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Balti
Balti
بلتی; སྦལ་འཐུས་
Native to	Pakistan, India
Region	Baltistan, Ladakh
Ethnicity	Balti
Native speakers	425,000 in Pakistan (2018) Total users in all countries: 438,800 (2018)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Kanauri (?) Bodish Tibetic Ladakhi–Balti Balti; ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Perso-Arabic script (current); Tibetan script (current); Balti (Historical);
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bft
Glottolog	balt1258
ELP	Balti
	Balti language speaking areas

Rizwan, a speaker of Balti

Balti (Perso-Arabic script: بلتی, Tibetan script: སྦལ་ཏི།, Wylie: sbal ti) is a Tibetic language natively spoken by the ethnic Balti people in the Baltistan region of Gilgit-Baltistan, Nubra Valley of the Leh district and in the Kargil district of Ladakh, India.^[2] The language differs from Standard Tibetan; many sounds of Old Tibetan that were lost in Standard Tibetan are retained in the Balti language. It also has a simple pitch accent system only in multi-syllabic words^[3] while Standard Tibetan has a complex and distinct pitch system that includes tone contour. Due to effects of dominant languages in Pakistani media like Urdu, Punjabi and English and religious impact of Arabic and Persian languages, Balti, like other regional languages of Pakistan, is continuously expanding its vocabulary base with loanwords.^[4]

Demographics and distribution

Balti is spoken in most parts of Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan and Kargil and Nubra Ladakh in India. According to the Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts, the language is mostly found in the Skardu, Shigar, Ghanche, Roundu, and Kharmang parts of Gilgit-Baltistan.^[5] In the twin districts of Ladakh region (Kargil and Leh), it is spoken in Kargil city and its surrounding villages like Hardass, Lato, Karkitchhoo, and Balti Bazar, as well as in Turtuk, Bogdang, and Tyakshi, including Leh city and nearby villages. Balti is also spoken by immigrants in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Islamabad, Quetta, and other cities of Pakistan. In India, it is found in Dehradun, Nainital, Ambari, Shimla, Vikasnagar, and other northern cities among speakers who migrated from Baltistan, Kargil, and Nubra before the partition of India and Pakistan.^[6]

Classification and dialects

Historically, Buddhists in Leh have referred to all Muslims in Ladakh as Balti.

The Balti language has four variants or dialects. Despite differences in pronunciation of vocabulary, they are mutually intelligible. For example, to keep is yuq in other varieties, but juq in the southern dialect of Kharmang and Kargil. Similarly, milk is oma in the eastern Chorbat-Nubra, the central Khaplu, and the southern Kharmang-Kargil varieties, but ona in the western dialect of Skardu, Shigar, and Rondu valley. The four variants or dialects of Balti are:

Eastern dialect of Chorbat and Nubra valley
Central dialect of Khaplu valley
Western dialect of Skardu, Shigar and Rondu.
Southern dialect of Upper Kharmang and Kargil

^[7]^[8]

Caption text
English	Eastern Nubra/Chorbat dialect	Central Khaplu dialect	Western Skardu dialect	Southern Kharmang dialect
Milk	Oma	Oma	Ona	Oma
Keep	Yuq	Yuq	Yuq	Juq
Girl	Bono	Bono	Bono	Bomo
You	yan	yan	yang	yan
Mountain	Braq	Braq	Blaq	Braq

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Retroflex	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t	ʈ			k	q
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	ʈʰ			kʰ
	voiced	b	d	ɖ			ɡ	ɢ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s		t͡ʃ
	aspirated		t͡sʰ		t͡ʃʰ
	voiced		d͡z		d͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless		s	(ʂ)	ʃ			χ	h
Fricative	voiced		z		ʒ			ʁ
Nasal		m	n			ɲ	ŋ
Tap			ɾ	(ɽ)
Lateral	plain		l	(ɭ)
Lateral	murmured		(lʱ)
Approximant		w				j

Allophones of /l/ include [lʱ], [ɭ] and [ɫ̥].
/ɖ/ can be realized as a flap [ɽ].
/s/ can also be retroflex [ʂ].^[9]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		ɑ

/ɑ/ varies between an open back [ɑ], an open-mid back [ʌ], and an open central [ä].^[9]
The mid /e, o/ can be as low as open-mid [ɛ, ɔ].^[10]

Orthographies

The predominant writing system currently in use for Balti is the Perso-Arabic script, although there have been attempts to revive the Tibetan script, which was used between the 8th and the 16th centuries.^[11] Additionally, there are two, nowadays possibly extinct, indigenous writing systems^[12] and there have been proposals for the adoption of Latin script-^[13] as well as Devanagari-based orthographies^[14] that were adjusted for writing Balti by the Central Institute of Indian Languages in the 1970s.^[15]

In 1985, Yusuf Hussain Abadi added four new letters to the Tibetan script and seven new letters to the Perso-Arabic script to adapt both of them to the needs of the Balti language. Two of the four added letters now stand included in the Tibetan Unicode block.

