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 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 Balti
2 Script
3 Vocabulary
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Balti

All people of different races, living in Baltistan are called Balti. Balti is derived from the Greek name Byaltae. The historian Ptolemy who was also a general in the army of Alexander the Great had named the region (Byaltae) in his book. In fact Baltistan is the Persian translation of “The Homeland of Balti”. The people belonging to Balti nationality are settled on both banks of the river Indus from Kargil (in the east) to Haramosh (in the west) and from Karakoram range (in the north) to Deosai plains (in the south). In this nationality the majority comes from Tibetan origin. However people migrated to this area in different periods of ancient times, on account of different reasons and after merging in the prevailing Tibetan society, gave birth to a new civilisation. All these multi-racial groups speak Balti language, which is a branch of the ancient Tibetan language. However in some rural areas, the SHEEN people still speak Shina language.

The Balti are a very forbearing, cheerful, and hospitable people. During the reign of the Maqpoon reign (from 12th century to 1840 A.D.) they invaded Ladakh and Tibet in the east and Gilgit and Chitral many times and thus made these people acknowledge their martial abilities. In the Liberation war of 1947 they also accomplished many memorable deeds. The well-known Padam Party performed unforgettable tasks of courage and bravery.

[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.