Kashmiri Language: Koshur, the Language of Kashmir

From the Kashmir Valley to surrounding mountain communities, Kashmiri—known by its endonym Koshur—forms a major linguistic identity of the Kashmir region. It is an Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Dardic branch and is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley and the surrounding hills of the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Around 6.8 million people speak Kashmiri and related dialects in Jammu and Kashmir and within the Kashmiri diaspora in other Indian states; broader estimates place the number of Kashmiris speaking the language at around 7 million.

Kashmiri is notable not only for its geographic and cultural importance but also for its structure. It has split ergativity, an unusual verb-second word order, a very large phoneme inventory, phonemic vowel nasalization, and phonemic consonant palatalization. Its linguistic history also preserves features associated with Old Indo-Aryan that have disappeared from several other modern Indo-Aryan languages.

The written history of Kashmiri is equally layered. Sharada was the traditional script of Kashmir from the eighth century onward and served as the main script of inscriptional and literary production for many centuries. Persian script became increasingly important in the nineteenth century, and Kashmiri is now primarily written in a modified Perso-Arabic script that regularly indicates vowel sounds. Devanagari and Sharada remain additional writing traditions, while Roman letters are sometimes used informally online. In 2020, Kashmiri became an official language of Jammu and Kashmir and continued its status as one of India’s 22 scheduled languages.

Origins and Classification

Linguistic Family

Kashmiri is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic branch. The Dardic languages show several features that diverge from the Indo-Aryan mainstream, and Kashmiri provides particularly clear examples of this distinctiveness.

Its grammar includes a split-ergative system. In the simple past tense, the subject of a transitive verb is marked in the ergative case, while the object is in the nominative case. The nominative object behaves in the same way as the subject of an intransitive verb. In other tenses, Kashmiri generally adopts a nominative-dative pattern. This alternation between case structures is one of the language’s defining grammatical characteristics.

Kashmiri also has an unusual verb-second, or V2, word order. In a V2 language, the finite verb occupies the second position in many clauses, a pattern that distinguishes Kashmiri from many related languages.

Origins

The available historical account places Kashmiri within the long development of the Indo-Aryan languages and records its written tradition from the eighth century onward. The earliest period identified in the history of its writing is associated with Sharada, which was used for Kashmiri, Sanskrit, and other languages of northern South Asia.

The language is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley and the hills around it. The valley remains the central region of Kashmiri speech, where Kashmiri speakers form the majority. Poguli and Kishtwari are closely related to Kashmiri. They are spoken in the mountains south of the Kashmir Valley and have sometimes been counted as dialects of Kashmiri.

Kashmiri’s historical development includes contact with Sanskrit, Persian, Urdu, English, Hindustani, and Punjabi. Its vocabulary was heavily influenced by Sanskrit, particularly in its earlier history. Persian influence became especially important after the arrival of Islamic rule in India, and modern Kashmiri has also imported vocabulary from English, Hindustani, and Punjabi.

Name Etymology

The language is known in English as Kashmiri and by its endonym as Koshur. The endonym is written کٲشُر in the official Perso-Arabic script and is pronounced approximately [kəːʃur]. The historical material identifies these as the language’s English and internal names but does not provide a separate meaning or etymology for the name Koshur.

Historical Development

Early Written Tradition: Eighth Century Onward

Kashmiri was traditionally written in the Sharada script from the eighth century AD onward. Between the eighth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century, Sharada was the primary script of inscriptional and literary production in Kashmir.

Sharada was not restricted to Kashmiri. It was also used to write Sanskrit and other languages of northern South Asia. Its use therefore reflects a wider history of writing in the region, even though its connection with Kashmiri is especially important.

The script later became less suitable for modern Kashmiri. Sharada lacks sufficient signs to represent the language’s modern vowel system. As a result, its contemporary use is limited largely to religious ceremonies and rituals of Kashmiri Pandits and to horoscope-writing by them.

Persian Influence and the Fourteenth Century

Persian began to be used as the court language in Kashmir during the fourteenth century, under the influence of Islam. This change affected both the administrative history of the region and the vocabulary and writing practices associated with Kashmiri.

