Bible Encyclopedias
Kashmiri

General Character of the Language

Kashmiri is a language of great philological interest. The two principal features which at once strike the student are the numerous epenthetic changes of vowels and consonants and the employment of pronominal suffixes. In both cases the phenomena are perfectly plain, cause and effect being alike presented to the eye in the somewhat complicated systems of declension and conjugation. The IndoAryan languages proper have long ago passed through this stage, and many of the phenomena now presented by them are due.to its influence, although all record of it has disappeared. In this way a study of Kashmiri explains a number of difficulties found by the student of Indo-Aryan vernaculars.' In the following account the reader is presumed to be in possession of the facts recorded in the articles Indo-Aryan Languages and Prakrit, and the following contractions will be employed: Ksh.= Kashmiri; Skr. = Sanskrit; P. = Pisaca; Sh. = Shina.

A. Vocabulary. The vocabulary of Kashmiri is, as has been explained, mixed. At its basis it has a large number of words which are also found in the neighbouring Shina, and these are such as connote the most familiar ideas and such as are in most frequent use. Thus, the personal pronouns, the earlier numerals, the words for " father," " mother," " fire," "the 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 due to the long Mussulman domination of the Happy Valley. Many of these have been considerably altered in accordance with Kashmiri phonetic rules, so that they sometimes appear in strange forms. Thus the Persian lagam, a bridle, has become lakam, and the Arabic babat, concerning, appears as bapat. The population speaking Kashmiri is mainly Mussulman, there being, roughly speaking, nine Mahommedan Kashmiris to less than one Hindu. This difference of religion has strongly influenced the vocabulary. The Mussulmans use Persian and Arabic words with great freedom, while the Hindus, or " Pandits " as they are called, confine their borrowings almost entirely to words derived from Sanskrit. As the literary class is mostly Hindu, it follows that Kashmiri literature, taken as a whole, while affording most interesting and profitable study, hardly represents the actual language spoken by the mass of the people. There are, however, a few good Kashmiri works written by Mussulmans in their own dialect.

B. Written Characters. Mussulmans and Christian missionaries employ an adaptation of the Persian character for their writings. This alphabet is quite unsuited 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, unfor 1 See G. A. Gricrson, " On Pronominal Suffixes in the Kacmiri 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.

tunately, no fixed system of spelling. The Nagari alphabet is also coming into use in printed books, no Sarada types being yet in existence.

