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Shina language

Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in the northern Pakistan and Ladakh

Summary

Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in the northern Pakistan and Ladakh

Field	Value
name	Shina
altname	Gilgiti
pronunciation
image	[[File:Shina in Nastaliq.png	150px]]
states	Pakistan, India
region	Gilgit-Baltistan, Kohistan, Drass, Gurez
ethnicity	Shina
speakers	1.1 million
date	2018
ref
familycolor	Indo-European
fam2	Indo-Iranian
fam3	Indo-Aryan
fam4	Dardic
fam5	Eastern Dardic
fam6	Shinaic
ancestor	Proto-Indo-Aryan
ancestor2	Vedic Sanskrit
lc1	scl
ld1	Standard Shina
lc2	plk
ld2	Kohistani Shina
script	Arabic script (Nastaʿlīq)
map	Shina language.png
mapcaption	Distribution of Shina language in Dark Orange
notice	IPA
glotto	shin1264
glottoname	Shina
glotto2	kohi1248
glottoname2	Kohistani Shina
imagecaption	'Shina' (Ṣiṇyaá) written in the Arabic script (Nastaliq)
nativename	ݜݨیاٗ
scl

scl

Shina (ݜݨیاٗ, scl, ), also known by its exonym Gilgiti, is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic branch in the Indo-European language family, primarily spoken by the Shina people, native to northern Pakistan, specifically 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.

It is one of the major regional languages of Pakistan, being the most-widely spoken one in Gilgit-Baltistan. It is also spoken outside of Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan by Shina communities in major metropolitan areas around the country, particularly Islamabad–Rawalpindi, Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar.

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, 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 Hindko, Punjabi, Sindhi, Saraiki, 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:

Front	Mid	Back	unrd.
i			u
e			o
ɛ	ə	ʌ	ɔ
(æ)	a

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.

Labial	Coronal	Retroflex	Post-alv./
Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal	Stop	Voiceless	Aspirated	Voiced	Breathy	Affricate	Voiceless	Aspirated	Voiced	Breathy	Fricative	Voiceless	Voiced	Nasal	Lateral	Rhotic	Semivowel
()
()
	()
~

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.

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. 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/ There are minor differences, such as the existence of the letter ڦ 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 سً instead of ݜ 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 "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 alif, waw, 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.

Consonants

Below table shows Shina consonants.

Name	Forms	IPA	Transliteration	Unicode	Notes	Shina	Isolated	Final

alif				, , silent	– / aa	U+0622U+0627	At the beginning of a word it can either come with diacritic, or it can come in form of alif-madda (), or it can be stand-alone and silent, succeeded by a vowel letter. Diacritics can be omitted in writing.

be						b	U+0628

pe						p	U+067E

te						t	U+062A

te						ṭ	U+0679

se						s	U+062B	Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter siin س.

ǰom						ǰ	U+062C

če						č	U+0686

tse						ts	U+0685	Letter borrowed from Pashto alphabet.
In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.

c̣e						c̣	U+0687	Unique letter for Shina language. Some Shina literatures and documents use two horizontal lines instead of four dots, use instead of .
In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.

he						h	U+062D	Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter hay ہ.

khe					~	kh	U+062D	Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with digraph letter khe کھ.

daal			-		d	U+062F

ḍaal				ḍ	U+0688

zaal			-		z	U+0688	Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter ze ز.

re			-		r	U+0631

ṛe				ṛ	U+0691

ze				z	U+0632

že / ǰe			-	‍~‍	ž / ǰ	U+0632	Only used in loanwords of Persian and European origin. Can be replaced with letter jom ج.