Balti was written with a version of the Tibetan script from 727 AD, when Baltistan was conquered by Tibetans, until the last quarter of the 14th century, when the Baltis converted to Islam.^[15] Subsequently, the Perso-Arabic script replaced the Tibetan script, but the former had no letters for seven Balti sounds and was in vogue despite being defective. Adding the seven new letters has now made it a complete script for Balti.

Recently, a number of Balti scholars and social activists have attempted to promote the use of the Tibetan Balti or "Yige" alphabet^[15] with the aim of helping to preserve indigenous Balti and Ladakhi culture and ethnic identity. Following a request from this community, the September 2006 Tokyo meeting of ISO/IEC 10646 WG2 agreed to encode two characters invented by Abadi (U+0F6B TIBETAN LETTER KKA and TIBETAN U+0F6C LETTER RRA) in the ISO 10646 and Unicode standards in order to support rendering Urdu loanwords present in modern Balti using the Yige alphabet.

Perso-Arabic alphabet

Letter	Romanization	IPA
ا	ā, a, (e), o, -	/ɑ/, /ə/, /e/, /o/, /∅/
ب	b	/b/
پ	p	/p/
ت	t	/t/
ٹ	ṭ	/ʈ/
ث	(s)	/s/
ج	j	/d͡ʒ/
ڃ	ž	/ʒ/
چ	č	/t͡ʃ/
ڇ	č̣	/ʈ͡ʂ/
ح	(h)	/h/
خ	x	/x/
د	d	/d/
ڈ	ḍ	/ɖ/
ذ	(z)	/z/
ر	r	/ɾ/
ڑ	ṛ	/ɽ/
ز	z	/z/
ڗ	đ/dz	/d͡z/
ژ	c/ts	/t͡s/
س	s	/s/
ش	š	/ʃ/
ݜ	ṣ	/ʂ/
ص	(s)	/s/
ض	(z)	/z/
ط	(t)	/t/
ظ	(z)	/z/
ع	(ā), (a), (e), (o), (-)	/ɑ/, /ə/, /e/, /o/, /∅/
غ	ǧ	/ʁ~ɢ/
ف	f	/pʰ~f/
ق	q	/q/
ک	k	/k/
کٔ	ǩ/ṡ	/ɕ/
گ	g	/ɡ/
ل	l	/l/, (/ɭ/), (/ɫ/)
م	m	/m/
ن	n	/n/
ݨ	ŋ/ng	/ŋ/
ݩ	ň/ny	/ɲ/
و	w, u	/w/, /u/
ہ	h	/h/
ھ	_h	/◌ʰ/, /◌ʱ/
ی	y, i	/j/, /i/
ے	e/ay	/e/

Yige alphabet

Additional Balti Yige Letter	Romanization	IPA
ཫ	q	/q/
ཬ	ɽ	/ɽ/
ཁ༹	x	/χ/
ག༹	ɣ	/ʁ/

Basic letters

	Unaspirated high		Aspirated medium		Voiced low		Nasal low
	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA
Guttural	ཀ	/ka/	ཁ	/kʰa/	ག	/ɡa/	ང	/ŋa/
Palatal	ཅ	/tʃa/	ཆ	/tʃʰa/	ཇ	/dʒa/	ཉ	/ɲa/
Dental	ཏ	/ta/	ཐ	/tʰa/	ད	/da/	ན	/na/
Dental	ཙ	/tsa/	ཚ	/tsʰa/	ཛ	/dza/	ཝ	/wa/
Labial	པ	/pa/	ཕ	/pʰa/	བ	/ba/	མ	/ma/
low	ཞ	/ʒa/	ཟ	/za/	འ	/a/ ⟨ʼa⟩	ཡ	/ja/
medium	ར	/ra/	ལ	/la/	ཤ	/ʃa/	ས	/sa/
high	ཧ	/ha/	ཨ	/a/ ⟨ꞏa⟩

Evolution

Since Pakistan gained control of the region in 1948, Urdu words have been introduced into local dialects and languages, including Balti. In modern times, Balti has no native names or vocabulary for dozens of newly invented and introduced things; instead, Urdu and English words are being used in Balti.

Balti has retained many honorific words that are characteristic of Tibetan dialects and many other languages.

Below are a few examples:

Ordinary Balti	Text Writing	Honorific	Ladakhi	Meaning
Ata	اتا	Bawa/buwa/Baba	Aba	Father
kho	کھو	kho	kho	he
gashay	گشے	liakhmo	liakhmo	Beautiful
paynay	پینے	khumul	paynay	Money
bila	بلا	Bila	bila	Cat
su	سُو	su	su	Who
Ano/Amo	انو/امو	Zizi	Ama	Mother
Kaka	ککا	Kacho	Acho	Brother (elder)
Bustring	بُسترنگ	Zung	Nama	Woman / Wife
Momo	مومو	Jangmocho	Ajang	Maternal uncle
Nene	نےنے	Nenecho	Anay	Aunt
Bu	بُو	Bucho	butsha	Son
Fru	فُرو	Nono	thugu	Boy
Apo	اپو	Apocho	Meme	Grandfather
Api	اپی	Apicho	Abi	Grandmother
Ashe	اشے	Ashcho	achay	Sister (elder)
Zo	زو	bjes	Zo	Eat
Thung	تُھونگ	bjes	Thung	Drink
Ong	اونگ	Shokhs	Yong	Come
Song	سونگ	Shokhs	Song	Go
Zair	زیر	Kasal-byung	Zer	Speak/Say
Ngid tong	نِت تونگ	ghzim tong	Ngid tong	Sleep (go to)
Lagpa	لقپا	Phyaq-laq/g	Lagpa	Hand/Arm
Khyang	کھیانگ	Yang/Yari-phyaqpo	Khyorang	You
Kangma	کنگما	gzok-po	kangba	Leg