C. Phonetics. Comparing the Kashmiri with the Sanskrit alphabet (see Sanskrit), we must first note a considerable extension of the vowel system. Not only does Ksh. possess the vowels a, a, ai, o, au, and the anunasika or nasal symbol ", but it has also a flat a (like the a in " hat ") a flat e (like the e in " met "), a short o (like the o in " hot ") and a broad a (like the a in " all "). It also has a series of what natives call " matra-vowels," which are represented in the Roman character by small letters above the line, viz. a, i, u, " Of these, a is simply a very short indeterminate sound something like that of the Hebrew sh a wa mobile, except that it may sometimes be the' only vowel in a word, as in ts a h, thou. The i is a hardly audible i, while " and " are quite inaudible at the end of a syllable. When i or " is followed by a consonant in the same syllable i generally and u always becomes a full i or u respectively and is so pronounced. On the other hand, in similar circumstances, u remains unchanged in writing, but is pronounced like a short German if,. It should be observed that this ' u always represents an older i, and is still considered to be a palatal, not, like u, a labial vowel. Although these matra-vowels are so slightly heard, they exercise a great influence on the sound of a preceding syllable. We may compare the sound of a in the English word " mar." If we add e to the end of this word we get " mare," in which the sound of the a is altogether changed, although the e is not itself pronounced in its proper place. The back-action of these matra-vowels is technically known as umlaut or " epenthesis," and is the most striking feature of the Kashmiri language, the structure of which is unintelligible without a thorough knowledge of the system. In the following pages when a vowel is epenthetically affected by a matravowel the fact will be denoted by a dot placed under it, thus karu. This is not the native system, according to which the change is indicated sometimes by a diacritical mark and sometimes by writing a different letter. The changes of pronunciation effected by each matra-vowel are shown in the following table. If natives employ a different letter to indicate the change the fact is mentioned. In other cases they content themselves with diacritical marks. When no entry is made, it should be understood that the sound of the vowel remains unaltered: - The letters u and i, even when not u-matra or i-matra, often change a preceding long a to a, which is usually written o, and a respectively. Thus rawukh, they have lost, is pronounced rawukh, and, in the native character, is written rowukh. Similarly malis becomes malis (molis). The diphthong ai is pronounced o when it commences a word; thus, aith, eight, is pronounced oth. When i and u commence a word, they are pronounced yi and wu respectively. With one important exception, common to all Pisaca languages, Kashmiri employs every consonant found in the Sanskrit alphabet. The exception is the series of aspirated consonants, gh, jh, dh, dh and bh, which are wanting in Ksh., the corresponding unaspirated consonants being substituted for them. Thus, Skr. ghotakas, but Ksh. gur u , a horse; Skr. bhavati, Ksh. bbvi, he will be. There is a tendency to use dental letters where Hindi employs cerebrals, as in Hindi uth, Ksh. wbth, arise. Cerebral letters are, however, owing to Sanskrit influence, on the whole better preserved in Ksh. than in the other Pisaca languages. The cerebral s has almost disappeared, s being employed instead. The only common word in which it is found is the numeral .Fah, six, which is merely a learned spelling for sah, 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 is - i.e. ts+h, not t--sh), and z (as in English, not dz). Thus, Skr. coras, Ksh. tsur, a thief; Skr. chalayati, Ksh. tshali, he will deceive; Skr. jalam, Ksh. zal, water. The sibilant š, and occasionally s, are frequently represented by h. Thus, Skr. dasa, Ksh. dah, ten; Skr. liras, Ksh. hir, a head. We may compare with this the Persian word Hind, India (compare the Greek 'IvSbs,. an Indian), derived from the Skr. Sindhus, the river Indus. When such an h is followed by a palatal letter the s returns; thus, from the base his-, like this, we have the nominative masculine hih u , but the feminine his", and the abstract noun hisyar, because " and y are palatal letters.

The palatal letters i, e, u-matra and y often change a preceding consonant. The modifications will be seen from the following examples: rat-, night; nom. plur. rats"; wbth, arise; wbtsh", she arose: lad, build; laz", she was built: ran, cook; ra g a", she was cooked; pat", a tablet; Ag. sing. paci: kath-, a stalk; nom. plur. kache: bad-, great; nom. plur. fem. baje: batuk u , a duck; fern. batic": hgkh u , dry; fern. hgch"; sr6g u , cheap; srbjyar, cheapness: wal', a ring; fem. waj", a small ring; los, be weary; los" or lots", she was weary. These changes are each subject to certain rules. Cerebral letters (t, th, d) change only before i, é or y, and not before u-matra. The others, on the contrary, do not change i, but do change before e, y or u-matra. No word can end in an unaspirated surd consonant. If such a consonant falls at the end of a word it is aspirated. Thus, ak, one, becomes akh (but acc. akis); kat, a ram, becomes kath; and hat, a hundred, hath. D. Declension. If the above phonetic rules are borne in mind, declension in Kashmiri is a fairly simple process. If attention is not paid to them, the whole system at once becomes a field of inextricable confusion. In the following pages it will be assumed that the reader is familiar with them.

Nouns substantive and adjective have two genders, a masculine and a feminine. Words referring to males are masculine, and to females are 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, another to female living beings, and a third (or neuter) to all inanimate things whether they are grammatically masculine or feminine. Nouns ending in u are masculine, and most, but not all, of those ending in i, u, e or n 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, e or" (very few of these last two). The second consists of the important class of masculine nouns in u; the third of feminine nouns in ", or r (being the feminines corresponding to the masculine nouns of the second declension); and the fourth of feminine nouns ending in u, e 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 (see below, under " verbs "), and the ablative. The accusative, when not definite, may also be the same in form as the nominative. The following are the forms which a noun takes in each declension, the words chosen as examples being: First declension, tsur, a thief; second declension, mai n , a father; third declension, maj", a mother; fourth declension, (a) mal, a garland, (b) rat-, night.

The declension 4b is confined to certain nouns in t, th, d, n, h and 1, in which the final consonant is liable to change owing to a following it-ma/rd.

