Mother Tongue First: Kashmir And Kashmiri Language
Co-Written By: Zeeshan Rasool Khan& Eram Hameed Khan Wilhelm von Humboldt aptly said: “Absolutely nothing is as important for nation’s culture as its language”. Culture and language have the deep-rooted relationship with language constituting an indispensable element of culture. The latter is key component involved in nation building and can be termed as oil that keeps nation and society functional. However, the transmission of culture from one generation to other is possible only through the language. For preserving a culture and identity, safeguarding mother language is of utmost significance. History bears witness that people struggled and are struggling for domination of their mother tongue in many of states in India. Having said that, in Kashmir; there was a time when terms like ‘Poen’ and ‘Nabb’ were used in lieu of existing, originally Persian Urdu words, ‘Aab’ and ‘Aasmaan’, meaning water and sky respectively and are no longer heard from any corner. Slowly and s