KASHMIRI LANGUAGE:- is one of the oldest languages of the world, having emerged from 5th to 6th century from ancient linguistic group of Dardi. Soon Dardi was taken over by SANSKRIT and Kashmiri language was influenced not only by Sanskrit but a number of other languages like Chinese, Tibetan, Russian, Persian, Arabic , Punjabi and English through different periods. Estimated by one European linguist G. T. Venn, this language carries 50% words from Sanskrit,33% Tibetan or Dardi, 10% Persian, 5% Hindi and 2% Dogri.

This enriched language locally referred as “Koshur” could not have its own permanent script till late 20th century. Koshur was either written in Sharda script or in Devnagri. Koshur remained predominantly a spoken language among the masses and that made a serious setback in its development. Though a voluntary organization of young writers of the valley took up a mission to popularize Kashmiri script among the masses but it could have no fruitful results. In 1980 government finally included the language in academics and Kashmiri Department was established in Kashmir University but these efforts seem to be too late. At present, Kashmiri language is predominantly spoken by older people in rural areas while young generation in the valley does not feel comfortable in communicating in Kashmiri language.