language spoken in the Vale of Kashmir and the
surrounding hills. By origin it is a Dardic language, but it
has become predominantly Indo-Aryan in character. Reflecting
the history of the area, the Kashmiri vocabulary is mixed,
containing Dardic, Sanskrit, Punjabi, and Persian elements.
Religious differences are evident in vocabulary and choice of
alphabet. Muslims employ Persian and Arabic words freely; they
also use the Persian form of the alphabet to write Kashmiri,
although the Persian alphabet is not truly suited to the task
because it lacks symbols for the many Kashmiri vowel
sounds. The majority of educated Kashmiris are Hindu; they favour
words derived from Sanskrit and write Kashmiri in the
Sarada alphabet, a script of Indian origin. In printed books,
the Devanagari character is used. There is a small amount of
Kashmiri literature. The only important spoken dialects
are Kishtwari, Poguli, and Rambani.