LGH 03: Kashmiri

Kashmiri

Omkar N. Koul and Kashi Wali
Indian Institute of Language Studies

Kashmiri is spoken by about six million people in the state of Jammu & Kashmir in India and a large number of migrants from the state settled in other states of India and abroad. Kashmiri, an Indo-Aryan language, has some unique features which distinguish it from other Indo-Aryan languages. The book provides basic information and description of various aspects of Kashmiri phonology and grammar emphasizing on its unique features at different linguistic levels. Being a verb-second word order language, there is an immense interest in the study of the linguistic characteristics of Kashmiri in comparison with other Indo-Aryan languages, which are mostly verb final. The study is also significant for comparison with other verb-second languages, such as Dutch and German.

The Introduction provides information regarding the area and its speakers, its classification and dialects, script, status, literature and grammars. The chapter on Sound System presents description of segmentals and suprasegmentals, phonotactics, and morphophonolgy. The chapter on Parts of Speech: Classification and Morphology provides description of word classes (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, postpositions, conjunctions, particles and interjections). The chapter on Word Formation and Reduplication presents description of formation of words, compounds, reduplication, echo-words, onomatopoeic words etc. The Syntax is described under various chapters on Simple Sentences, Complementation, Relative Clauses, Conjunctions, Interrogatives, Anaphora, Negation, and Discourse Structure. The Appendices include a text of a Kashmiri short story, Persian borrowings, Personal names. It is followed by References and Index.

ISBN 9783862886036 (Hardbound). LINCOM Grammar Handbooks 03. 336pp. 2015