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 Kashmir,
better known as the heaven on earth, is the most prominent part of the Indian
State of Jammu and Kashmir. Praised equally by the sages, kings, chroniclers,
writers and poets, Kashmir has a very rich folk and cultural history. It
remained the highest seat of learning for the scholars of India and abroad
during the ancient times.
The great Indian religious schools like Kashmir Shaivism logic, Buddhism and
later Islam acquired their new dimensions in the heavenly environment of the
valley. A Persian poet praising the climatic conditions of the valley had gone
to the extent of saying that if a roasted chicken was brought to Kashmir, it
would certainly grow the feathers afresh. This being the abode of Sharda (Saraswati)
or the Goddess of wisdom, Kashmir valley had the pride of originating was
rightfully proud of having been the place of origin of various schools of
thought.
The people of Kashmir, called KA:shir' locally, and Kashmiris generally, are
real down to earth, simple and God - fearing people. Warm at heart, emotional
and loving, they have been recognized for their intelligence and also as the
best hosts. The people of Kashmir speak Kashmiri as their mother tongue, a
language of the Indo-Aryan stock. Locally known as KAshur, the language has
three regional and some social dialects. The number of Kashmiri speaker's is
30,76,398, as per the census figures of 1981. This excludes the number of the
speakers in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) across the line of control
(LOC). Kashmiri language is spoken in the valley of Kashmir invariably and in
some parts of Jammu and Ladhak regions of the state bordering the valley.
The ancient script in use for Kashmiri was Sharda a development from the Brahmi.
But now its use remains restricted to religious scriptures and writing
horoscopes. Kashmiri language is written in both Persio-Arabic and Devanagri
scripts. However, the Persio-Arabic script is the recognized script even used in
for the currency notes. Kashmiri is included in the eighth schedule of
constitution of recognized regional languages of India. But unfortunately it
hasn't so far earned the status of the official language or even the second
official language in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. As such, its use is
restricted to common speech and literary activities.
Kashmiri has certain linguistic peculiarities. At the phonetic and phonological
level it has certain vowels and consonants hardly found in any other Indian
language. At the vowel level the cent vowels [I and A with their counterparts
long [I: and A: also thral vowel [o has certain distinctive features, which
distinguish it from other similar sounds that are found in other Indian
languages. At the consonant level, the dental fricative [ts] and its aspirated
form [tsh] are rarely found in other Indian languages except in Marathi. At the
structural level, unlike in other Indian languages, Kashmiri has a basic SVO
(Subject Verb Object) word order. The pronominalization is yet another specific
feature of Kashmiri. In this process the main verbs get inflected for the
pronouns.
The learning material for Kashmiri is scarcely available. However, the Central
Institute of Indian languages (CIIL) and its northern wing, viz. Northern
Regional Language Center, Patiala, have been producing the learning and teaching
material. But a need was felt to produce the present set of materials for the
self-learning course.
The present course is designed to facilitate the learners to learn the language
through self-teaching. The course is designed in such a way so that the learner
is exposed to the aspect of pronunciation, and sentence structure in a
systematic way. The meaning gets self-explained with the vocabulary items
provided with the glosses. All the three levels of the language: sound,
structures and meaning are presented in a simple and a comprehensive manner. The
course covers a variety of structures used for the language. The levels are
introduced in the simple conversation supplemented with glossary and practice
material followed up with certain pattern drills for the learners to practice
upon. The course also includes some excerpts from music, drama pieces and the
spoken word. The course is aired at giving a basic feel of the language spoken
in the natural contexts and situations. The conversations used here in the
course materials are simple, easy to use, comprehensible and natural. This
course material is to ensure the faster and easiest learning. The learning
becomes easy with such technically devised and designed course.
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The course aims at achieving the following objectives: |
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1. |
The learner picks up the core vocabulary faster. |
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2. |
The structure of the language is learnt without referring to any
formal grammar. |
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3. |
The learner is able to communicate in simple language. |
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4. |
The listening part is expected to enable the learner to have a
grip on the simple structures so as to be in a position to
produce simple logical sentences. |
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5. |
The course is user friendly. |
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This course comprises of two parts 1. recorded material or audio and 2. printed
material or text. A learner is expected to listen to the audio and read the text
simultaneously. The course is primarily focused at people who want to acquire a
working knowledge of Kashmiri and the younger generation of Kashmiris living
away from the natural language environment and slowly drifting away from their
language and culture.
The format of the course was conceived of and designed by Dr. Roop Krishen Bhat,
Principal, Northern Regional language Center, Patiala, and is based on a number
of years of experience in the field of applied linguistics, mass media, and
active involvement in teaching of Kashmiri language.
This script was prepared in a workshop held at the Northern Regional Language
Centre, Patiala from September 11-16, 2000. We were fortunate to have a team of
highly qualified and experienced scholars all of whom are well known in the
field of Kashmiri linguistics. We owe special gratitude to Dr. M.L.Sar, Dr. Raj
N. Bhat, Dr. Vijay Kaul, Dr. S.N.Raina, and Dr. R.L.Talashi for their
contribution.
The recording and production of the course was done under the guidance of Sh.
P.L.Razdan who has more than three decades of experience in broadcasting and is
an Akashwani annual award winner. Sh. Razdan is a renowned drama voice. His hard
work is reflected in the quality of the audio for which we are grateful to him.
The artistes and other technical staff including Sh. Rajinder Raina of NRLC also
deserve a mention for their contribution to this course.
This course has been produced by the Director, Central Institute of Indian
languages, Mysore under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department
of Secondary and Higher Education, Government of India. We are thankful to Dr.
Omkar N. Koul, the then i/c Director, for the guidance and interest he took in
this course.
The recording was done at Shivam Studio, Darya Ganj, New Delhi. The rights are
reserved with the Institute. We are confident that our learners would find this
course interesting and beneficial.
ROOP KRISHEN BHAT
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