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For other uses, see Kashmiri (disambiguation)

Kashmiri कॉशुर کٲشُر kạ̄šur
Spoken in:	India (Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh); Pakistan (Azad Kashmir)[1]
Region:	South Asia (Indian subcontinent)
Total speakers:	4.6 million[1]
Language family:	Indo-European  Indo-Iranian   Indo-Aryan    Northwestern Zone     Dardic      Kashmiri
Writing system:	Perso-Arabic script, Devanagari script
Official status
Official language in:	India [1]
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	ks
ISO 639-2:	kas
ISO 639-3:	kas
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Kashmiri (कॉशुर, کٲشُر Koshur) is a northwestern Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily in the valley of Kashmir, a region situated mostly in the Jammu and Kashmir state of India.^[2][3][4] It has about 4,611,000 speakers: 4,391,000 of whom reside in India and 105,000 of whom reside in Pakistan.^[1] While Kashmiri belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family of languages it is sometimes placed in a geographical sub-grouping called Dardic.^[5] It is one of the 23 scheduled languages of India.^[6]

It is a V2 word order language. Kashmiri has remained a spoken language up to the present times, though some manuscripts were written in the past in the Sharada script, and then in Perso-Arabic script. Currently, Kashmiri is written in either the Perso-Arabic script (with some modifications) or the Devanagari script. Among languages written in the Perso-Arabic script, Kashmiri is practically unique, in that it regularly indicates all vowel sounds ^[7]

Literacy in Kashmiri is continuously neglected due to various political reasons and lack of formal education in it. It is now mostly relevant in its spoken form, and the speakers of this language are also decreasing in number. Note that the primary official language of the state of Jammu and Kashmir is not Kashmiri, but Urdu. Some Kashmiri speakers use English or Hindi as a second language.^[1] In the past few decades, Kashmiri was introduced as a subject at the university and the colleges of the valley. At present, attempts are on for inclusion of Kashmiri in school curriculum.

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 English.

There are two online newspapers in Kashmiri Koshur Akhbar and Sangarmal.

The Kashmiri language has a rich literary heritage. It has been the language of numerous Sufi and folk poets. The songs in the Kashmiri language are called gewun /gewun/ and the chorus songs are known as wonwun /wonwun/.

The earliest literary composition in Kashmiri that has survived is the poetry of Lalleshvari, a 14th century mystic poetess.^[8]

Amongst great Kashmiri writers was Mahmud Gami, a prolific writer who used with equal competence almost all forms of poetry in Kashmiri - mathnavi, vatsun, ghazal, rouf, na’t - although his greatest contribution is in the area of mathnavi. His free rendering and adaptation of several Persian mathnavis inaugurated a long tradition of mathnavi writing in Kashmiri which includes such distinguished names as those of Wali-ul-lah Mattoo, Abdul Ahad Nazim, Wahhab Parrey, Muhi-ud-Din Miskeen, Amir-ud-Din Kreri, Maqbool Shah Kralawari Shams-ud-Din Hairat. and Mir Haseen Subla`.Sufi Peot.

Among the modern writers are moderns like Ghulam Amhmad Mehjoor and Abdul Ahad Azad. Dinnath Nadim, Rehman Rahi and Amin Kamil are the three important poets of the post modern period. khtar Mohiuddin has gained reputation in fiction particularly in the art of short story.

• Kashmiri literature
• Kashmir history & Culture
• Kashmiri Proverbs at WikiQuote
• List of topics on the land and the people of “Jammu and Kashmir”
• List of Kashmiri poets
• Neab International Kashmiri Magazine

Kashmiri language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Grierson, George Abraham. A Dictionary of the Kashmiri Language. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1932.
• Linguistic Studies in Kashmiri by Omkar N Koul New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 1977.
• Aspects of Kashmiri Linguistics edited by Omkar N Koul and Peter Edwin Hook New Delhi: Bahri Publications, 1984.
• An Intensive Course in Kashmiri by Omkar N Koul Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 1985.
• An Intermediate Course in Kashmiri by Omkar N. Koul Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 1994.
• Kashmiri: A Cognitive-Descriptive Grammar by Kashi Wali and Omkar N Koul London: Routledge 1997.
• Kashmiri-English Dictionary for Second Language Learners by Omkar N. Koul, S. N. Raina and R. K. Bhat Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 2000.
• Modern Kashmiri Grammar by Omkar N Koul and Kashi Wali Springfield: Dunwoody Press, 2006.
• Spoken Kashmiri: A Language Course by Omkar N. Koul Delhi: Indian Institute of Language Studies, 2006.
• A Dictionary of Kashmiri Proverbs by Omkar N. Koul Delhi: Indian Institute of Language Studies, 2006.
• A Course in Kashmiri Language by Roop Krishen Bhat Delhi: Indian Institute of Language Studies, 2007.
• Kashmiri: A Grammatical Sketch by Omkar N. Koul
• Personal names in Kashmiri by Omkar N. Koul
• Studies in Kashmiri Linguistics by Omkar N. Koul
• Reduplication in Kashmiri by Omkar N. Koul
• Kashmiri Language, Linguistics and Culture: An Annotated Bibliography by Omkar N. Koul Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 2000.
• Topics in Kashmiri Linguistics edited by Omkar N. Koul and Kashi Wali New Delhi: Creative, 2002.
• Kashmiri Language and Society by Omkar N. Koul
• Modes of Address in Kashmiri by Omkar N. Koul
• Modes of Greetings in Kashmiri by Omkar N. Koul
• Ethnologue entry for Kashmiri
• Kashmiri Newz
• An Introduction to Spoken Kashmiri
• Kashmiri Songs
• Koshur: An Introduction to Spoken Kasmiri
• Basic words and phrases in Kashmiri language
• Kashmiri literary magazine
• Kashmiri online newspaper
• Kashmiri
• Apharwat - a Kashmiri literary blog
• Muzaffar Aazim - A contemporary Kashmiri writer
• A sampling of Wanawun - Search For 'Wanawun' Kashmiri folk chorus
• Gulmarg - A collection of Kashmir Views, original poetry and information
• Kashmiri Alphabet