Other cases are formed (as in true Indo-Aryan languages) by the addition of postpositions, some of which are added to the accusative, while others are added to the ablative case. To the former are added manz, in; kit', to or for; sutin, with, and others. To the ablative are added siitin, when it signifies " by means of "; putshy, for; petha, from, and others. For the genitive, masculine nouns in the singular, signifying animate beings, take sand', and if they signify things without life, take k'. All masculine plural nouns and all feminine nouns whether singular or plural take hand'. Sand' and hand are added to the accusative, which drops a final s, while k' is added to the ablative. Thus, tsura sand', of the thief; mal l sand', of the father; sonak u (usually written sbnuk u), of gold (son, abl. sing. sbna); tsuran hand', of thieves; karen hand', of bracelets (second declension); rnaje hand', of the mother; majen hand', of the mothers. Masculine proper names, however, take n u in the singular, as in Radhakrsnanu of Radhakrishna. These genitive terminations, and also the dative termination kit e , are adjectives, and agree with the governing noun in gender, number and case. Thus, tsura sand' necivu, the son of the thief; tsura sand' neciv i , by the son of the thief; tsura sanz" kor', the daughter of the thief '; kulik u lang, a bough of the tree; kulic" land', a twig of the tree. Sand has fem. sing. sanzu, masc. plur. sand s , fem. plur. sanza. Similarly hand'. K u has fern. sing. c u , masc. plur. k i , fem. plur. ce; n u, fem. sing. iii, masc. plur.

fern. plur. ne. Similarly for the dative we have the following forms: males kit' pan e , water (masc.) for the father; malls kits" gay, a cow for the father; males kit' rav, blankets (masc. plur.) for the father; males kitsa pothe, books (fern. plur.) for the father. All these postpositions of the genitive and kit e of the dative are declined regularly as substantives, the masculine ones belonging to the second declension and the feminine ones to the third. Note that. the feminine plural of sand' is sanza, not sanze, as we might expect; so also feminine nouns in Is', tsh u , z" and s".

Adjectives ending in u (second declension) form the feminine in ",. with the usual changes of the preceding consonant. Thus tat', hot, fern. tats" (pronounced tats). 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. Take, for example, chat', white, and gur u , a horse. From these we have chat' gur u , a white horse; acc. sing. chatis guris;. nom. plur. chat' gur i; and chatyau guryau siitin, by means of white horses.

The first two personal pronouns are bbh, I; me, by me; asi, we; ase, us, by us; and ts ¢ h, thou; tse, thee, by thee; tgh i , ye; tohb you, by you. Possessive pronouns are employed instead of the genitive. Thus, myan u , my; sari', our; cyan', thy; tuhand'", your. For the third person, we have sing. masc. suit ' , fern. sola, neut. tih; acc. sing. (masc. or fem.) tamis or tas, neut. tath; agent sing. masc. neut. tam', fern. tami. The plural is of common gender throughout. Nom. tim; acc. timan; ag. timau. The possessive pronoun is tasandu, of him, of her; tamyuk n , of it; tihand u , of them. The neuter gender is used for all things without life.

Other pronouns are: - This: yih (corn. gen.); acc. masc. fern. yimis, or nbmis, neut, yith, nbth; ag. masc. neut., yim i, nom i , fem. yimi, nomi; nom. plur. yim, fern. yima, and so on.

That (within sight): masc. neut. huh, fem. hoh; acc. masc. fern. humis or amis, neut. huth, and so on; nom. plur. masc hum. Who, masc. yus, fern. ybssa, neut. yih; acc. masc. fem. yimis, yes, neut. yeth; ag. masc. neut. yem i , fem. yemi; nom. plur. masc. yim, and so on.

Who? masc. kus, fern. kbssa, neut. kyah; acc. masc. fern. kamis, kas, neut. kath; ag. masc. neut. kam i, fem. kami; nom. plur. masc. kam. Self, pana. Anyone, someone, kah, ki h, or Wits/tali, neut. ketshah. Kashmiri makes very free use of pronominal suffixes, which are added to verbs to supply the place of personal terminations. These represent almost any case, and are as follows: - Before these the verbal terminations are often slightly changed for the sake of euphony, and, when necessary for the pronunciation, the vowel a is inserted as a junction vowel.

