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This paper presents a description and analysis of contact-induced change in a sub-dialect of Burushaski (henceforth JKB), spoken in Jammu & Kashmir, India. Known to its speakers as miśa:ski, JKB is spoken by around 300 people in Srinagar (capital of Jammu & Kashmir). It has been in isolation from the mainstream Burushaski community in Pakistan for 115 years and has developed divergent linguistic features. Although some linguistic changes in JKB are internally-motivated, many can, at least partially, be explained in terms of language contact. The study has been done from a text-and-discourse-centered approach (Sherzer & Woodbury, 1987). The database consists of digitally recorded natural conversations, stories, and narratives, as well as elicited words, sentences and field notes from participant observation.

Most sociolinguistic studies on Burushaski are fairly recent and not many deal with language contact contact-induced change in detail (Lorimer 1937, Berger, 1966, Parkin 1987, Frémont 1989, Backstrom 1992, Frembgen 1997, Party & Tiffou 1997). The language has been greatly influenced by the neighboring languages. Pakistan varieties of Burushaski are surrounded and influenced by Indo-European, Tibeto-Burman, and Altaic languages. JKB is in contact with the Indo-Aryan Urdu and Kashmiri. It has undergone independent linguistic changes. My analyses cover various linguistic consequences of contact in JKB, viz., borrowing, innovation, restructuring and simplification of linguistic features.

Some contact-induced phonological changes in JKB include: (i) Replacement of Persian/Arabic fricatives f /x by corresponding aspirated stops ph/kh, (ii) Possible loss of retroflex fricative and affricate sounds ş and ċ, absent in the contact languages, and their merger with the corresponding palatal ś and c sounds, and (iii) Influence of Kashmiri stress pattern.

Persian/Urdu borrowings in JKB are often shared with Kashmiri. JKB has also borrowed directly from Kashmiri. Direct importation of grammatical features, e.g., conjunctions and other functions words from Urdu and Kashmiri, is very common. This change may lead to other indirect linguistic consequences in future.

In the area of morpho-syntax, I have examined several changes. For instance, convergence of present tense forms of verb ‘be’, viz., bi and dila (based on [+concrete] and [-concrete] classification of the qualified nouns respectively), leading to a possible loss of dila. Past tense forms were also observed to be influenced by this change. Several instances of structural isomorphism are observed which employ loan words from Urdu/English while using Kashmiri syntax. In addition, JKB also reveals certain structural innovations unique to itself. (See data for illustrations)

Data

I. Contact-induced phonological change

(1) f/ x > ph/ k JKB Kashmiri Persian/Urdu Gloss saphar saphar safar ‘journey/travel’ khaya:l khaya:l xeya:l ‘imagination, thought’ pho:j pho:j fo:j ‘army (personnel)’

(2) Loss of retroflex sounds şiyas ~ śiyas ‘to eat’ aşċiη ~ aściη ‘my back’

II. Borrowings

(3) Urdu/Persian borrowings in JKB shared with Kashmiri va:pas ‘back’ aula:d ‘offspring(s)’ xaja:l ‘thought’ ume:dva:r ‘one who expects’ (cf. Ur. ummi:dva:r ) 1

(4) Kashmiri loan words in JKB asal ‘good’ t̪roś ‘loose-tempered’ bat̪ ‘cooked rice’ ma:n-ma:n ‘competition (?)’

(5) Functions words borrowed into JKB from Urdu cuunki ‘since, because’ leha:za ‘therefore’ γaraz ‘as a result’ śa:yad ‘probably’

III. Cases of structural isomorphism with Kashmiri

(6) Kashmiri: photu: t̪ul-un ‘to take a picture’ (Cf. English photo(graph)) photograph lift-Inf. JKB: photu: d̪a:l et̪-as ‘to take a picture’ photograph lift do-Inf.

(7) Kashmiri: tang an-un ‘to annoy or irritate’ (Cf. Ur. tang kar-na: = Lit. ‘tight do-Inf.’) JKB: tang diy-as ‘to annoy or irritate’ tight bring-Inf.

IV. Structural innovations

(8) Borrowed stem – + -innovative suffix yi + et̪- ‘do’ constructions (transitive verbs) bana:-yi et̪-as ‘to make/create’ (Ur. bana:-na: ‘make-Inf.’ mana:-yi et̪-as ‘to persuade’ (Ur. mana:-na: ‘persuade-Inf.’ baca:-yi et̪-as ‘to save/rescue’ (Ur. baca:-na: ‘save-Inf.’

(9) Borrowed stem + mana- ‘exist/happen’ constructions (intransitive verbs) bad̪al mana-as ‘to get changed’ (from Ur. bad̪al-na: ‘change-Inf.’) nasal phehli mana-as ‘for the tribe/clan to spread’ (from Ur. nasal phehel-na:)

References

Backstrom, Peter C. 1992. “Burushaski.” Peter C. Backstrom & Carla F. Radloff. Languages of Northern Areas. Islamabad: National Institute of Pakistan Studies and Summer Institute of Linguistics. (Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, 2). 31-54

Bashir, Elena. 1997. ‘Burushaski-Khowar commonalities’. In Third International Himalayan Languages Symposium, 18-20 July 1997, Santa Barbara, 1997.

Berger, Hermann. 1966. “Remarks on Shina Loans in Burushaski.” Anwar S. Dil (ed.). Shahidullah Presentation Volume. Lahore: Linguistics Research Group of Pakistan (Pakistani Linguistics Series, 7). 79-88

Frembgen, J. 1997. “English Loan Words in Burushaski as a Barometer of Cultural Change.” I. Stellrecht & M. Winiger (eds.). Perspectives on History and Change in the Karokorum, Hindukush, and Himalaya. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. (Culture Area Karakorum, Scientific Studies, 3). 463-71

Lorimer, David L.R. 1937. “Burushaski and its Alien Neighbours. Problems in Linguistic Contagion.” Transactions of the Philological Society 63-98 Parkin, Robert J. 1987. “Tibeto-Burman and Indo-European Loans in Burushaski Kinship Terminology.” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 50:325-29

Sherzer, Joel and Anthony C. Woodbury. 1987. Native American Discourse: Poetics and Rhetoric. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2