Shina language explained

Shina language should not be confused with Kohistani Shina.

Shina
Pronunciation:	pronounced as /scl/
States:	Pakistan, India
Region:	Gilgit-Baltistan, Kohistan, Drass, Gurez
Ethnicity:	Shina
Speakers:	Shina
Date:	2018
Ref:	^[1]
Familycolor:	Indo-European
Fam2:	Indo-Iranian
Fam3:	Indo-Aryan
Fam4:	Dardic
Fam5:	Eastern Dardic
Fam6:	Shinaic
Lc1:	scl
Ld1:	Standard Shina
Lc2:	plk
Ld2:	Kohistani Shina
Script:	Arabic script (Nastaʿlīq)^[2]
Map:	Shina language.png
Notice:	IPA
Glotto:	shin1264
Glottoname:	Shina
Glotto2:	kohi1248
Glottoname2:	Kohistani Shina
Nativename:	ݜݨیاٗ زبان / ݜݨیاٗ گلیتوࣿ زبان
Speakers2:	and Shina, Kohistani 458,000 (2018)^[3]

Shina (ݜݨیاٗ,شِْنْیٛا, pronounced as /scl/) is a Dardic language of Indo-Aryan language family spoken by the Shina people.^[4] In Pakistan, Shina is the major language in Gilgit-Baltistan spoken by an estimated 1,146,000 people living mainly in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan.^{[5] [6]} A small community of Shina speakers is also found in India, in the Guraiz valley of Jammu and Kashmir and in Dras valley of Ladakh. Outliers of Shina language such as Brokskat are found in Ladakh, Kundal Shahi in Azad Kashmir, Palula and Sawi in Chitral, Ushojo in the Swat Valley and Kalkoti in Dir.

Until recently, there was no writing system for the language. A number of schemes have been proposed, and there is no single writing system used by speakers of Shina language.^[7] Shina is mostly a spoken language and not a written language. Most Shina speakers do not write their language.

Due to effects of dominant languages in Pakistani media like Urdu, Standard Punjabi and English and religious impact of Arabic and Persian, Shina like other languages of Pakistan are continuously expanding its vocabulary base with loan words.^[8] It has close relationship with other Indo-Aryan languages, especially Standard Punjabi, Western Punjabi, Sindhi, and the dialects of Western Pahari.^[9]

Distribution

In Pakistan

There are an estimated 1,146,000 speakers of both Shina and Kohistani Shina in Pakistan according to Ethnologue (2018), a majority of them in the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkwa and Gilgit-Baltistan. A small community of Shina speakers is also settled in Neelam valley of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.^{[10] [11]}

In India

A small community of Shina speakers is also settled in India in the far north of Kargil district bordering Gilgit-Baltistan. Their population is estimated to be around 32,200 according to 2011 census.^[10]

Phonology

The following is a description of the phonology of the Drasi, Sheena variety spoken in India and the Kohistani variety in Pakistan.

Vowels

The Shina principal vowel sounds:

	Front	Mid	Back
			unrd.	rnd.
High	i			u
High-mid	e			o
Low-mid	ɛ	ə	ʌ	ɔ
Low	(æ)	a

All vowels but /ɔ/ can be either long or nasalized, though no minimal pairs with the contrast are found. /æ/ is heard from loanwords.

Diphthongs

In Shina there are the following diphthongs:

• falling: ae̯, ao̯, eə̯, ɛi̯, ɛːi̯, ue̯, ui̯, oi̯, oə̯;
• falling nasalized: ãi̯, ẽi̯, ũi̯, ĩũ̯, ʌĩ̯;
• raising: u̯i, u̯e, a̯a, u̯u.

