru points out linguistic characteristics of Kashmiri. Strand presents his observations on Kafir languages. Koul and Schmidt have reviewed the literature on the classification of Dardic languages and have investigated the linguistic characteristics or features of these languages with special reference of Kashmiri and Shina. Kashmiri is closely related to Shina and some other languages of the North-West frontier. It also shares some morphological features such as pronominal suffixes with Sindhi and Lahanda. However, Kashmiri is different from all other Indo-Aryan languages in certain phonological, morphological, and syntactic features. For example, Kashmiri has a set of central vowels / , :, , :/ which are not found in other Indo-Aryan (cid:19) (cid:19) ? ? languages. In a similar way, in Kashmiri the finite verb always occurs in the second position with the exception in relative clause constructions. The word order in Kashmiri, thus, resembles the one in German, Dutch, Icelandic, Yiddish and a few other languages. These languages form a distinct set and are currently known as Verb Second (V-2) languages. Note that the word order generated by V-2 languages is quite different from Verb middle languages, such as English. In a V-2 language, any constituent of a sentence can precede the verb. It is worth mentioning here that Kashmiri shows several unique features which are different from the above mentioned other V-2 languages. Kashmiri has two types of dialects: (a) Regional dialects and (b) Social dialects. 1 UZ-Translations 2 STUDIES IN KASHMIRI Regional dialects are further of two types: (i) those regional dialects or variations which are spoken in the regions inside the valley of Kashmir and (ii) those which are spoken in the regions outside the valley of Kashmir. The Kashmiri speaking area in the valley is ethno-semantically divided into three regions: (1) Maraz (southern and south-eastern region), (2) Kamraz (northern and north-western region) and (3) Srinagar and its neighbouring areas. There are some minor linguistic variations mainly at the phonological and lexical levels. Kashmiri spoken in the three regions is not only mutually intelligible but quite homogeneous. These dialectical variations can be termed as different styles of the same speech. Since Kashmiri, spoken in and around Srinagar has gained some social prestige, very frequent ‘style switching’ takes places from Marazi or Kamrazi styles to that of the style of speech spoken in Srinagar and its neighbouring areas. This phenomena of style switching is very common among the educated speakers of Kashmiri. Kashmiri spoken in Srinagar and surrounding areas continues to hold the prestige of being the standard variety which is used in mass media and literature. There are two main regional dialects, namely Poguli and Kashtawari spoken outside the valley of Kashmiri (Koul and Schmidt 1984). Poguli is spoken in the Pogul and Paristan valleys bordered on the east by Rambani and Siraji, and on the west by mixed dialects of Lahanda and Pahari. The speakers of Poguli are found mainly to the south, south-east and south-west of Banihal. Poguli shares many linguistic features including 70% vocabulary with Kashmiri (Koul and Schmidt 1984). Literate Poguli speakers of Pogul and Pakistan valleys speak standard Kashmiri as well. Kashtawari is spoken in the Kashtawar valley, lying to the south-east of Kashmir. It is bordered on the south by Bhadarwahi, on the west by Chibbali and Punchi, and on the east by Tibetan speaking region of Zanskar. Kashtawari shares most of the linguistic features of standard Kashmiri, but retains some archaic features which have disappeared