ẓe			-		ẓ	U+0699	Unique letter for Shina language. Some Shina literatures and documents use two horizontal lines instead of four dots, use instead of .
In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.

siin						s	U+0633

šiin						š	U+0634

ṣiin						ṣ	U+0687	Unique letter for Shina language. Some Shina literatures and documents use two horizontal lines instead of four dots, use instead of .
In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.

swaad						s	U+0635	Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter siin س.

zwaad						z	U+0636	Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter ze ز.

tooy						t	U+0637	Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter te ت.

zooy						z	U+0638	Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter ze ز.

ayn					, silent	-	U+0639	Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter alif ا.

gayn					~	g	U+0639	Only used in loanwords of Arabic and Turkic origin. Can be replaced with letter gaaf گ.

fe / phe					~	f / ph	U+0641	Only used in loanwords. Can be replaced with digraph letter phe پھ.

qaaf / kaaf					~	q / k	U+0642	Only used in loanwords of Arabic and Turkic origin. Can be replaced with letter kaaf ک.

kaaf						k	U+0643

gaaf						g	U+06AF

laam						l	U+0644

miim						m	U+0645

nuun						n	U+0646

nuuṇ						ṇ	U+0768	In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.

nū̃ / nūn gunna						◌̃	For middle of word:U+0646
plus
U+0658
For end of word:
U+06BA

nuung						ng	U+0646
plus
U+0658
and
U+06AF	A digraph, counted as a letter.

waaw			-	/	w / ō	U+0648	The letter waaw can either represent consonant ([w/v]) or vowel ([oo]). It can also act as a carrier of vowel diacritics, representing several other vowels. At the beginning of a word, when representing a consonant, the letter waaw will appear as a standalone character, followed by the appropriate vowel. If representing a vowel at the beginning of a word, the letter waaw needs to be preceded by an alif ا. When the letter waaw comes at the end of the word representing a consonant sound [w], a hamza is used ؤ to label it as such and avoid mispronunciation as a vowel.

hai						h	U+0646	This letter differs from do-ac̣hi'ii hay (ھ) and they are not interchangeable. Similar to Urdu,do-chashmi hē (ھ) is exclusively used as a second part of digraphs for representing aspirated consonants. In initial and medial position, the letter hē always represents the consonant [h]. In final position, The letter hē can either represent consonant ([h]) or it can demonstrate that the word ends with short vowels a , i , u .

hamza		-	, silent	’	U+0621	Used mid-word to indicate separation between a syllable and another that starts with a vowel. hamza on top of letters waaw and ye at end of a word serves a function too. When the letter waaw or ye come at the end of the word representing a consonant sound [w] or [y], a hamza is used ؤ / ئ / ـئ to label it as such and avoid mispronunciation as a vowel.

ye / leekhii ye					/ /	y / e / i	U+06CC	The letter ye can either represent consonant ([j]) or vowels ([e]/[i]). It can also act as a carrier of vowel diacritics, representing several other vowels. At the beginning of a word, when representing a consonant, the letter ye will appear as a standalone character, followed by the appropriate vowel. If representing a vowel at the beginning of a word, the letter ye needs to be preceded by an alif ا. When the letter ye comes at the end of the word representing a consonant sound [j], a hamza is used ئ to label it as such and avoid mispronunciation as a vowel. When representing a vowel at the end of a word, it can only be [i]. For vowel [e], the letter buṛi ye ے is used.

buṛi ye			-	/	e / y	U+06D2	The letter buṛi ye only occurs in final position. The letter buṛi ye represents the vowel "ē" [eː] or the consonant "y" [j].

bhe						bh	U+0628
and
U+06BE	Digraphs counted as letters.

phe						ph	U+067E
and
U+06BE

the						th	U+062A
and
U+06BE

ṭhe						ṭh	U+0679
and
U+06BE

ǰhom						ǰh	U+062C
and
U+06BE

čhe						čh	U+0686
and
U+06BE

tshe						tsh	U+0685
and
U+06BE	A digraph, counted as a letter.
In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.

c̣he						c̣h	U+0687
and
U+06BE	A digraph, counted as a letter.
In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.

khe						kh	U+0643
and
U+06BE	Digraphs counted as letters.

ghe						gh	U+06AF
and
U+06BE

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 [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. 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.

