A Grammar Of The Kashmiri Language: As Spoken In The Valley Of Kashmir

The following pages have been compiled from notes which the author made whilst labouring as a missionary of the Church Missionary Society for some years in Kashmir and they are now published in the hope that, however imperfect, they may be of some use to the present and future missionaries in the country of Kashmir, and to the many tourists who yearly visit it, and also that they may possibly serve as some help towards a better, larger, and more critical grammar of the language. The proverbs in this Grammar have been taken from a collection he himself made when residing in Kashmir, and also from the Dictionary of Kashmiri Proverbs and Sayings. There being several dialects spoken in the Valley, and the vast majority of the people being entirely uneducated, it will be easily understood how difficult was the work of compiling this Grammar. The Brahman Hindus, and the Jõtish Hindus, who are engaged in various offices of their religion, use very few Persian and Arabic words, and so with their wives and families; whilst many of the Kārkun Hindus, especially those who are writers, are well able to speak and write Persian.