Balti language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Balti بلتی
Spoken in:	Pakistan, India
Region:	Kashmir
Total speakers:	337,000
Language family:	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Bodic Bodish Tibetan Western Balti
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`sit`
ISO/FDIS 639-3:	`bft`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

Balti (بلتی) is a language spoken in Baltistan, in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. Baltistan - before 1948 - was part of Ladakh province. The language is a sub-dialect of Ladakhi and an archaic dialect of the Tibetan language. Many of the consonants that are silent in most modern Tibetan dialects are pronounced in Balti.

1 Script
2 Vocabulary
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Script

Balti is also the name of the Tibetan Balti script, which was replaced by the Persian script in the 17th Century.

Recently a number of Balti scholars and social activists are trying to repromote the use of the Balti script (Yige) which will also help to preserve indigenous Ladakhi and Balti form of culture and racial identity.

[edit] Vocabulary

The Balti language shares 90% of the vocabulary with the neighboring Ladakhi, as well as Amdo and Kham dialect of North Eastern Tibet. However, they have adopted words from Shina, Burushaski and Persian with the process of Islamization.