Kohistani Shina

Kohistani Shina is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the former Kohistan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northern Pakistan. According to Ethnologue, Kohistani Shina is mutually intelligible with the Shina variety of Chilas, but not with the standard dialect of Gilgit.^[1] Bateri and Kalkoti speakers speak Kohistani Shina as a second language.^[3] Indus Kohistani loanwords can be found in the language.^{[citation needed]} A grammar and a dictionary of the language have been published.^[4][5][6]

Alphabet

Shina is one of the few Dardic languages with a written tradition.^[7] However, it was an unwritten language until a few decades ago.^[8] Only in late 2010s has Shina orthography been standardized and primers as well as dictionaries have been published. ^[9][5]

Since the first attempts at accurately representing Shina's phonology in the 1960s there have been several proposed orthographies for the different varieties of the language, with debates centering on how to write several retroflex sound not present in Urdu and whether vowel length and tone should be represented.^[10]

There are two main orthographic conventions now, one in Pakistani-controlled areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and in Kohistan, and the other in Indian-controlled area of Dras, Ladakh.

Below alphabet has been standardized, documented, and popularized thanks to efforts of literaturists such as Professor Muhammad Amin Ziya, Shakeel Ahmad Shakeel, and Razwal Kohistani, and it has been developed for all Shina language dialects, including Gilgit dialect and Kohistani dialect, which ^[9][5][11] The Kohistani Shina alphabet differs slightly from the Gilgiti variety. For example, it includes one additional letter ڦ, and it includes several additional digraphs to represent additional aspirated consonants unique to Kohistani. Furthermore, variations and personal preferences can be observed across Shina documents. For example, it is common to see someone use سً instead of ݜ for ʂ, or use sukun ◌ْ (U+0652) instead of small sideway noon ◌ࣿ (U+08FF) to indicate short vowels. However, these variations are no longer an issue. Another issue is that of how to write loanwords that use letters not found in Shina language, for example letters "س / ث / ص", which all sound like [s] in Shina. Some documents preserve the original spelling, despite the letters being homophones and not having any independent sound of their own, similar to orthographic conventions of Persian and Urdu. Whereas other documents prefer to rewrite all loanwords in a single Shina letter, and thus simplify the writing, similar to orthographic conventions of Kurdish and Uyghur.

Shina vowels are distinguished by length, by whether or not they're nasalized, and by tone. Nasalization is represented like other Perso-Arabic alphabets in Pakistan, with Nun Ghunna (ن٘ـ / ـن٘ـ / ں). In Shina, tone variation only occur when there is a long vowel. There are conventions unique to Shina to show the three tones. In Shina conventions, specific diacritics are shown in conjunction with the letters aliv, waaw, buṛi ye, and ye (ا، و، یـ، ی، ے), as these letters are written down to represent long vowels. The diacritics inverted damma ◌ٗ (U+0657) and superscript alef ◌ٰ (U+0670) represent a rising tone and a falling tone respectively. Another diacritic, a small sideway noon ◌ࣿ (U+08FF) is used to represent short vowels when need be.^[12]

Consonants

Below table shows Shina consonants.^[9][5]

Vowels

There are five vowels in Kohistani Shina language. Each of the five vowels in Kohistani Shina have a short version and a long version. Shina is also a tonal language. Short vowels in Shina have a short high level tone ˥. Long vowels can either have "no tone", i.e. a long flat tone ˧, a long rising tone ˨˦, or a long falling tone (/˥˩/.

All five vowels have a defined way of presentation in Kohistani Shina orthographic conventions, including letters and diacritics. Although diacritics can and are occasionally dropped in writing. Short vowels [a], [i], and [u] are solely written with diacritics. Short vowels [e] and [o] are written with letters waw and buṛi ye. A unique diacritic, a small sideway noon ◌ࣿ (U+08FF) is used on top of these letters to indicate a short vowel.^[12] Long vowels are written with a combination of diacritics and letters aliv, waaw or ye.

Below table shows short vowels at the beginning, middle, and end of a word.^[12][13]

Below table shows long vowels at the beginning, middle, and end of a word, with "no tone", i.e. a long flat tone ˧.^[12][13]

Below table shows long vowels at the beginning, middle, and end of a word, with a long rising tone ˨˦.^[12][13]

Below table shows long vowels at the beginning, middle, and end of a word, with a long falling tone (/˥˩/.^[12][13]

References

1. ^ "Shina, Jalkutia Kohistani"
2. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2025-06-11). "Glottolog 5.2 - Kohistanic Shina". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived 2025-09-14 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
3. ^ Liljegren, Henrik (2013). "Notes on Kalkoti: A Shina Language with Strong Kohistani Influences". Linguistic Discovery. 11. doi:10.1349/PS1.1537-0852.A.423
4. ^ Schmidt, Ruth Laila; Kohistani, Razval; Zarin, Mohammad Manzar (2008). A Grammar of the Shina Language of Indus Kohistan. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 264. ISBN 9783447056762.
5. ^ Kohistani, Razval (2020-09-21). Complete Shina Kohistani Qaida By Razwal Kohistani (in Urdu). No. 2nd.
6. ^ "Kohistani Shina-Urdu dictionary published". 22 October 2021.
7. ^ Bashir 2003, p. 823.
8. ^ Schmidt & 2003/2004, p. 61.
9. ^ Ziya, Muhammad Amin, Prof. (2010, October). Gilti Shina Urdu Dictionary / ݜِناٗ - اُردو لغت. Publisher: Zia Publications, Gilgit. ضیاء پبلیکبشنز، گلیٗتISBN 978-969-942-00-8 https://archive.org/details/MuhammadAmeenZiaGiltiShinaUrduDictionary/page/n5/mode/1up
10. ^ Bashir 2016, p. 806.
11. ^ Pamir Times (September 5, 2008), "Shina language gets a major boost with Shakeel Ahmad Shakeel’s efforts" https://pamirtimes.net/2008/09/05/shina-language-gets-a-major-boost-with-shakeel-ahmad-shakeels-efforts/
12. ^ Shakeel Ahmad Shakeel. (2008). Sheena language An overview of the teaching and learning system / شینا زبان نظام پڑھائی لکھائی کا جائزہ. https://z-lib.io/book/14214726
13. ^ Radloff, Carla F. with Shakil Ahmad Shakil.1998. Folktales in the Shina of Gilgit. Islamabad: The National Institute of Pakistan Studies and Summer Institute of Linguistics. [1]

Sources

• Bashir, Elena L. (2003). "Dardic". The Indo-Aryan languages. Routledge language family series. Y. George Cardona & Dhanesh Jain (eds.). London: Routledge. pp. 818–94. ISBN 978-0-7007-1130-7.
• Bashir, Elena L. (2016). "Perso-Arabic adaptions for South Asian languages". The languages and linguistics of South Asia: a comprehensive guide. World of Linguistics. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 803–9. ISBN 978-3-11-042715-8.
• Schmidt, Ruth Laila (2003–2004). "The oral history of the Daṛmá lineage of Indus Kohistan". European Bulletin of Himalayan Research. ' (25/26): 61–79. ISSN 0943-8254