Kashmiri

Kashmiri, popularly known as Koshur(कॉशुर, كأشُر Koshur) is a language from the Dardic sub-group of the Indo-Aryan group of languages and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley as well as in Azad Kashmir. Even the opponents of this linguistic classification of this language, grouped it with Dardi, Shrinya, Khowar dialects, which are spoken in the areas adjacent to the valley in its north and north-west. Language historians and linguists have often, however, concurred on the theory that the above-mentioned dialects fall in the category of languages that bear resemblance to the Indo-Aryan as well as to the Indo-Iranian languages. Philologists believe that like the earliest Naga inhabitants of the mountains of Kashmir having been cut off from the mainstream Aryans like their counterparts, their language took time to accept influences and merge with the main Aryan languages. The Naga language developed of its own and underwent changes natural to any language. All the same it maintained its peculiar vowel system and when it surfaced in the 8th-9th century AD, it had passed through all the stages of the Prakrits and Apabhrams has, the earliest available evidence of the Kashmiri language belongs to this period. 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 modern English. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica stated that "The language spoken in Kashmir is akin to that of the Punjab, though marked by many peculiarities . It possesses an ancient literature, which is written in a special character." Writing system There are three orthographical systems used to write the Kashmiri language—these are the Sharada script, the Devanagari script and the Perso-Arabic script; additionally, due to internet technology, the Roman script is sometimes used to write Kashmiri, especially online.The Kashmiri language was 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. However, today, it is written in Devanagari script and Perso-Arabic script (with some modifications). Among languages written in the Perso-Arabic script, Kashmiri is one of the very few which regularly indicates all vowel sounds. This script has been in vogue since the Muslim conquest in India and has been used by the people for centuries, in the Kashmir Valley. However, today, the 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, who employ the latter script. Grammar Kashmiri, like German and Old English and unlike other Indo-Aryan languages, has V2 word order. There are four cases in Kashmiri: nominative, genitive, and two oblique cases: the ergative and the dative case . Vocabulary Kashmiri is rich in Persian words, much as is the case with Urdu. In reference, Shashishekhar Toshkhani, a scholar on Kashmir's heritage, provides a detailed analysis where he shows extensive linguistic relationship between the Sanskrit language and the Kashmiri language, and presents detailed arguments contesting George Grierson's classification of the Kashmiri language as a member of the Dardic sub-group (of the Indo-Aryan group of languages.)