Consonants

In India, the dialects of the Shina language have preserved both initial and final OIA consonant clusters, while the Shina dialects spoken in Pakistan have not.^[12]

		Labial	Coronal	Retroflex	Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stop	Voiceless	pronounced as /p/	pronounced as /t/	pronounced as /ʈ/		pronounced as /k/	pronounced as /q/
	Aspirated	pronounced as /pʰ/	pronounced as /tʰ/	pronounced as /ʈʰ/		pronounced as /kʰ/
	Voiced	pronounced as /b/	pronounced as /d/	pronounced as /ɖ/		pronounced as /ɡ/
	Breathy	pronounced as /bʱ/	pronounced as /dʱ/	pronounced as /ɖʱ/		pronounced as /ɡʱ/
Affricate	Voiceless		pronounced as /t͡s/	pronounced as /ʈ͡ʂ/	pronounced as /t͡ʃ/
	Aspirated		pronounced as /t͡sʰ/	pronounced as /ʈ͡ʂʰ/	pronounced as /t͡ʃʰ/
	Voiced		pronounced as /d͡z/		pronounced as /d͡ʒ/
	Breathy				pronounced as /d͡ʒʱ/
Fricative	Voiceless	pronounced as /(f)/	pronounced as /s/	pronounced as /ʂ/	pronounced as /ʃ/	pronounced as /x/		pronounced as /h/
	Voiced		pronounced as /z/	pronounced as /ʐ/	pronounced as /ʒ/	pronounced as /ɣ/		pronounced as /ɦ/
Nasal		pronounced as /m/ pronounced as /(mʱ)/	pronounced as /n/	pronounced as /ɳ/		pronounced as /ŋ/
Lateral			pronounced as /l/ pronounced as /(lʱ)/
Rhotic			pronounced as /r/	pronounced as /ɽ/
Semivowel		pronounced as /ʋ~w/			pronounced as /j/

Tone

Shina words are often distinguished by three contrasting tones: level, rising, and falling tones. Here is an example that shows the three tones:

"The" has a level tone and means the imperative "Do!"

When the stress falls on the first mora of a long vowel, the tone is falling. Thée means "Will you do?"

When the stress falls on the second mora of a long vowel, the tone is rising. Theé means "after having done".

Orthography

Shina is one of the few Dardic languages with a written tradition. However, it was an unwritten language until a few decades ago. Only in the late 2010s has Shina orthography been standardized and primers as well as dictionaries endorsed by the territorial government of Gilgit-Baltistan have been published.^{[13] [14]}

Since the first attempts at accurately representing Shina's phonology in the 1960s there have been several proposed orthographies for the different varieties of the language, with debates centering on how to write several retroflex sound not present in Urdu and whether vowel length and tone should be represented.

There are two main orthographic conventions now, one in Pakistani-controlled areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and in Kohistan, and the other in Indian-controlled area of Dras, Ladakh.

Below alphabet has been standardized, documented, and popularized thanks to efforts of literaturists such as Professor Muhammad Amin Ziya, Shakeel Ahmad Shakeel, and Razwal Kohistani, and it has been developed for all Shina language dialects, including Gilgit dialect and Kohistani dialect, which ^{[13] [14] [15]} There are minor differences, such as the existence of the letter ڦ in Kohistani dialect of Shina. Furthermore, variations and personal preferences can be observed across Shina documents. For example, it is common to see someone use سً instead of ݜ for pronounced as /link/, or use sukun ◌ْ (U+0652) instead of small sideway noon ◌ࣿ (U+08FF) to indicate short vowels. However, these variations are no longer an issue. Another issue is that of how to write loanwords that use letters not found in Shina language, for example letters "س / ث / ص", which all sound like [s] in Shina. Some documents preserve the original spelling, despite the letters being homophones and not having any independent sound of their own, similar to orthographic conventions of Persian and Urdu. Whereas other documents prefer to rewrite all loanwords in a single Shina letter, and thus simplify the writing, similar to orthographic conventions of Kurdish and Uyghur.

Shina vowels are distinguished by length, by whether or not they're nasalized, and by tone. Nasalization is represented like other Perso-Arabic alphabets in Pakistan, with Nun Ghunna (ن٘ـ / ـن٘ـ / ں). In Shina, tone variation only occur when there is a long vowel. There are conventions unique to Shina to show the three tones. In Shina conventions, specific diacritics are shown in conjunction with the letters alif, waw, buṛi ye, and ye (ا، و، یـ، ی، ے), as these letters are written down to represent long vowels. The diacritics inverted damma ◌ٗ (U+0657) and superscript alef ◌ٰ (U+0670) represent a rising tone and a falling tone respectively. Another diacritic, a small sideway noon ◌ࣿ (U+08FF) is used to represent short vowels when need be.^[16]