After the arrival of Islamic rule in India, Kashmiri acquired many Persian loanwords. Persian influence did not erase the older Indo-Aryan vocabulary of Kashmiri. Instead, the language developed through layers of inherited and borrowed vocabulary. Kashmiri retains features of Old Indo-Aryan while also incorporating Persian and later Arabic, Urdu, English, Hindustani, and Punjabi elements.

The Nineteenth Century and the Rise of Persian-Derived Writing

The use of Persian script for writing Kashmiri increased during the nineteenth century. At the same time, the use of other Brahmic scripts, including Devanagari and Takri, expanded. These developments contributed to the decline of Sharada as the principal writing system.

Persian ceased to be the court language in 1889, when it was replaced by Urdu during the Dogra rule. Although Urdu took over the court-language role, Kashmiri continued as the language of the Kashmir Valley and remained a literary and spoken language.

The history of script use does not represent a simple replacement of one script by another. Kashmiri has continued to be written in several orthographical systems. The Perso-Arabic script became the primary modern system, while Devanagari and Sharada remained important in particular contexts.

The Modern Period

Kashmiri became an official language of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in 2020, alongside Dogri, Hindi, Urdu, and English. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India.

Kashmiri was included in the Eighth Schedule of the former constitution of Jammu and Kashmir. Along with the regional languages mentioned in the Sixth Schedule, as well as Hindi and Urdu, it was intended to be developed in the state.

According to the 2011 census of India, Kashmiri was the second fastest-growing language in India after Hindi. It was followed by Meitei, Gujarati, and Bengali in the cited ranking.

Scripts and Writing Systems

Sharada Script

Sharada is Kashmiri’s traditional script. Its use for Kashmiri began in the eighth century AD, and it remained the primary script for inscriptional and literary production in Kashmir until the first quarter of the twentieth century.

The script’s historical range was broader than Kashmiri alone. It was used for Sanskrit and other languages of northern South Asia. Its association with Kashmir therefore includes religious, literary, and inscriptional activity across several languages.

Sharada’s decline resulted from several historical and practical factors. Persian script became increasingly common for Kashmiri in the nineteenth century, while Devanagari and Takri also grew in use. Sharada is additionally considered inadequate for modern Kashmiri because it lacks enough signs to represent the language’s vowels.

Modern Sharada usage is limited primarily to religious ceremonies and rituals of Kashmiri Pandits and to horoscope-writing. Contemporary Kashmiri-specific vowels were added to the Sharada Supplement block of Unicode with the release of version 17.0 in September 2025. These signs occupy the range U+11B60–U+11B7F.

Perso-Arabic Script

Kashmiri is primarily written today in the Perso-Arabic script, with modifications that include new signs for Kashmiri vowels. The Jammu and Kashmir government and the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages recognize the Kashmiri Perso-Arabic script as the official script of the language.

The script is derived from the Persian alphabet. Its consonant inventory and corresponding pronunciations generally do not differ from the Perso-Arabic script, except for ژ, which is pronounced /t͡s/ in Kashmiri rather than /ʒ/.

Kashmiri has a considerably larger vowel inventory than other South Asian scripts derived from or influenced by Perso-Arabic writing. Its 17 vowels may be represented through diacritics, the letters alif, waw, and ye, or combinations of these. In Kashmiri writing, most vowel diacritics are conventionally written at all times.

A notable feature of the Kashmiri Perso-Arabic system is that it regularly indicates all vowel sounds. This makes it particularly adapted to Kashmiri’s large vowel inventory.

The Perso-Arabic script crosses religious boundaries. It is used by both Kashmiri Hindus and Kashmiri Muslims. Nevertheless, some attempts have been made to associate the Perso-Arabic script with Kashmiri Muslims and Devanagari with some sections of the Kashmiri Hindu community.

Devanagari

Kashmiri is also written in Devanagari. Several versions of a Devanagari orthography for Kashmiri have been proposed.

A 2002 version uses the vowels ॲ/ऑ and the vowel signs कॅ/कॉ for the schwa-like vowel [ə] and the elongated schwa-like vowel [əː]. These symbols also occur in other Devanagari-based scripts such as Marathi and Hindi, although they represent different vowel sounds in those writing traditions.

