The lexical item namaska:r refers to the traditional echo-greeting and is usually, but not always, accompanied by bringing one's hands together pressed in front of one's chest as in the following illustration. There is always a tendency to slightly bow one's head.

There are several lexical items very frequently used in Kashmiri which are essentially markers of the honorific scale. Such lexical items mark participant relationships in t.mp3s of religion, politeness, degree of respect, age, etc. Consider, among others, the following situations:

• ji: is an honorific suffix used for friends, elders, or acquaintances, mostly by Hindu speakers of Kashmiri. The semantic range of ji: in Kashmiri is roughly the same as that in Hindi or Hindustani. The use of proper names such as   may be t.mp3ed the Hindi-ization of Kashmiri proper names, such as,  .
•   is used in those contexts in which regard is shown. The semantic range of   is not identical to that of ji:. The difference is that  does not follow proper names, family names, etc., as does ji:.
• mahra: (Hindi, mahra:j) has more or less the same distribution as the English sir. Generally, it is only used by Kashmiri Pandits, and, on the hierarchy of the honorific scale, it ranks higher than  .
• haz (Persian, hazrat) has the same distribution as mahra:. Note, however,  that the use of mahra: is restricted to the Kashmiri Pandit speakers, and haz to Kashmiri Muslims.

Sounds

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Chapter 2