Consonants

Below table shows Shina consonants.^{[13] [14]}

Name	Forms				IPA	Transliteration^[17]		Notes
Shina	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
alif					pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/, silent	– / aa		At the beginning of a word it can either come with diacritic, or it can come in form of alif-madda, or it can be stand-alone and silent, succeeded by a vowel letter. Diacritics can be omitted in writing.
be					pronounced as /link/	b
pe					pronounced as /link/	p
te					pronounced as /link/	t
te					pronounced as /link/	ṭ
se					pronounced as /link/	s		Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter siin س .
ǰom					pronounced as /link/	ǰ
če					pronounced as /link/	č
tse					pronounced as /link/	ts		Letter borrowed from Pashto alphabet. In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.
c̣e					pronounced as /link/	c̣		Unique letter for Shina language. Some Shina literatures and documents use two horizontal lines instead of four dots, use instead of . In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.^[18]
he					pronounced as /link/	h		Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter hay ہ .
khe					pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/	kh		Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with digraph letter khe کھ .
daal			-	-	pronounced as /link/	d
ḍaal			-	-	pronounced as /link/	ḍ
zaal			-	-	pronounced as /link/	z		Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter ze ز .
re			-	-	pronounced as /link/	r	U+0631
ṛe			-	-	pronounced as /link/	ṛ
ze			-	-	pronounced as /link/	z
že / ǰe			-	-	pronounced as /link/‍~pronounced as /link/‍	ž / ǰ		Only used in loanwords of Persian and European origin. Can be replaced with letter jom ج .
ẓe			-	-	pronounced as /link/	ẓ		Unique letter for Shina language. Some Shina literatures and documents use two horizontal lines instead of four dots, use instead of . In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.
siin					pronounced as /link/	s
šiin					pronounced as /link/	š
ṣiin					pronounced as /link/	ṣ		Unique letter for Shina language. Some Shina literatures and documents use two horizontal lines instead of four dots, use instead of . In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.
swaad					pronounced as /link/	s		Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter siin س .
zwaad					pronounced as /link/	z	U+0636	Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter ze ز .
tooy					pronounced as /link/	t		Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter te ت .
zooy					pronounced as /link/	z		Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter ze ز .
ayn					pronounced as /link/, silent	-	U+0639	Only used in loanwords of Arabic origin. Can be replaced with letter alif ا .
gayn					pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/	g	U+0639	Only used in loanwords of Arabic and Turkic origin. Can be replaced with letter gaaf گ.
fe / phe					pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/	f / ph		Only used in loanwords. Can be replaced with digraph letter phe پھ .
qaaf / kaaf					pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/	q / k		Only used in loanwords of Arabic and Turkic origin. Can be replaced with letter kaaf ک .
kaaf					pronounced as /link/	k
gaaf					pronounced as /link/	g
laam					pronounced as /link/	l	U+0644
miim					pronounced as /link/	m
nuun					pronounced as /link/	n
nuuṇ					pronounced as /link/	ṇ		In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.
nū̃ / nūn gunna					pronounced as / /◌̃//	◌̃	For middle of word: U+0646 plus U+0658 For end of word: U+06BA
nuung					pronounced as / /ŋ//	ng		A digraph, counted as a letter.
waaw			-	-	pronounced as /link/ / pronounced as /link/	w / ō		The letter waaw can either represent consonant ([w/v]) or vowel ([oo]). It can also act as a carrier of vowel diacritics, representing several other vowels. At the beginning of a word, when representing a consonant, the letter waaw will appear as a standalone character, followed by the appropriate vowel. If representing a vowel at the beginning of a word, the letter waaw needs to be preceded by an alif ا . When the letter waaw comes at the end of the word representing a consonant sound [w], a hamza is used ؤ to label it as such and avoid mispronunciation as a vowel.
hai					pronounced as /link/	h		This letter differs from do-ac̣hi'ii hay (ھ) and they are not interchangeable. Similar to Urdu,do-chashmi hē (ھ) is exclusively used as a second part of digraphs for representing aspirated consonants. In initial and medial position, the letter hē always represents the consonant [h]. In final position, The letter hē can either represent consonant ([h]) or it can demonstrate that the word ends with short vowels a, i, u .
hamza		-	-	-	pronounced as /link/, silent	’		Used mid-word to indicate separation between a syllable and another that starts with a vowel. hamza on top of letters waaw and ye at end of a word serves a function too. When the letter waaw or ye come at the end of the word representing a consonant sound [w] or [y], a hamza is used ؤ / ئ / ـئ to label it as such and avoid mispronunciation as a vowel.
ye / leekhii ye					pronounced as /link/ / pronounced as /link/ / pronounced as /link/	y / e / i		The letter ye can either represent consonant ([j]) or vowels ([e]/[i]). It can also act as a carrier of vowel diacritics, representing several other vowels. At the beginning of a word, when representing a consonant, the letter ye will appear as a standalone character, followed by the appropriate vowel. If representing a vowel at the beginning of a word, the letter ye needs to be preceded by an alif ا . When the letter ye comes at the end of the word representing a consonant sound [j], a hamza is used ئ to label it as such and avoid mispronunciation as a vowel. When representing a vowel at the end of a word, it can only be [i]. For vowel [e], the letter buṛi ye ے is used.
buṛi ye			-	-	pronounced as /link/ / pronounced as /link/	e / y	U+06D2	The letter buṛi ye only occurs in final position. The letter buṛi ye represents the vowel "ē" [eː] or the consonant "y" [j].
bhe					pronounced as /link/	bh		A digraph, counted as a letter.
phe					pronounced as /link/	ph		A digraph, counted as a letter.
the					pronounced as /link/	th		A digraph, counted as a letter.
ṭhe					pronounced as /link/	ṭh		A digraph, counted as a letter.
ǰhom					pronounced as /link/	ǰh		A digraph, counted as a letter.
čhe					pronounced as /link/	čh		A digraph, counted as a letter.
tshe					pronounced as /link/	tsh		A digraph, counted as a letter. In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.
c̣he					pronounced as /link/	c̣h		A digraph, counted as a letter. In the official Shina orthography in Indian-Controlled Kashmir, the letter is used.
khe					pronounced as /link/	kh		A digraph, counted as a letter.
ghe					pronounced as /link/	gh		A digraph, counted as a letter.

