Srinagar

Srinagar or Serinagar , city (1981 est. pop. 588,000), Jammu and Kashmir, India, historic capital of Kashmir , on the Jhelum River. Situated in the Vale of Kashmir, Srinagar is one of the most beautiful summer resorts of Asia. Seven wooden bridges cross the Jhelum and connect the sections of the city. There are many canals, and transportation is chiefly by boat. Houseboats on the canals and nearby lakes serve as vacation hotels. In place of the hand-woven shawls (cashmeres) for which the city was famed, machine-made silks, woolens, and carpets are now manufactured. The city was founded in the 6th cent., and the 7th-century Sankaracharya temple may be its oldest historic remain. There is a 16th-century fort built by Akbar . The Hazratbal mosque has a putative hair of Muhammad. Extensive Buddhist ruins are also near the city. In 1948, Srinagar became the summer capital of the Indian sector of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir. The Univ. of Kashmir is in the city.

FOREIGNISM. A foreign WORD or expression, as in the headline ‘No more Antagonismo’ (Time, 15 Aug. 1988). Foreign expressions in English (as opposed to BORROWINGS or LOANWORDS proper) are generally used for special effect, for ‘local colour’, or to demonstrate special knowledge. In print, they typically appear in italics and are usually glossed:
In the bazaars the shops were silently shuttered. In place of the turmoil of hawkers, scooters and vans pedestrians shrouded in the phiran, the long woollen winter coat, wandered or lounged in good humoured idleness, clutching under their wraps the kongri, a basket containing an earthenware bowl full of hot charcoal to keep them warm (‘Letter from Srinagar’, The Times, 23 Jan. 1984). There tends to be a gradation in English from less to more foreign. French expressions range from the integrated (but variously pronounced) garage through elite/élite and coup d'etat/état to fin de siècle and pâtisserie. In such a spread, it is difficult to specify precisely where the ‘properly’ foreign begins: all the items are foreign, but some are more foreign than others, and more foreign for some than for others. Non-native words are used in English to a vast and unmeasurable extent. Many varieties of the language have everyday usages that in others would be foreignisms: Maori expressions in NZE, Hawaiian elements in AmE, and Gallicisms in the English of Quebec. See HARD WORD, LOAN, NATIVIZATION.