A later proposal from 2009 changes the independent characters and vowel signs for these vowels. It uses ॳ / ॴ and कऺ / कऻ for [ə] and [əː]. It also introduces the independent vowel ॵ and the vowel sign कॏ for the open-mid back rounded vowel [ɔ], which may be used instead of the consonant व serving as a stand-in for that vowel.

Roman Writing

The Roman script is sometimes used informally for Kashmiri, especially online. It does not replace the official Perso-Arabic system but provides an additional way of representing the language in digital communication.

Script Evolution

Kashmiri’s script history reflects shifts in administration, literary practice, religious identity, and the demands of the language’s sound system.

Sharada served as the principal script for centuries, but its vowel inventory became insufficient for modern Kashmiri. Persian script gained importance from the nineteenth century, and Kashmiri is now primarily written in a modified Perso-Arabic form. Devanagari has been represented through multiple proposals, including versions from 2002 and 2009. Sharada continues in restricted religious and traditional uses, and Roman writing appears informally online.

The coexistence of these systems is an important feature of modern Kashmiri. The Perso-Arabic script is officially recognized and used across religious boundaries, while Devanagari and Sharada remain part of the broader written history of the language.

Geographic Distribution

Historical Spread

Kashmiri is centered on the Kashmir Valley and the surrounding hills of Jammu and Kashmir. Most Kashmiri speakers live in the valley and nearby areas. Within the Kashmir Valley, Kashmiri speakers form the majority.

The language is also spoken among the Kashmiri diaspora in other states of India. In Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir, Kashmiri is spoken by roughly five percent of the population.

Poguli and Kishtwari are closely related varieties spoken in the mountains south of the Kashmir Valley. They have sometimes been classified as dialects of Kashmiri, illustrating the difficulty of drawing a strict boundary between a language and closely related regional varieties.

Kashmiri in Azad Kashmir

The 1998 Pakistan Census recorded 132,450 Kashmiri speakers in Azad Kashmir. These speakers were dispersed in pockets rather than concentrated across the whole territory.

The largest reported proportions occurred in the districts of Muzaffarabad, Neelam, and Hattian. Kashmiri speakers made up approximately 15 percent of Muzaffarabad, 20 percent of Neelam, and 15 percent of Hattian. Very small minorities were recorded in Haveli and Bagh, at approximately 5 percent and 2 percent respectively.

The Kashmiri spoken in Muzaffarabad is distinct from the Kashmiri of the Neelam Valley, although the two varieties remain intelligible with one another. In the Neelam Valley, Kashmiri is the second most widely spoken language and is the majority language in at least a dozen villages. In about half of those villages, it is the sole mother tongue.

The Neelum variety is closer to the form spoken in the northern Kashmir Valley, particularly the variety associated with Kupwara. At the 2017 Census of Pakistan, as many as 350,000 people declared Kashmiri as their first language.

Modern Distribution

There are about 6.8 million speakers of Kashmiri and related dialects in Jammu and Kashmir and among the Kashmiri diaspora in other Indian states. A broader description places the number of Kashmiris speaking Kashmiri at around 7 million.

Kashmiri is spoken by more than half the population of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Its strongest concentration remains the Kashmir Valley, where it is the majority language.

The language’s status differs across political and administrative settings. In Jammu and Kashmir, it became an official language in 2020. In Azad Kashmir, Kashmiri has faced pressure from local languages and from Urdu, which has functioned as a wider lingua franca.

Literary Heritage

Literary and Inscriptional Tradition

Sharada supported Kashmiri inscriptional and literary production from the eighth century onward. It was also used for Sanskrit and other languages of northern South Asia. The historical importance of Sharada therefore lies both in its direct association with Kashmiri and in its wider role in the written culture of Kashmir.

The supplied material does not identify a complete canon of Kashmiri epics, dramas, grammars, or scientific works. It does, however, preserve examples of Kashmiri in both the Perso-Arabic and Sharada scripts.

Religious Texts and Verses

The Sharada section includes verses attributed to Lalleshwari. These verses describe recitation of the divine word “Om,” devotion, the transformation of ash into gold, and the relationship between individual and cosmic consciousness.