Vowels

There are five vowels in Shina language. Each of the five vowels in Shina have a short version and a long version. Shina is also a tonal language. Short vowels in Shina have a short high level tone pronounced as /˥/. Long vowels can either have "no tone", i.e. a long flat tone pronounced as /˧/, a long rising tone pronounced as /link/, or a long falling tone (pronounced as //˥˩//.

All five vowels have a defined way of presentation in Shina orthographic conventions, including letters and diacritics. Although diacritics can and are occasionally dropped in writing. Short vowels [a], [i], and [u] are solely written with diacritics. Short vowels [e] and [o] are written with letters waw and buṛi ye. A unique diacritic, a small sideway noon ◌ࣿ (U+08FF) is used on top of these letters to indicate a short vowel.^[16] Long vowels are written with a combination of diacritics and letters alif, waaw or ye.

Below table shows short vowels at the beginning, middle, and end of a word.^{[16] [17]}

Vowel at the beginning of the word
a	e	i	o	u
Vowel at the middle of the word
Vowel at the end of the word

Below table shows long vowels at the beginning, middle, and end of a word, with "no tone", i.e. a long flat tone pronounced as /˧/.^{[16] [17]}

Vowel at the beginning of the word
aa	ee	ii	oo	uu
Vowel at the middle of the word
Vowel at the end of the word

Below table shows long vowels at the beginning, middle, and end of a word, with a long rising tone pronounced as /link/.^{[16] [17]}

Vowel at the beginning of the word
aá	eé	ií	oó	uú
Vowel at the middle of the word
Vowel at the end of the word

Below table shows long vowels at the beginning, middle, and end of a word, with a long falling tone (pronounced as //˥˩//.^{[16] [17]}

Vowel at the beginning of the word
áa	ée	íi	óo	úu
Vowel at the middle of the word
Vowel at the end of the word

Text sample

Below is a short passage of sample phrases.^[19]

Shina Arabic alphabet (orthography of Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan)
Latin Transliteration	Asáa ek saníilo góoṣ pašées. Asáa dahíilo góoṣ pašées. Góoṣ jéeji dahíilo léel bíino. Góoṣ wazií na ditobáalo.
Translation	We saw a completely constructed house. We saw the house burnt down. The house appears burnt by someone. The house could not collapse completely.

