Shina Alphabet

Shina ( , ) is a Dardic language of Indo-Aryan language family spoken by the Shina people. In Pakistan, Shina is the major language in Gilgit-Baltistan spoken by an estimated 1,146,000 people living mainly in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan. A small community of Shina speakers is also found in India, in the Gurez valley of Jammu and Kashmir and in Dras valley of Ladakh. Outliers of Shina language such as Brokskat are found in Ladakh, Kundal Shahi in Azad Kashmir, Palula and Sawi in Chitral, Ushojo in the Swat Valley and Kalkoti in Dir.

Until recently, there was no writing system for the language. A number of schemes have been proposed, but presently, there is no single writing system used by speakers of Shina. Shina is mostly a spoken language and not a written language.

Due to the effects of dominant languages in Pakistani media like Urdu, Standard Punjabi, and English, in addition to the religious significance of Arabic and Persian, Shina is continuously expanding its vocabulary base with loan words. This process is also ongoing with that of many other languages in Pakistan. It has close relationships with other Indo-Aryan languages, especially Standard Punjabi, Western Punjabi, Sindhi, and the dialects of Western Pahari.

Distribution

In Pakistan

There are an estimated 1,146,000 speakers of both Shina and Kohistani Shina in Pakistan according to Ethnologue (2018), a majority of whom reside in the provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. A small community of Shina speakers is also settled in the Neelam valley of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

In India

A small community of Shina speakers is also settled in India in the far north of the Kargil district bordering Gilgit-Baltistan. Their population is estimated to be around 32,200 according to the 2011 census.

Phonology

The following is a description of the phonology of the Drasi, Shina variety spoken in India and the Kohistani variety in Pakistan.

Vowels

The Shina principal vowel sounds:

All vowels except /ɔ/ can be either long or nasalized, though no minimal pairs with the contrast are found. /æ/ is heard from loanwords.

Diphthongs

In Shina there are the following diphthongs:
* falling: ae̯, ao̯, eə̯, ɛi̯, ɛːi̯, ue̯, ui̯, oi̯, oə̯;
* falling nasalized: ãi̯, ẽi̯, ũi̯, ĩũ̯, ʌĩ̯;
* raising: u̯i, u̯e, a̯a, u̯u.

Consonants

In India, the dialects of the Shina language have preserved both initial and final OIA consonant clusters, while the Shina dialects spoken in Pakistan have not.

Tone

Shina words are often distinguished by three contrasting tones: level, rising, and falling tones. Here is an example that shows the three tones:

"The" () has a level tone and means the imperative "Do!"

When the stress falls on the first mora of a long vowel, the tone is falling. ''Thée'' () means "Will you do?"

When the stress falls on the second mora of a long vowel, the tone is rising. ''Theé'' () means "after having done".

Orthography

Shina is one of the few Dardic languages with a written tradition. However, it was an unwritten language until a few decades ago. Only in the late 2010s has Shina orthography been standardized and primers as well as dictionaries endorsed by the territorial government of Gilgit-Baltistan have been published.
Ziya, Muhammad Amin, Prof. (2010, October). Gilti Shina Urdu Dictionary / ݜِناٗ - اُردو لغت. Publisher: Zia Publications, Gilgit. ضیاء پبلیکبشنز، گلیٗتISBN 978-969-942-00-
https://archive.org/details/MuhammadAmeenZiaGiltiShinaUrduDictionary/page/n5/mode/1up
/ref>Razwal Kohistani. (Latest Edition: 2020)(First published: 1996) Kohistani Shina Primer, ݜݨیاٗ کستِین٘و قاعده. Publisher: Indus Kohistan Publications
https://archive.org/details/complete-shina-kohistani-qaida-by-razwal-kohistani_202009/page/n1/mode/1up
/ref>

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. Debates have centered on how to write several retroflex sounds not present in Urdu, and whether vowel length and tone should be represented.

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, the alphabet has been standardized, documented, and popularized thanks to the efforts of literaturists such as Professor Muhammad Amin Ziya, Shakeel Ahmad Shakeel, and Razwal Kohistani. The alphabet established by these individuals has been developed for all Shina language dialects, including the Gilgit dialect and the Kohistani dialect.
There are minor differences, such as the existence of the letter in Kohistani dialect of Shina. Furthermore, variations and personal preferences can be observed across Shina documents. For example, it is common to see someone use instead of for , 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 "", which all sound like 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'' (). 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 ''alif'', ''waw'', '' buṛi ye'', and ''ye'' (), 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.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
/ref>

Consonants

Below table shows Shina consonants.

Vowels

There are five vowels in Shina language. Each of the five vowels in 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 Shina orthographic conventions, including letters and diacritics. Although diacritics can and are occasionally dropped in writing. Short vowels and are solely written with diacritics. Short vowels and 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. Long vowels are written with a combination of diacritics and letters ''alif'', ''waaw'' or ''ye''.

Below table shows short vowels at the beginning, middle, and end of a word.

Below table shows long vowels at the beginning, middle, and end of a word, with "no tone", i.e. a long flat tone .

Below table shows long vowels at the beginning, middle, and end of a word, with a long rising tone .

Below table shows long vowels at the beginning, middle, and end of a word, with a long falling tone (.

Text sample

Below is a short passage of sample phrases.Schmidt, R. L., & Kohistani, R. (2008). ''A grammar of the Shina language of Indus kohistan''. Harrassowitz.

See also

* Brokskat language
* Kundal Shahi language
*Ushoji language
* Kalkoti language
* Palula language
* Savi language

References

Bibliography

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Further reading

* A history of the development of writing in Shina
* Contains a Shina grammar, German-Shina and Shina-German dictionaries, and over 700 Shina proverbs and short texts.
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* Contains 15000 words plus material on the phonetics of Shina.

External links

Sasken Shina
contains materials in and about the language

1992 Sociolinguistic Survey of Shina

Shina Language Textbook for Class5

Shina Language Textbook for Class6

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shina Language
Dardic languages
Languages of Gilgit-Baltistan
Languages of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Languages of Jammu and Kashmir
Languages of Ladakh
Tonal languages in non-tonal families
Languages written in Devanagari