from the latter. It shares about 80% vocabulary with Kashmiri (Koul and Schmidt 1984). No detailed sociolinguistic research work has been conducted to study different speech variations of Kashmiri spoken by different communities and speakers who belong to different areas, professions and occupations. In some earlier works beginning with Grierson (1919: 234) distinction has been pointed out in two speech variations of Hindus and Muslims, two major communities who speak Kashmiri natively. Kachru (1969) has used the terms Sanskritized Kashmiri and Persianized Kashmiri to denote the two style differences on the grounds of some variations in pronunciation, morphology and vocabulary common among Hindus and Muslims. It is true that most of the distinct vocabulary used by Hindus is derived from Sanskrit and that used by Muslims is derived from Perso-Arabic sources. On considering the phonological and morphological variations (besides vocabulary) between these two dialects, the terms used by Kachru do not appear to be appropriate or adequate enough to represent the two socio-dialectical variations of styles of speech. The dichotomy of these social dialects is not always clear- cut. One can notice a process of style switching between the speakers of these two dialects in terms of different situations and participants. The frequency of this ‘style switching’ process between the speakers of these two communities mainly depends on different situations and periods of contact between the participants of the two communities at various social, educational and professional levels. Koul (1986) and Dhar (1984) have presented co-relation between certain linguistic and social variations of Kashmiri at different social and regional levels. The sociolinguistic variations of the language deserve a detailed study. 1.3. Script Various scripts have been used for Kashmiri. The main scripts are: Sharda, Devanagri, 2 UZ-Translations THE KASHMIRI LANGUAGE 3 Roman and Perso-Arabic. The Sharda script, developed around the 10th century, is the oldest script used for Kashmiri. The script was used for writing Sanskrit by the local scholars at that time. The does not represent all the phonetic characteristics of the Kashmiri language. It is now being used for very restricted purposes (for writing horoscopes) by the priestly class of the Kashmiri Pandit community. The Devanagri script with additional diacritical marks has also been used for Kashmiri and continues to be used by writers and researchers in representing the data from Kashmiri texts in their writings in Hindi related to language, literature and culture. It is being used by two journals namely Koshur Samachar and Kshir Bhawani Times on regular basis. Certain amount of inconsistency prevails in the use of diacritic signs. There is a scope for its standardization. The Roman script has also been used for Kashmiri but could not become popular. The Perso-Arabic script with additional diacritical marks now known as Kashmiri script has been recognized as the official script for Kashmiri by the Jammu and Kashmir Government and is now widely used in publications in the language. It still lacks standardization (Koul 1996). 2. Phonology 2.1. Segmentals The inventory of the distinctive segments of Kashmiri is given under Vowels and Consonants below: 2.1.1. Vowels Front Central Back High i i: : u u: (cid:19) (cid:19) Mid e e: : o o: ? ? Low a a: 1 Notice that Kashmiri has two short and two long central vowels (/ /, / :/, / / and / :/) (cid:19) (cid:19) ? ? which are not found in other South Asian languages. 