See also

• Brokskat language
• Kundal Shahi language
• Ushoji language
• Kalkoti language
• Palula language
• Savi language

Bibliography

• Book: Bashir, Elena L.. Elena Bashir. 2003. Dardic. George Cardona . Dhanesh Jain . The Indo-Aryan languages. Routledge. 978-0-7007-1130-7. 818–94. London. Routledge language family series. Y.
• Book: Bashir, Elena L.. Elena Bashir. 2016. Perso-Arabic adaptions for South Asian languages. Hock. Hans Henrich. Hans Henrich Hock. Bashir. Elena. Elena Bashir. The languages and linguistics of South Asia: a comprehensive guide. World of Linguistics. De Gruyter Mouton. Berlin. 978-3-11-042715-8. 803–9.
• Book: Rajapurohit, B. B.. The problems involved in the preparation of language teaching material in a spoken language with special reference to Shina. 1975. V. I. Subramoniam, Nunnagoppula Sivarama Murty (eds.). Teaching of Indian languages: seminar papers. University publication / Department of Linguistics, University of Kerala. Dept. of Linguistics, University of Kerala. Trivandrum.
• Book: Rajapurohit, B. B.. 1983. Shina phonetic reader. CIIL Phonetic Reader Series. Central Institute of Indian Languages. Mysore.
• Book: Rajapurohit. B. B.. Grammar of Shina Language and Vocabulary : (Based on the dialect spoken around Dras). 2012.
• Schmidt. Ruth Laila. 2003–2004. The oral history of the Daṛmá lineage of Indus Kohistan. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research. 25/26. 61–79. 0943-8254. .
• Book: Schmidt. Ruth Laila. Kohistani. Razwal. 2008. A grammar of the Shina language of Indus Kohistan. Beiträge zur Kenntnis südasiatischer Sprachen und Literaturen. Harrassowitz. Wiesbaden. 978-3-447-05676-2.

Further reading

• Book: Buddruss, Georg. 1983. Neue Schriftsprachen im Norden Pakistans. Einige Beobachtungen. Assmann. Aleida. Assmann. Jan. Hardmeier. Christof. Schrift und Gedächtnis: Beiträge zur Archäologie der literarischen Kommunikation. W. Fink. 978-3-7705-2132-6. 231–44. A history of the development of writing in Shina
• Book: Degener. Almuth. Zia. Mohammad Amin. 2008. Shina-Texte aus Gilgit (Nord-Pakistan): Sprichwörter und Materialien zum Volksglauben, gesammelt von Mohammad Amin Zia. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. 978-3-447-05648-9. Contains a Shina grammar, German-Shina and Shina-German dictionaries, and over 700 Shina proverbs and short texts.
• Book: Radloff, Carla F.. 1992. Backstrom. Peter C.. Radloff. Carla F.. Languages of northern areas. Sociolinguistic survey of Northern Pakistan. 2. National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University. Islamabad, Pakistan.
• Book: Rensch. Calvin R.. Decker. Sandra J.. Hallberg. Daniel G.. 1992. Languages of Kohistan. Sociolinguistic survey of Northern Pakistan. National Institute of Pakistan Studies Quaid-i- Azam University. Islamabad, Pakistan.
• Book: Zia, Mohammad Amin. 1986. Ṣinā qāida aur grāimar. Zia Publishers. Gilgit. ur.
• Book: Zia, Mohammad Amin. Shina Lughat (Shina Dictionary). Contains 15000 words plus material on the phonetics of Shina.