In this connexion we ma y mention another set of suffixes also commonly added to verbs, with an adverbial force. Of these na negatives the verb, as in chuh, he is; chuna, he is not; a asks a question, as in chwa, is he? ti adds emphasis, as in chuti, he is indeed; and tya asks a question with emphasis, as in chutya, is he indeed? Two or three suffixes may be employed together, as in kar t ', was made, karu-m, was made by me, kar u -m-akh, thou wast made by me; kar u -m-akh-a, wast thou made by me ? The two kh suffixes become h when they are followed by a pronominal suffix commencing with a vowel, as in kar u -h-as (for kar"-kh-as), I was made by them.

E. Conjugation. As in the case of the modern Indo-Aryan vernaculars, the conjugation of the verb is mainly participial. Three only of the old tenses, the present, the future and the imperative have survived, the first having become a future, and the second a past conditional. These three we may call radical tenses. The rest, viz. the Kashmiri present, imperfect, past, aorist, perfect and other past tenses are all participial.

The verb substantive, which is also used as an auxiliary verb, has two tenses, a present and a past. The former is made by adding the pronominal suffixes of the nominative to a base chu(h), and the latter by adding the same to a base as u . Thus: - As for the finite verb, the modern future (old present), and the past conditional (old future) do not change for gender, and do not employ suffixes, but retain relics of the old personal terminations of the tenses from which they are derived. They are thus conjugated, taking the verbal root kar, as the typical verb.

For the imperative we have 2nd person singular, kar, plur. kariv; third person singular and plural karin. Many of the above forms will be intelligible from a consideration of the closely allied Sanskrit, although they are not derived from that language; but some (e.g. those of the second person singular) can only be explained by the analogy of the Iranian and of the Pisaca languages.

The present participle is formed by adding an to the root; thus, harem, making. It does not change for gender. From this we get a present and an imperfect, formed by adding respectively the present and past tenses of the auxiliary verb. Thus, karan thus, I (masculine) am making, I make; karan ches, I (feminine) am making, I make; karan ,sus, I (masculine) was making; and so on.

There are several past participles, all of which are liable to change for gender, and are utilized in conjugation. We have: - In the strong past participle and the pluperfect participle, the final v and y (like the final h of chuh quoted above) are not parts of the original words, but are only added for the sake of euphony. The true words are karyo, karye, karya and karyeye. There are three conjugations. The first includes all transitive verbs. These have both the weak and the strong past participles. The second conjugation consists of sixty-six common intransitive verbs, which also have both of these participles. The third conjugation consists of the remaining intransitive verbs. These have only the strong past participle. The weak past participle in the first two conjugations refers to something which has lately happened, and is used to form an immediate past tense. The strong past participle is more indefinite, and is employed to form a tense corresponding to the Greek aorist. The pluperfect participle refers to something which happened a long time ago, and is used to form the past tense of narration. As the third conjugation has no weak past participle, the strong past participle is employed to make the immediate past, and the pluperfect participle is employed to make the aorist past, while the new pluperfect participle is formed to make the tense of narration. Thus, from the root wuph, fly (third conjugation) we have wuphyov, he flew just now, while karyov (first conjugation) means " he was made at some indefinite time "; wuphyov, he flew at some indefinite time, but karyav, he was made a long time ago; finally, the new participle of the third conjugation, wuphiyav, he flew a long time ago.

The corresponding tenses are formed by adding pronominal suffixes to the weak, the strong, or the pluperfect participle. In the last two the final v and y, being no longer required by euphony, are dropped. In the case of transitive verbs the participles are passive by derivation and in signification, and hence the suffix indicating the subject must be in the agent case. Thus kar u means " made." For " I made " we must say " made by me," karu-m; for " thou madest," karu-th, made by thee, and so on. If the thing made is feminine the participle must be feminine, and similarly if it is plural it must be plural. Thus, karu-m, I made him; kar u -m, I made her; kari-m, I made them (masculine); and kare-m, I made them (feminine). Similarly from the other two participles we have karyo-m, I made him; karyeya-m, I made her; karya-m, I made him (a long time ago). The past participles of intransitive verbs are not passive, and hence the suffix indicating the subject must be in the nominative form. Thus tsgl", escaped (second conjugation); tsalu-s, escaped-I, I (masculine) escaped; tsaj"_s, I (feminine) escaped, and so on. Similarly for the third conjugation, wuphyov, flew; wuphyo-s, I (masculine) flew; wuphyeya-s, I (feminine) flew, &c.