2.1.1.1. Oral vowels There is a contrast of the position of tongue, height of the tongue and the rounding of lips in the articulation of vowels: /i/ (high front unrounded short vowel): (y)imtiha:n ‘examination,’ sir ‘secret,’ beni ‘sister.’ /i:/ (hight front unrounded long vowel): (y)i:d ‘Eid’ (A Muslim festival), si:r ‘brick,’ jaldi: ‘quickly.’ /e/ (mid front unrounded short vowel): reh ‘flame,’ tre ‘three’ /e:/ (mid front unrounded long vowel): tse:r ‘late’ / / (high central unrounded short vowel): (cid:19) ak l ‘wisdom,’ gand ‘dirty’ (cid:19) (cid:19) / :/ (high central unrounded long vowel): (cid:19) :thim ‘eighth,’ t :r ‘cold’ (cid:19) ` (cid:19) 3 UZ-Translations 4 STUDIES IN KASHMIRI / / (mid central unrounded short vowel): ? ch ‘eye,’ g r ‘watch’ (cid:3) (cid:3) ? ? / :/ (mid central unrounded long vowel): ? :s ‘mouth,’ ph :yd ‘profit’ (cid:3) (cid:3) ? ? (cid:19) /a/ (low central unrounded short vowel): az ‘today,’ par ‘read,’ na ‘no’ /a:/ (low central unrounded long vowel): a:r ‘pity,’ ga:m ‘village,’ sapha: ‘clean’ /u/ (high back rounded short vowel): panun ‘own,’ su ‘that/he’ /u:/ (high back rounded long vowel): u:tr ‘day before yesterday,’ su:d ‘interest’ (cid:19) /o/ (mid back rounded short vowel): on ‘blind,’ son ‘deep’ /o:/ (mid back rounded long vowel): o:l ‘nest,’ so:n ‘our,’ valo: ‘come(imp)’ / / (low back rounded short vowel): 1 d d ‘milk,’ s ‘she’ 1 1 2.1.1.2. Nasal vowels Nasalization is phonemic in Kashmiri. All the vowels can be nasalized. / :/ p :tsh ‘a little (f.s.)’ ›(cid:11) ›(cid:11)(cid:11) / k ‘some’ `(cid:18)(cid:3) `K(cid:3) / š ‘conch’ `(cid:29)(cid:18)(cid:3) `(cid:29)NK(cid:3) / :/ k :tsh ‘youngest (f.s) (cid:19)(cid:11)(cid:11) (cid:19)(cid:11)(cid:11) / / z ‘goose’ ?(cid:211) ?(cid:211) / / :t ‘stone of a fruit’ ?(cid:211) ?(cid:211) ` /ã/ ãgre:z ‘an English man’ /ã:/ ã:gun ‘compound’ / k ‘key’ ˚(cid:18)(cid:3) ˚](cid:3) / v h ‘camel’ ˚(cid:29)(cid:18)(cid:3) ˚(cid:29)W` /õ/ gõd ‘bouquet’ /õ:/ gõ:d ‘gum’ / / s zal ‘rainbow’ 1(cid:211) 1(cid:211) 2.1.1.3. Distribution of vowels The vowels / /, /o/, / :/ do not occur in the word final position. The short vowels / /, /e/, ? 1 (cid:19) /u/, and / / do not occur in the word-initial position. Usually the semi-vowel /y/ is added 1 in the initial position of the words beginning with /i/, /i:/, /e/, and /e:/. Similarly, the semi-vowel /v/ is added to the words beginning with /u/, and /u:/. The following pairs of words are in free variation: ira:d /yira:d ‘determination’ (cid:19) (cid:19) ehsa:n/yehsa:n ‘kindness’ e:la:n/ye:la:n ‘announcement’ 4 UZ-Translations THE KASHMIRI LANGUAGE 5 uja:d /vuja:d ‘deserted’ `(cid:19) `(cid:19) h/v h ‘camel’ ˚(cid:29)W` ˚(cid:29)W` Only some educated persons who are conscious about the original pronunciation of the Hindi-Urdu borrowed words, make efforts to pronounce some of such words without the semi-vowel in the word initial position. 2.1.1.4. Sequences of (syllabic) vowels Sequences of vowels do not occur in Kashmiri. The combinations of some vowel sequences like /u /, /u: /,and /o: / can be treated as diphthongs. Their occurrence is (cid:19) (cid:19) ? restricted to the word initial and medial positions only. šu r ‘child’ (f.s) (cid:19) gu: r ‘milkmaid’ (cid:19) o: l ‘nest’ ? go: l ‘round’ ? 2.1.2. Consonants Consonants are classified into different groups on the basis of their manner and place of articulation. 5 UZ-Translations 6 STUDIES IN KASHMIRI 2.1.2.1. Inventory of Consonants Bilabial Dental Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal Stops vl.unasp p t t k ` vl.asp ph th th kh ` vd.unsap b d d g ` Affricates vl.unas ts c vl.asp tsh ch vd.unas j Nasal m n 0 Trill r Lateral l Fricative vl. s š h vd. z Semi- v y vowels Examples are given below: Stops /p/ (voiceless unaspirated bilabial stop): pakh ‘walk,’ kapur ‘cloth,’ pop ‘ripe.’ /ph/ (voiceless aspirated bilabial stop): phal ‘fruit,’ saphe:d ‘white,’ pa:ph ‘sin’ /b/ (voiced unaspirated bilabial stop): bar ‘door,’ akhba:r ‘newspaper,’ nab ‘sky’ /t/ (voiceless unaspirated dental stop): tarun ‘to cross’ , katun ‘to spin,’ tot ‘hot’ /th/ (voiceless aspirated dental stop): thod ‘tall,’ mathun ‘to rub,’ sath ‘seven’ /d/ (voiced unaspirated dental stop): d :r ‘window,’ l’odur ‘yellow,’ band ‘close’ ? /t/ (voiceless unaspirated retroflex stop): ` tu:k r ‘basket,’ ratun ‘to catch,’ hot ‘throat.’ ` (cid:19) ` ` /th/ (voiceless aspirated retroflex stop): ` thu:l ‘egg,’ mith :y ‘sweets,’ zu’:th ‘tall’ ` ` ? ` /d/ (voiced unaspirated retroflex stop): ` du:n ‘walnut,’ gandun ‘to tie,’ yad ‘belly’ ` ` ` /k/ (voiceless unaspirated velar stop): kan ‘ear,’ k k r ‘hen,’ tsok ‘sour.’ 1 (cid:19) /kh/ (voiceless aspirated velar stop): khanun ‘to dig,’ kh khur ‘hollow,’ krakh ‘cry’ 1 /g/ (voiced unaspirated velar stop): 6 UZ-Translations THE KASHMIRI LANGUAGE 7 gardan ‘neck,’ gagur ‘rat,’ rag ‘vein’ Affricates /ts/ (voiceless unaspirated dental affricate): tsa:s ‘cough’ natsun ‘to dance,’ s ts ‘tailor’ (cid:19) /tsh/ (voiceless aspirated dental affricate): tshor ‘empty,’ gatshun ‘to go,’ latsh ‘dust’ /c/ (voiceless unaspirated palato-alveolar stop) co:n ‘your,’ necuv ‘son,’ koc ‘unripe/raw’ /ch/ (voiceless aspirated palato-alveolar affricate): cha:n ‘carpenter,’ rachun ‘to save,’ m ch ‘fly.’ ? /j/ (voiced unaspirated palato-alveolar affricate) ja:n ‘good,’ paji ‘baskets,’ ta:j ‘crown’ Fricatives /s/ (voiceless alveolar fricative): sath ‘seven’ sast ‘cheap,’ nas ‘nose’ (cid:19) /z/ (voiced alveolar fricative): za:lun ‘to burn,’ pazar ‘truth,’ az ‘today’ /š/ (voiceless palato-alveolar fricative): šak ‘suspicion,’ k ši:r ‘Kashmir,’ paš ‘roof’ ? /h/ (voiceless glottal fricative): hos ‘elephant,’ baha:r ‘spring,’ reh ‘flame’ Nasals /m/ (voiced bilabial nasal): mas ‘hair,’ tsa:man ‘cheese,’ kam ‘less’ /n/ (voiced alveolar nasal): nam ‘nail’ anun ‘to bring,’ son ‘deep’ / / (voiced velar nasal): 0 ra un ‘to dye,’ za ‘leg.’ 0 0 Trill /r/ (voiced alveolar trill): raz ‘rope,’ nar m ‘soft,’ ta:r ‘wire’ (cid:19) Lateral /l/ (voiced alveolar lateral): lu:kh ‘people,’ kalam ‘pen,’ za:l ‘net’ Semi-vowels /v/ (voiced bilabial semi-vowel) : van ‘forest’ , davun ‘to run,’ na:v ‘boat/name’ /y/ (voiced palatal semi-vowel): 7 UZ-Translations 8 STUDIES IN KASHMIRI yad ‘belly,’ yakhtiya:r ‘right,’ ja:y ‘place’ ` 2.1.2.2. Palatalization Palatalization is phonemic in Kashmiri. All the non-palatal consonants in Kashmiri can be palatalized. pan ‘thread’ p’an ‘(they) will fall’ phal ‘fruit’ ph’al ‘boil’ bon ‘heap’ b’on ‘separate’ tal ‘under’ t’al ‘a piece’ thakun ‘to be tired’ th’akun ‘to boast’ dal ‘group’ d’al ‘bark’ h t ‘piece of wood’ h t’ ‘throats’ ?` ?` t :th ‘dear one (f)’ t :th’ ‘dear ones’ (m.p.) `? ` `? ` b d ‘big (f.s.) b d’ ‘big ones’ (m.p.) ? ` ? ` kath ‘story’ k’ath ‘in’ (something)’ khav ‘a ditch’ kh’av ‘ate’ ba:gva:n ‘gardener’ ba:g’va:n ‘lucky’ tsal ‘run’ (imp) ts’al ‘pressure’ tshot ‘short’ tsh’ot ‘polluted’ ` ` :m ‘unbaked (f.s.) :m’ ‘unbaked’ (m.p) ? ? nu:l ‘mongoose’ n’u:l ‘blue’ g :s ‘gas’ g :s’ ‘slothful’ ? ? zal ‘urine’ z’al ‘cream layer’ han ‘a piece’ h’an ‘to be afraid’ m :l ‘appetite’ m :l’ ‘fathers ? ? parun ‘to read’ par’un ‘sieve’ vath ‘road’ v’ath ‘river Vitasta’ 2.1.2.3. Phonological changes in loanwords The voiced aspirated consonant phonemes like /bh/,/dh/,/dh/,/jh/,and /gh/ are deaspirated ` as /b/,/d/,/ d/,/j/, and /g/ respectively in Kashmiri in the Perso-Arabic and Hindi Urdu ` borrowed words. Similarly, the Perso-Arabic