Vowel at the beginning of the word	a		e
اَ}}	ایࣿـ / اےࣿ}}	اِ}}	اوࣿ}}
ـَ}}	یࣿـ / ـیࣿـ }}	ـِ}}	وࣿ / ـوࣿ}}
◌َہ / ـَہ}}	ےࣿ / ـےࣿ }}	◌ِہ / ـِہ}}	وࣿ / ـوࣿ}}

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

Vowel at the beginning of the word	aa		ee
آ}}	ایـ / اے}}	اِیـ / اِی}}	او}}
ا / ـا}}	یـ / ـیـ }}	◌ِیـ / ـِیـ}}	و / ـو}}
ا / ـا}}	ے / ـے}}	◌ِی / ـِی}}	و / ـو}}

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

Vowel at the beginning of the word	aá		eé
آٗ}}	ایٗـ / اےٗ}}	اِیٗـ / اِیٗ}}	اوٗ}}
اٗ / ـاٗ}}	یٗـ / ـیٗـ }}	◌ِیٗـ / ـِیٗـ}}	وٗ / ـوٗ}}
اٗ / ـاٗ}}	ےٗ / ـےٗ}}	◌ِیٗ / ـِی}}	وٗ / ـوٗ}}

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

Vowel at the beginning of the word	áa		ée
آٰ}}	ایٰـ / اےٰ}}	اِیٰـ / اِیٰ}}	اوٰ}}
اٰ / ـاٰ}}	یٰـ / ـیٰـ }}	◌ِیٰـ / ـِیٰـ}}	وٰ / ـوٰ}}
اٰ / ـاٰ}}	ےٰ / ـےٰ}}	◌ِیٰ / ـِیٰ}}	وٰ / ـوٰ}}

Text sample

Below is a short passage of sample phrases.

Shina Arabic alphabet (orthography of Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan)	Latin Transliteration	Translation
Asáa ek saníilo góoṣ pašées. Asáa dahíilo góoṣ pašées. Góoṣ jéeji dahíilo léel bíino. Góoṣ wazií na ditobáalo.
We saw a completely constructed house. We saw the house burnt down. The house appears burnt by someone. The house could not collapse completely.

References

Bibliography

References

"Shina".
"Ethnologue report for Shina".
(2007-07-26). "The Indo-Aryan Languages". Routledge.
(2008-08-22). "Lesser-Known Languages of South Asia: Status and Policies, Case Studies and Applications of Information Technology". Walter de Gruyter.
"Shina".
Braj B. Kachru. (2008). "Language in South Asia". Cambridge University Press.
Shams, Shammim Ara. (2020). "The Impact of Dominant Languages on Regional Languages: A Case Study of English, Urdu and Shina". Pakistan Social Sciences Review.
M. Oranskij, “Indo-Iranica IV. Tadjik (Régional) Buruǰ ‘Bouleau,’” in Mélanges linguistiques offerts à Émile Benveniste, Paris, 1975, pp. 435–40.
"Shina".
"Shina, Kohistani".
Itagi, N. H.. (1994). "Spatial aspects of language". [[Central Institute of Indian Languages]].
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 https://archive.org/details/MuhammadAmeenZiaGiltiShinaUrduDictionary/page/n5/mode/1up]
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 https://archive.org/details/complete-shina-kohistani-qaida-by-razwal-kohistani_202009/page/n1/mode/1up]
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 https://z-lib.io/book/14214726] {{Webarchive. link. (2024-03-11)
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. [https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/13/82/56/138256623622760949003113935743299913976/742_CRadloff_Folktales_Gilgit_of_Shina_1998.pdf]
Samoon, M. (2016). Shina Language Proverbs (Urdu: شینا محاورے اور مثالیں)(Shina: شْنْا مَحاوَرآے گےٚ مِثالےٚ). Rabita Publications. [https://archive.org/details/shinalanguageproverbsbymasoodsamoon2016/page/n1/mode/2up]
Schmidt, R. L., & Kohistani, R. (2008). ''A grammar of the Shina language of Indus kohistan''. Harrassowitz.

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