Kohistani Shina

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]

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

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]

• Bashir, Elena L. (2003). "Dardic". In George Cardona; Dhanesh Jain (eds.). The Indo-Aryan languages. Routledge language family series. Y. London: Routledge. pp. 818–94. ISBN 978-0-7007-1130-7.
• Bashir, Elena L. (2016). "Perso-Arabic adaptions for South Asian languages". In Hock, Hans Henrich; Bashir, Elena (eds.). 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" (PDF). European Bulletin of Himalayan Research (25/26): 61–79. ISSN 0943-8254.