One passage is presented in Sharada with a Kashmiri pronunciation and English translation:

“I kept reciting the unique divine word ‘Om’ and kept it safe in my heart through my resolute dedication and love. I was simply ash and by its divine grace got metamorphosed into gold.”

A second passage concerns the divine word “Omkār” and the connection between personal and cosmic consciousness:

“One who recites the divine word ‘Omkār’ by devotion is capable to build a bridge between his own and the cosmic consciousness. By staying committed to this sacred word, one doesn't require any other mantra out of thousands others.”

These examples demonstrate the continued relevance of Sharada in presenting Kashmiri religious and poetic material, even though the script’s everyday use is now limited.

Poetry and Prose

The material identifies verses by Lalleshwari but does not provide a broader list of named Kashmiri poets or a dated literary periodization. Kashmiri’s literary culture is also represented through dictionaries, readers, textbooks, newspapers, literary magazines, proverbs, and language courses.

The listed publications include Kashmiri readers for school levels, works on Kashmiri proverbs, dictionaries, conversational guides, pronunciation materials, and literary magazines and newspapers such as Kahwat, Neab, Sangarmal, and Soan Meeraas.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

A modern example of formal Kashmiri prose is the translation of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is presented in the Perso-Arabic script with a Kashmiri pronunciation:

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

This passage illustrates the ability of the modern Perso-Arabic orthography to represent Kashmiri vowel distinctions through its established combination of letters and diacritics.

Grammar and Phonology

Key Features

Kashmiri is a fusional language with verb-second word order. Its nouns are inflected for gender, number, and case. It has no articles and no grammatical distinction for definiteness, although optional adverbial marking can express indefinite or generic noun qualities.

The language has five cases:

• nominative
• dative
• ergative
• ablative
• vocative

Case is expressed through suffixes on nouns. Other distinctions—including locative, instrumental, genitive, comitative, and allative meanings—are marked with postpositions rather than noun suffixes.

Kashmiri has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine. Feminine forms are commonly created by adding a suffix, through a morphophonemic change, or through both processes. A smaller set of feminine nouns has suppletive forms that differ entirely from the corresponding masculine forms.

Third-person pronouns are overtly gendered and distinguish three degrees of proximity:

• proximate
• remote I
• remote II

Pronouns may be inflected for person, gender, number, and case. Kashmiri also has a dedicated set of genitive pronouns. These forms, like some future-tense forms, may agree with both the subject and the direct object in person and number.

Case and Split Ergativity

Kashmiri’s split-ergative system is particularly visible in the past tense.

In the simple past, the subject of a transitive verb is marked by the ergative case, while the direct object is marked by the nominative. The object then controls gender, number, and person marking on the verb. The subject of an intransitive verb is also nominative.

In other tenses, Kashmiri generally uses a nominative-dative pattern. Objects, whether direct or indirect, are generally marked in the dative. This contrast between past-tense ergativity and other-tense nominative-dative alignment is central to Kashmiri grammar.

Noun Morphology

Kashmiri noun plurals often involve changes to the stem rather than the simple addition of a single uniform ending.

Masculine plural formation may include the following changes:

• In consonant-vowel-consonant forms, [o] may become [ə].
• In consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant forms, [u] may become [ɨ].
• In some forms, the [u] in the second syllable may become [a].
• Nouns ending in [ɨ], certain consonant-vowel-consonant forms with a central vowel, and some Hindustani or English loanwords may retain the same form in the singular and plural.

Feminine plural formation may include:

• Lowering of the final vowel in consonant-vowel-consonant or consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant forms, except where the vowel is [u].
• Palatalization of final retroflex consonants.
• Deletion of final [ɨ] in some consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant forms.
• Change of final [t̪ʰ] to [t͡s], together with raising of the preceding vowel.
• Use of the suffix -[ɨ] rather than -[i] in some feminine consonant-vowel-consonant nouns.
• No change in number for some feminine nouns of native origin.

These patterns demonstrate that Kashmiri number and gender morphology interact with the phonological structure of the stem.

Verbs and Tense

Kashmiri verbs are inflected according to tense and person and, to a lesser extent, gender. Tense and certain aspectual distinctions are formed through suffixes added to the verb stem after removal of the infinitive ending -/un/. Modal auxiliaries also contribute to the verbal system.

