Kashmiri and Shina: A Study of Comparative Morphology

Kashmiri and Shina have both been classified by Grierson (1919) as belonging to the Dard sub-group of the ‘Dardic’ languages. Turner (1927: 533), while comparing Shina with its neighbouring languages reports that; “This language- Shina- is closely related to Kashmiri”. Colin P. Masica in his The Indo-Aryan Languages (1991: 297) reports; “there is nothing special beyond Kashmiri: only Shina and its offshoot Phalura show gender in pronouns.” Under Dardic Grierson includes the Kafir languages of Afghanistan and the Khowar and Dard group of present day India and Pakistan. The present work aims to highlight points of similarity between the Kashmiri and Shina at the level of morphology. The data for Shina have been taken from speakers of gurezi dialect of Shina thus most of the examples in the work would be from the gurezi Shina.