Kishtwari

 ( Indo-aryan Languages ) 

Kishtwari or Kashtwari is an Indo-Aryan language and a dialect of Kashmiri language, with strong influences from neighbouring Western Pahari varieties. It is spoken by Hindus in Kishtwar district of Jammu division in Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Like Kashmiri, Kishtwari is also a language, though George Abraham Grierson has called Kishtwari a dialect of Kashmiri. He has not studied Kishtwari and its dialects. He seems to have been influenced by Kishtwari-Kashmiri, spoken by Muslims of Kishtwar and its spectacular resemblance with Kashmiri which is not pure Kashmiri but has close affinity to the Kashmiri of the valley. So Kishtwari-Kashmiri is a dialect of Kashmiri.

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Origin Kishtwari originated from Prakrit – the spoken language of common people in ancient times. The literary language was Sanskrit which has a close relationship with Prakrit. It can be conveniently called a sister language of the Kashmiri language, as both have originated from Prakrit which is much simpler than Sanskrit.

Kishtwari has been preserved from the admixture of words and phrases from other languages and dialects. However, the original Prakrit spoken by common man of Kishtwar in olden times has absorbed some words from Dogri language, Punjabi language, and to a limited extent. The present form of Kishtwari is directly descended from Prakrit, Pali or Sanskrit.

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Classification Grierson, in his Linguistic Survey of India, classified Kishtwari as a highly divergent variety of Kashmiri that had been profoundly influenced by neighbouring Punjabi and Western Pahari languages. Grierson noted that Kishtwari is more conservative in certain aspects than other Kashmiri dialects, as evidenced by the retention of subject pronoun thu, in addition to the present participle an, features that have disappeared in Standard Kashmiri. A wordlist and preliminary grammatical sketch of Kishtwari were compiled in The Languages of the Northern Himalayas.

Kishtwari has historically been classified as a dialect of Kashmiri by scholars such as George Abraham Grierson, and is partially intelligible with Kashmiri. Linguists like Siddheshwar Varma consider Kishtwari an intermediate between Western Pahari languages and Kashmiri. If considered a divergent dialect of Kashmiri, Kishtwari is one of two Kashmiri varieties spoken outside of the Kashmir Valley (the other being Poguli, which is even more distinct and not intelligible with either Kashmiri or Kishtwari). Kishtwari is also tonal, like neighbouring languages such as Dogri language and Punjabi language.

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Number of speakers The 1911 Census of India recorded 7,464 speakers of Kishtwari.

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Script Grierson remarks that an idiosyncratic variant of Takri script is used to write the Kishtwari language; as well as observing that there does not appear to be standard spelling nor a consistent orthography.

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