External links

• Sasken Shina, contains materials in and about the language
• 1992 Sociolinguistic Survey of Shina
• Shina Language Textbook for Class5
• Shina Language Textbook for Class6

Notes and References

1. Web site: Shina . Ethnologue . https://web.archive.org/web/20190606010248/https://www.ethnologue.com/language/scl . 25 June 2019 . 2019-06-06 . en.
2. Web site: Ethnologue report for Shina . Ethnologue.
3. Web site: Shina, Kohistani. Ethnologue . https://web.archive.org/web/20190605212655/https://www.ethnologue.com/language/plk . 25 June 2019 . 2019-06-05 . en.
4. Book: Jain . Danesh . The Indo-Aryan Languages . Cardona . George . 2007-07-26 . Routledge . 978-1-135-79710-2 . 1018 . en.
5. Book: Saxena . Anju . Lesser-Known Languages of South Asia: Status and Policies, Case Studies and Applications of Information Technology . Borin . Lars . 2008-08-22 . Walter de Gruyter . 978-3-11-019778-5 . 137 . en . Shina is an Indo-Aryan language of the Dardic group, spoken in the Karakorams and the western Himalayas: Gilgit, Hunza, the Astor Valley, the Tangir-Darel valleys, Chilas and Indus Kohistan, as well as in the upper Neelam Valley and Dras. Outliers of Shina are found in Ladakh (Brokskat), Chitral (Palula and Sawi), Swat (Ushojo; Bashir 2003: 878) and Dir (Kalkoti)..
6. Web site: Shina . 25 June 2019 . Ethnologue . https://web.archive.org/web/20190606010248/https://www.ethnologue.com/language/scl . 2019-06-06 . en.
7. Book: Language in South Asia. 144. Braj B. Kachru . Yamuna Kachru . S. N. Sridhar. Cambridge University Press. 2008. 9781139465502.
8. Shams . Shammim Ara . The Impact of Dominant Languages on Regional Languages: A Case Study of English, Urdu and Shina . Pakistan Social Sciences Review . 4 . III . 2020. 10.35484/pssr.2020(4-III)79 . 1092–1106. free .
9. M. Oranskij, “Indo-Iranica IV. Tadjik (Régional) Buruǰ ‘Bouleau,’” in Mélanges linguistiques offerts à Émile Benveniste, Paris, 1975, pp. 435–40.
10. Web site: Shina . 2022-05-22 . Ethnologue . en.
11. Web site: Shina, Kohistani . 2022-05-22 . Ethnologue . en.
12. Book: Itagi, N. H. . Spatial aspects of language . . 1994 . 9788173420092 . 73 . en . The Shina dialects of India have retained both initial and final OIA consonant clusters. The Shina dialects of Pakistan have lost this distinction. . 14 August 2017.
13. Ziya, Muhammad Amin, Prof. (2010, October). Gilti Shina Urdu Dictionary / ݜِناٗ - اُردو لغت. Publisher: Zia Publications, Gilgit. ضیاء پبلیکبشنز، گلیٗتISBN 978-969-942-00-8 https://archive.org/details/MuhammadAmeenZiaGiltiShinaUrduDictionary/page/n5/mode/1up
14. Razwal Kohistani. (Latest Edition: 2020)(First published: 1996) Kohistani Shina Primer, ݜݨیاٗ کستِین٘و قاعده. Publisher: Indus Kohistan Publications. https://archive.org/details/complete-shina-kohistani-qaida-by-razwal-kohistani_202009/page/n1/mode/1up
15. Pamir Times (September 5, 2008), "Shina language gets a major boost with Shakeel Ahmad Shakeel's efforts"https://pamirtimes.net/2008/09/05/shina-language-gets-a-major-boost-with-shakeel-ahmad-shakeels-efforts/
16. Shakeel Ahmad Shakeel. (2008). Sheena language An overview of the teaching and learning system / شینا زبان نظام پڑھائی لکھائی کا جائزہ. https://z-lib.io/book/14214726
17. Radloff, Carla F. with Shakil Ahmad Shakil.1998. Folktales in the Shina of Gilgit. Islamabad: The National Institute of Pakistan Studies and Summer Institute of Linguistics. https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/13/82/56/138256623622760949003113935743299913976/742_CRadloff_Folktales_Gilgit_of_Shina_1998.pdf
18. Samoon, M. (2016). Shina Language Proverbs (Urdu: شینا محاورے اور مثالیں)(Shina: شْنْا مَحاوَرآے گےٚ مِثالےٚ). Rabita Publications. https://archive.org/details/shinalanguageproverbsbymasoodsamoon2016/page/n1/mode/2up
19. Schmidt, R. L., & Kohistani, R. (2008). A grammar of the Shina language of Indus kohistan. Harrassowitz.