uvular stop /q/ is replaced by /k/, and fricatives /f/, /x/,and /G/ are replaced by /ph/, /kh/, and /g/ respectively. The voiceless unaspirated stops /p/,/t/,/t/,and /k/ in the borrowed words are aspirated ` in the word final position in Kashmiri: Hindi-Urdu Kashmiri pa:p ‘sin’ pa:ph ra:t ‘night’ ra:th ko:t ‘coat’ ko:th ` ` pa:k ‘pure’ pa:kh 2.1.2.4. Consonant Clusters 2.1.2.4.1. Word-initial Consonant Cluster 8 UZ-Translations THE KASHMIRI LANGUAGE 9 Word initial consonant clusters are not as frequent as the word medial consonant clusters. The second member of a consonant cluster which occur in the initial position is always /r/. The first consonant is a stop, affricate or a fricative. /pr/ prasun ‘to give birth’ /phr/ phras ‘poplar tree’ /br/ bram ‘illusion’ /tr/ tre ‘three’ /dr/ drog ‘expensive’ / tr/ trak ‘truck’ ` ` / dr/ dram ‘drum’ ` ` /kr/ krakh ‘cry’ /khr/ khra:v ‘a wooden footwear’ /gr/ gra:kh ‘a customer’ /tshr/ tshrath ‘mischief’ ` /sr/ srod ‘joint,’ ‘common’ /šr/ šra:n ‘bath’ 2.1.2.4.2. Word-medial consonant cluster There is a very frequent occurrence of consonant clusters in the medial position. Most of these clusters are formed across syllable or morpheme boundaries. Some of them are broken optionally by the insertion of the vowel / /. There are some restrictions in the (cid:19) formation of consonant clusters as follows: (i) two aspirated consonants do not combine to form a consonant cluster, (ii) /ch/ is not combined to form a consonant cluster, (iii) /d/ ` does not occur as the second member of a consonant cluster. Examples of the consonant clusters are given below pt kapta:n ‘captain’ bn šabnam ‘dew’ thk kithk n’ ‘how’ (cid:19) dph adphar ‘fragrance’ dp tadpun ‘to suffer in pain’ ` ` kt maktab ‘school’ gr rangre:z ‘dyer’ ck ackan ‘a long button- up coat’ jl kh jli: ‘insult’ ? mth tsamthun ‘to shrink’ ` ` nt zant ‘as if’ (cid:19) šm dušman ‘enemy’ lb alb :n’ ‘plough’ ? rb gurbath ‘poverty’ zm azma:vun ‘to try’ hb r hbar ‘guide’ ? There are only a limited number of consonant clusters of three consonants possible in Kashmiri. In all such instances the first consonant is nasal /n/. ndr ndrim ‘internal’ ? 9 UZ-Translations 10 STUDIES IN KASHMIRI ndk andka:r ‘darkness’ ndg bandgi: ‘worship’ nzr g nzrun ‘to count’ ? 2.1.2.4.3. Word-final consonant cluster There is a less frequency of the occurrence of the consonant clusters in the word final position. The first member of the consonant cluster is any of the two nasal consonants /m, n/, or fricatives /s, š/. The second consonant is any of the stops. /mp/ lamp ‘lamp’ /mb/ amb ‘mango’ /nd/ dand ‘teeth’ /nd/ khand ‘sugar’ ` ` /nk/ bank ‘bank’ /nš/ šankh ‘conch’ /ng/ rang ‘colour’ /st/ mast ‘carefree’ /št/ gašt ‘round’ /št kašt ‘trouble’ }(cid:3)(cid:18) ` 2.1.2.5. Syllable structure Kashmiri has (C)(C)V(C)(C) syllable structure. Vowel initial syllables are found only in the initial position of the words The first consonant of the medial cluster is assigned to the preceding syllable and the remaining elements of the unit to the following syllable. In the following examples the syllable boundary is marked with [+] sign. nak+ši ‘map’ m n+zil ‘destination’ ? k s+mat ‘fate’ (cid:19) The assignment of the medial units to syllables does not depend on morphological structure. 2. 2. Suprasegmentals 2.2.1. Length There are seven pairs of short and long vowels: The following minimal pairs illustrate the contrast in the length of these vowels: sir ‘secret’ si:r ‘brick zen ‘mud’ ze:n ‘win’ t r ‘a piece of cloth’ t :r ‘cold’ (cid:19) (cid:19) l r ‘house’ l :r ‘cucumber’ ? ? nar ‘male’ na:r ‘fire’ kun ‘alone’ ku:n ‘corner’ son ‘deep’ so:n ‘our’ 10 UZ-Translations