The present tense is an auxiliary construction. It combines the copula with the imperfective suffix -/aːn/ attached to the verb stem. The copula agrees with the subject in gender and number.

The past tense is divided into three distinctions:

• simple, or proximate, past
• remote past
• indefinite past

The simple past refers to completed past actions. The remote past refers to actions without the same built-in perfective aspect. The indefinite past is often used for actions performed long ago and appears in historical narratives and storytelling.

In all three past-tense forms, transitive subjects are ergative and direct objects are nominative. Intransitive subjects are nominative. Nominative arguments control gender, number, and person marking on the verb.

The future tense of intransitive verbs is formed by suffixes added to the verb stem. The future tense of transitive verbs is more complex: its suffixes agree with both the subject and the direct object according to number.

Aspect

Kashmiri has two main aspectual distinctions:

• perfective
• imperfective

Both aspects use a participle formed by adding a suffix to the verb stem and the fully conjugated auxiliary /aːsun/, meaning “to be.”

The auxiliary agrees with the object in transitive constructions and with the subject in intransitive constructions. The perfective participle expresses completed or concluded action and agrees in gender and number with the relevant object or subject.

The imperfective uses the participle suffix -/aːn/ in all forms. Agreement is shown by the auxiliary. Iterative meaning can be expressed by reduplicating the imperfective participle.

Adjectives

Kashmiri has two broad types of adjectives. Some agree with their referent noun in case, gender, and number, while others are not declined.

Most adjectives are declinable and generally take endings and gender-specific stem changes comparable to those found in nouns. Indeclinable adjectives include adjectives ending in -[lad̪] or -[ɨ], adjectives borrowed from other languages, and several isolated irregular forms.

The comparative and superlative are formed with separate words. ژۆر [t͡sor] means “more,” and سؠٹھا [sʲaʈʰaː] means “most.”

Numerals

Kashmiri numerals include cardinal and ordinal forms. The language also has aggregative forms, such as expressions for “both” or “all the five,” multiplicative forms such as “two times” or “four times,” and emphatic forms such as “only one” or “only three.”

The ordinal “first” has distinct masculine and feminine forms: [ǝkʲum] for masculine and [ǝkim] for feminine. It also has alternative forms, [ɡɔɖnʲuk] and [ɡɔɖnit͡ʃ], respectively.

Sound System

Vowels

Kashmiri has a very large phoneme inventory: 32 vowels and 62 consonants. The language distinguishes oral and nasal vowels phonemically. All sixteen oral vowels have nasal counterparts.

The short high vowels are near-high. The low vowels, apart from /aː/, are near-low. Kashmiri’s large vowel system is one reason why writing it requires more vowel signs than many other Perso-Arabic-derived South Asian orthographies.

Consonants

Kashmiri has phonemic consonant palatalization. All consonants apart from those in the post-alveolar or palatal column have palatalized counterparts.

This distinction is phonemic rather than merely phonetic. It means that palatalization can differentiate words, just as the contrast between separate consonants can.

Historical Sound Features

Kashmiri and other Dardic languages preserve important divergences from the Indo-Aryan mainstream. One is the partial maintenance of the three Old Indo-Aryan sibilants s, ṣ, and ś.

Another example concerns the prefixing form of the number “two.” Sanskrit has dvi-, while many other Indo-Aryan languages developed ba- or bi-. Kashmiri instead has du-, preserving the original dental stop d. The number “seventy-two” is dusatath in Kashmiri, compared with bahattar in Hindi-Urdu and Punjabi and dvisaptati in Sanskrit.

Kashmiri also retains older vocabulary and grammatical contrasts. The word yodvai, meaning “if,” is mainly found in Vedic Sanskrit texts. Classical Sanskrit and modern Indo-Aryan languages use yadi instead.

The first-person pronoun provides another example. Kashmiri uses ba/bi/bo for “I” in various dialects, distinct from other forms meaning “me” or “my.” “Mine” is myon. This distinction has parallels in Dogri, Gujarati, Konkani, and Braj, as well as in Pashto and some Nuristani languages, but it has been lost in several other modern Indo-Aryan languages.

