Ebook: Essays on Kashmiri Grammar

Publisher: Luzac
Date: 1899
Pages: 397The following essay on Kashmiri originally appeared in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1896-1899. It is hoped that, as now completed, they will be found to give a much fuller account of that interesting language than has hitherto been available.
Besides those who wish to study Kashmiri for its own sake, it is also of considerable interest to comparative philologists. I know of no Indo-Aryan language which in her grammatical construction is so naked and unashamed. With but the thinnest veil of mystery, she freely displays to the ardent eyes of the student, not only the general contour of her graceful form, but each joint, each articulation. Devoid of every feeling of false modesty, she discloses many a secret which is jealously hidden by her more prudish sisters of the south. This fact has been prosaically dwelt upon by me on former occasions and I need not discuss it further here. It is sufficient to point out that a study of Kashmiri is an essential preliminary to any enquiry which deals comparatively with the mutual relations of the modern Aryan vernaculars of India.