u/Reasonable_Spirit732

Non Indo-Aryan Substrates in Dardic and Kashmiri Languages

> "It should be added that before a form of Old Indo-Aryan, thus pre-Dardic and pre-Kashmiri, was adopted in the Kashmir Valley (see below § 1.3, on archaeology) another type of language must have been spoken as the area and surroundings have been occupied by anatomically modern humans for the past 30,000 or 40,000 years. Remnants of this substrate language58 can be detected in several names for rivers —universally very conservative — that have not been Sanskritized, as most rivers in the Valley have been indeed. Yet, river names such as the Ledarī, maybe the Pahara, or place names ending in –muṣa/muśa/moṣa [Kashm. moša], such as Khona-˚ (modern Khunmoh) or the Katī-muṣa (RT 2.55) and Rā-muṣa agrahāras (2.55) are witness of this old population and their language. The substrate may also be discovered in certain aspects of Kashmiri mythology59 and religion, including many of the c. 600 names of the local Kashmirian Nāgas. Some such details of ‘high mountain’ mythology are shared with the western mountain regions Hindukush, Caucasus63 and even the Pyrenees. - [Veda in Kashmir Vol. I by Michael Witzel (2020) p. 35](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674258273)"

It's an interesting observation.

Witzel also writes in his footnote -

"See Ruth Laila Schmidt 1981: 20. She thinks that about 28% of Kashmiri vocabulary are not derived from Indo-Aryan."

Why Jammu have almost non existent regional parites compare to Kashmir which have tons of them. very strong politically and at the end Wins Elections

> "It should be added that before a form of Old Indo-Aryan, thus pre-Dardic and pre-Kashmiri, was adopted in the Kashmir Valley (see below § 1.3, on archaeology) another type of language must have been spoken as the area and surroundings have been occupied by anatomically modern humans for the past 30,000 or 40,000 years. Remnants of this substrate language58 can be detected in several names for rivers —universally very conservative — that have not been Sanskritized, as most rivers in the Valley have been indeed. Yet, river names such as the Ledarī, maybe the Pahara, or place names ending in –muṣa/muśa/moṣa [Kashm. moša], such as Khona-˚ (modern Khunmoh) or the Katī-muṣa (RT 2.55) and Rā-muṣa agrahāras (2.55) are witness of this old population and their language. The substrate may also be discovered in certain aspects of Kashmiri mythology59 and religion, including many of the c. 600 names of the local Kashmirian Nāgas. Some such details of ‘high mountain’ mythology are shared with the western mountain regions Hindukush, Caucasus63 and even the Pyrenees. - Veda in Kashmir Vol. I by Michael Witzel (2020) p. 35"

It's an interesting observation.

Witzel also writes in his footnote - "See Ruth Laila Schmidt 1981: 20. She thinks that about 28% of Kashmiri vocabulary are not derived from Indo-Aryan."

Thoughts?