Morphophonology

Kashmiri displays several regular morphophonological changes. These include:

• Lowering of [ə], [əː], and [uː] to [a], [aː], and [oː] before plural suffixes -[i] or -[ɨ].
• Raising of [a] and [aː] to [ə] and [əː] in monosyllabic stems before suffixes beginning with [i].
• Centralization of [u], [uː], [o], and [oː] to [ɨ], [ɨː], [ə], and [əː] before suffixes beginning with [i] or [j].
• Change of the second [u] in consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel-consonant words to [a] in plural formation.
• Change of stem-final retroflex consonants [ʈ], [ʈʰ], and [ɖ] to [t͡ʃ], [t͡ʃʰ], and [d͡ʒ] before the plural suffix -[i].
• Change of stem-final dental stops [t̪], [t̪ʰ], and [d̪] to [t͡s], [t͡sʰ], and [z] when forming feminine words.
• Change of [k], [kʰ], and [ɡ] to [t͡ʃ], [t͡ʃʰ], and [d͡ʒ] in feminine formation.
• Change of [l] to [d͡ʒ] in feminine formation.
• Deaspiration of stem-final aspirated stops before suffixes beginning with vowels.

Influence and Legacy

Sanskrit and Old Indo-Aryan

Kashmiri was heavily influenced by Sanskrit, especially during its earlier history. Its inherited vocabulary includes forms that preserve traces of Old Indo-Aryan and, in some cases, Vedic Sanskrit.

The preservation of yodvai for “if,” the continuation of the du- form in the word for “two,” and the partial maintenance of the three Old Indo-Aryan sibilants demonstrate that Kashmiri has not followed every development found in Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi, Sindhi, and other modern Indo-Aryan languages.

Persian and Arabic

Persian became the court language in Kashmir during the fourteenth century and contributed substantially to Kashmiri vocabulary. Persian script also became increasingly important for writing Kashmiri in the nineteenth century.

Arabic influence is visible in individual vocabulary choices. For example, the traditional Hindu word for “fire” is اۆگُن [oɡun], while a Muslim speaker more often uses the Arabic-derived نار [naːr]. This is described as a very minor difference between Kashmiri spoken by Hindus and Muslims.

Urdu, English, Hindustani, and Punjabi

Urdu replaced Persian as the court language in 1889 during the Dogra rule. Kashmiri has also imported words from Urdu, English, Hindustani, and Punjabi.

Borrowed words may follow Kashmiri grammatical patterns in ways that differ from their source languages. Many words borrowed from Urdu, for example, have different genders in Kashmiri.

Cultural Impact

Kashmiri is spoken by a majority of the population in the Kashmir Valley and is a significant marker of regional identity. Its writing systems also have social and religious dimensions. The Perso-Arabic script is used by both Kashmiri Hindus and Kashmiri Muslims, although some attempts have been made to assign different religious associations to Perso-Arabic and Devanagari writing.

The language’s continued presence in religious verse, school readers, dictionaries, newspapers, literary magazines, and official recognition reflects its role in both everyday communication and cultural production.

Royal and Religious Patronage

Court Language and Administration

Persian served as the court language in Kashmir from the fourteenth century until 1889. Its replacement by Urdu during the Dogra rule changed the language of court administration but did not end Kashmiri’s use among the people of the Kashmir Valley.

In 2020, Kashmiri received official-language status in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. This was the first time Kashmiri became an official language of the union territory, alongside Dogri, Hindi, Urdu, and English.

Religious Institutions and Script Preservation

Sharada’s modern use is concentrated in religious ceremonies and rituals of Kashmiri Pandits and in horoscope-writing. Its continued presence in these settings preserves a link between contemporary Kashmiri religious practice and the script’s long inscriptional and literary history.

The Sharada script is also used to present verses attributed to Lalleshwari in the documented material. Contemporary Kashmiri-specific vowels were added to Unicode’s Sharada Supplement in 2025, supporting the digital representation of modern Kashmiri in the historic script.

Modern Status

Current Speakers

Kashmiri has approximately 6.8 million speakers, including speakers of related dialects in Jammu and Kashmir and members of the Kashmiri diaspora in other Indian states. Broader estimates describe around 7 million Kashmiris as speakers of the language.

