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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.
| The
course aims at achieving the following objectives: |
| 1. |
The
learner picks up the core vocabulary faster. |
| 2. |
The
structure of the language is learnt without referring to any formal
grammar. |
| 3. |
The
learner is able to communicate in simple language. |
| 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. |
| 5. |
The
course is user friendly. |
|
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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