As explained above, these suffixes may be piled one on another. As a further example we may give kar u , made; k g iru-n, made by him, he made; kgru-n-as, made by him I, he made me, or (as -s also means " for him ") he made for him; karu-n-as-a, did he make me ? or, did he make for him ? and so on.

Tenses corresponding to the English perfect and pluperfect are formed by conjugating the auxiliary verb, adding the appropriate suffixes, with the compound past participle. Thus kgr u mat u chun-as, made am-by-him-I, he has made me; tsal" mat" chu-kh, escaped art thou, thou hast escaped; wuphyomat" chu-s, flown am-I, I have flown. Similarly for the pluperfect, kgr u mdt" asu-n-as, made was-by-him-I, he had made me, and so on.

Many verbs have irregular past participles. Thus mar, die, has mud"; di, give, has djt"; khi, eat, has khyauv for its weak, and kheyov for its strong participle, while ni, take, has nyuv and niyov, respectively. Others must be learnt from the regular grammars.

The infinitive is formed by adding -un to the root; thus kar-un, to make. It is declined like a somewhat irregular noun of the first declension, its accusative being karanas. There are three forms of the noun of agency, of which typical examples are kar-awunu, kar-an-wal", and kar-an-grakh, a maker.

The passive is formed by conjugating the verb yi, come, with the ablative of the infinitive. Thus, karana yiwan chuh, it is coming by making, or into making, i.e. it is being made. A root is made active or causal by adding - g naw, -Cm, or - a raw. Thus, kar-anaw, cause to make; kumal, be tender, kumal-aw, make tender; kal, be dumb, kala raw, make dumb. Some verbs take one form and some another, and there are numerous irregularities, especially in the case of the last.

F. Indeclinables. I ndeclinables (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections) must be learnt from the dictionary. The number of interjections is very large, and they are distinguished by minute rules depending on the gender of the person addressed and the exact amount of respect due to him.

Literature

Kashmiri possesses a somewhat extensive literature, which has been very little studied. The missionary William Carey published in 1821 a version of the New Testament (in the Sarada character), which was the first book published in the language. In 1885 the Rev. J. Hinton Knowles published at Bombay a collection of Kashmiri proverbs and sayings, and K. F. Burkhard in 1895 published an edition of Mahmud Gami's poem on Yusuf and Zulaikha. This, with the exception of later translations of the Scriptures in the Persian character and a few minor works, is all the literature that has been printed or about which anything has been written. Mahmud Gami's poem is valuable as an example of the Kashmiri used by Mussulmans. For Hindu literature, we may quote a history of Krishna by Dinanatha. The very popular Lalla-vakya, a poem on Saiva philosopy by a woman named Lalladevi, is said to be the oldest work in the language which has survived. Another esteemed work is the Siva Parinaya of Krsna Rajanaka, a living author. These and other books which have been studied by the present writer have little independent value, being imitations of Sanskrit literature. Nothing is known about the dates of most of the authors.

Authorities

- The scientific study of Kashmiri is of very recent date. The only printed lexicographical work is a short vocabulary by W. J. Elmslie (London, 1872). K. F. Burkhard brought out a grammar of the Mussulman dialect in the Proceedings of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Science for 1887-1889, of which a translation by G. A. Grierson appeared in the Indian Antiquary of 1895 and the following years (reprinted as a separate publication, Bombay, 1897). T. R. Wade's Grammar (London, 1888) is the merest sketch, and the only attempt at a complete work of the kind in English is G. A. Grierson's Essays on Kacmiri Grammar (London and Calcutta, 1899). A valuable native grammar in Sanskrit, the Kasmirasabddmrta of Isvara Kaula, has been edited by the same writer (Calcutta, 1888). For an examination of the origin of Kashmiri grammatical forms and the Pisaca question generally, see G. A. Grierson's " On Certain Suffixes in the Modern Indo-Aryan Vernaculars " in the Zeitschrift fur Vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der Indogermanischen Sprachen for 1903 and The Pisaca Languages of North-Western India (London, 1906).

The only important text which has been published is Burkhard's edition, with a partial translation, of Mahmud Gami's " Yusuf and Zulaikha " in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlaindischen Gesellschaft for 1895 and 1899. The text of the Siva Parinaya, edited by G. A. Grierson, is in course of publication by the Asiatic Society of Bengal. (G. A. GR.)