Most speakers live in the Kashmir Valley and nearby areas. Kashmiri is the majority language in the valley and is spoken by more than half the population of Jammu and Kashmir.

In Azad Kashmir, Kashmiri is spoken by approximately five percent of the population. Census figures recorded 132,450 Kashmiri speakers in 1998 and as many as 350,000 people identifying Kashmiri as their first language in the 2017 Pakistan Census.

Official Recognition

Kashmiri is one of India’s 22 scheduled languages. It was included in the Eighth Schedule of the former constitution of Jammu and Kashmir.

In 2020, Kashmiri became an official language of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, alongside Dogri, Hindi, Urdu, and English. The language is primarily written in the officially recognized Kashmiri Perso-Arabic script, although Devanagari, Sharada, and informal Roman writing are also used.

Language Shift in Azad Kashmir

A language shift has been observed among Kashmiri speakers in Azad Kashmir. Speakers have gradually adopted local languages such as Pahari-Pothwari and Hindko or moved toward Urdu as a lingua franca. This shift has allowed these languages to gain ground at the expense of Kashmiri.

In 1983, the government established a Kashmiri Language Committee to patronize Kashmiri and introduce it into school-level education. The limited attempts to introduce the language were not successful. Urdu, rather than Kashmiri, became the identity symbol for many Kashmiri Muslims of Azad Kashmir.

Efforts to organize a Kashmiri language movement have also faced difficulties because the Kashmiri-speaking community in Azad Kashmir is scattered across separate pockets. The distribution of Kashmiri speakers in small communities has made coordinated language promotion more difficult.

Learning and Study

Academic Study

Kashmiri is studied through courses, readers, dictionaries, pronunciation materials, and language-proficiency tests. The Central Institute of Indian Languages has published several Kashmiri learning materials, including Kashir Kitab, Urdu Kashmiri Reader, Kashmiri Phonetic Reader, Koshur: An Introduction to Spoken Kashmiri, and courses by Omkar Nath Koul.

Academic and reference works include dictionaries of Kashmiri, Kashmiri-English dictionaries, Kashmiri-English-Hindi materials, collections of proverbs, and studies of lexical borrowing. The Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages has published the multi-volume Kashir Dikshanri.

Educational Resources

The documented educational resources include:

• Kashmiri language textbooks for classes 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, and 10
• Hindi-Kashmiri Conversational Guide
• Hindi-Kashmiri-English Trilingual Dictionary
• Kashmiri-English Dictionary for Second Language Learners
• An Intensive Course in Kashmiri
• An Intermediate Course in Kashmiri Language
• An Advance Course in Kashmiri
• Tests of Language Proficiency: Kashmiri
• A Pronouncing Dictionary of Kashmiri Language

These materials support both native-language education and the study of Kashmiri by learners whose first language is different.

Digital and Script Resources

Kashmiri’s Perso-Arabic script is adapted to represent its extensive vowel system, and most vowel diacritics are written conventionally. Devanagari proposals from 2002 and 2009 provide alternative spellings for Kashmiri vowels. The addition of Kashmiri-specific vowels to the Sharada Supplement in Unicode version 17.0, released in September 2025, extends the historic script’s digital capacity.

Roman writing is also found informally online. Together, these systems make Kashmiri accessible through traditional religious writing, official Perso-Arabic orthography, Devanagari proposals, and digital communication.

Conclusion

Kashmiri, or Koshur, combines a distinctive Dardic Indo-Aryan structure with a long and complex history of cultural contact. Its split ergativity, verb-second word order, extensive vowel and consonant inventories, phonemic nasalization, and palatalization set it apart within the Indo-Aryan family. Its vocabulary preserves Old Indo-Aryan and Vedic features while also reflecting centuries of Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Urdu, English, Hindustani, and Punjabi influence.

The language’s written history extends from Sharada inscriptions and literary production beginning in the eighth century to the modern Perso-Arabic script recognized as its official script in Jammu and Kashmir. Devanagari, Sharada, and Roman writing remain additional parts of its orthographic landscape. Spoken by millions in the Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Kashmir, and diaspora communities, Kashmiri received official status in 2020. Its future depends both on this recognition and on continued educational and literary work, particularly where language shift has placed Kashmiri under pressure.