Kashmiri/Lesson 2

This lesson details how to say that something is something. There is a lot more that can be said about the grammar involved here, and there are many other things to keep in mind which have been left out for now.

In Kashmiri, verbs have gender agreement, which is to say that the verb agrees with the subject in its gender, and sometimes with the object as well.

English	Masculine	Feminine
I am	bú chus	bú chas
You (sg.) are	tsú chuk	tsú chak
He/it is	su chu
She/it is	swa cha	swa cha
We are	ásy che
You (pl.) are	tuhy chiv
They are	tim che	timú cha

Deixis

This brings us to a very important concept in Kashmiri, that of deixis, specifically deictic pronouns. The concept is the same as in English. Think of the difference between this/these and that/those. The former pair is used to refer to something that is nearby to the speaker, or pertinent in some other way. The latter pair denotes a thing or two that are further away. Kashmiri has a similar phenomenon when it comes to pronouns, albeit with three tiers instead of two. Like in English, the deixis is restricted in the third person only.

Here are the three forms, with the masculine preceding the feminine form.

Singular		Plural		Use
m.	f.	m.	f.
su	swa	tim	timú	Used when the referrent is not in viewing range.
hu	hwa	hum	humú	Used when the referrent is visible, albeit not necessarily audible. You may have to shout to be heard by this person.
yú		yúmú		This pronoun is used the referrent is nearby and in audible range. There's no gender split in this case.