Gurezi Shina: A Typological Sketch.

The present study aims at exploring the phonological and morpho-syntactic traits of Gurezi, which is a dialect of Shina language. The Shina language, itself belongs to the Dardic sub-group of Indo-Aryan language family. This language is primarily spoken in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, Dah Hanu, Gurais and Dras in India. The alternate names of the language are Shinaki and Sina. The language shows its various speech varieties such as Gilgiti, Astori, Chilasi, Kohistani, Drasi, Gurezi, Jalkoti, Kolai and Palasi. The Gurezi dialect of Shina is spoken in the Gurais region of Kashmir in the Republic of India. As far as the phonology of Gurezi Shina is analysed, it comprises of segmental vowel phonemes, suprasegmental phonemes and consonant phonemes which are described in the paper. The morphology of Shina language is also examined while taking the Nouns, numbers, pronoun, gender, and case suffix into consideration. The data for the research is purely descriptive and it has been compiled because of a number of field trips to the valley of Gurez. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]