Literature

Other than proverb collections, no prose literature has been found written in Balti.^{[citation needed]} Some epics and sagas appear in oral literature such as the Epic of King Gesar and the stories of rgya lu cho lo bzang and rgya lu sras bu. All other literature is in verse. Balti literature has adopted numerous Persian styles of verse and vocables which amplify the beauty and melody of its poetry.^[16]

Nearly all the languages and dialects of the mountain region in the north of Pakistan such as Pashto, Khowar and Shina are Indo-Aryan or Iranic languages, but Balti is one of the Sino-Tibetan languages. As such, it has nothing in common with neighboring languages except some loanwords absorbed as a result of linguistic contact. Balti and Ladakhi are closely related.

The major issue facing Balti literature is its centuries-long isolation from Tibet and even from its immediate neighbor, Ladakh, due to political divisions and strong religious differences. Separated from its linguistic kin, Balti is under pressure from more dominant languages such as Urdu. This is compounded by the lack of a suitable means of transcription following the abandonment of its original Tibetan script. The Baltis do not have the awareness to revive their original script and there is no institution that could restore it and persuade the people to use it again.^{[citation needed]} Even if the script were revived, it would need modification to express certain Urdu phonemes that occur in common loanwords within Balti.

Example of poetry:

Youq fangsay thalang paqzi na mandoq na mabour na

Na drolbi laming yani si soq fangse chi thobtook

Nasir Karimi

References

^ Balti at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)
^ Census of India, 1961: Jammu and Kashmir. Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. 1961. p. 357.
^ Sprigg, R. K. (1966). "Lepcha and Balti Tibetan: Tonal or Non-Tonal Languages?". Asia Major. 12: 185–201.
^ Shams, Shammim Ara (2020). "The Impact of Dominant Languages on Regional Languages: A Case Study of English, Urdu and Shina". Pakistan Social Sciences Review. 4 (III): 1092–1106. doi:10.35484/pssr.2020(4-III)79.
^ "Archived copy". www.gilgitbaltistanscouts.gov.pk. Archived from the original on 5 November 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ "The Curious Case Of The Baltis Of Dehradun". 4 June 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
^ "Balti: Protecting the language". 29 January 2021.
^ Team, Editorial. "Politicisation of Balti Language in Kargil - Skardu.pk". Retrieved 25 February 2024.
^ ^a ^b Sharma, D. D. (2004). Balti. Tribal Languages of Ladakh Part III: A descriptive Grammar of Purki and Balti: New Delhi, India: Mittal Publications. pp. 141–243.
^ Rangan, K. (1975). Balti Phonetic Reader. Central Institute of Indian Languages.
^ Bashir 2016, pp. 808–09.
^ Pandey 2010.
^ Bashir 2016, p. 808.
^ Pandey 2010, p. 1.
^ ^a ^b ^c Füstumum, Michael Peter. "Balti". Omniglot: The online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
^ Bano, Nuzhat; Mir, Abdul Rehman; Issa, Muhammad (4 January 2024). "The Extinction of Words from Use: A Critical Aspect of Balti Language Endangerment". Annals of Human and Social Sciences. 5 (1): 182–195. doi:10.35484/ahss.2024(5-I)17. ISSN 2790-6809.

Bibliography

Bashir, Elena L. (2016). "Perso-Arabic adaptions for South Asian languages". In Hock, Hans Henrich; Bashir, Elena (eds.). The languages and linguistics of South Asia: a comprehensive guide. World of Linguistics. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 803–9. ISBN 978-3-11-042715-8.
Pandey, Anshuman (2010). Introducing Another Script for Writing Balti (PDF) (Report).
Rangan, K (1975). Balti Phonetic Reader. Central institute of Indian languages.
Muhammad Yousuf Hussainabadi, 'Baltistan per aik Nazar'. 1984.
Hussainabadi, Mohamad Yusuf. Balti Zaban. 1990.
Muhammad Hassan Hasrat, 'Tareekh-e-Adbiat;.
Muhammad Hassan Hasrat, Baltistan Tehzeebo Saqafat.
Muhammad Yousuf Hussainabadi, 'Tareekh-e-Baltistan'. 2003.
Engineer Wazir Qalbi Ali, 'Qadam Qadam Baltistan'. 2006.
"A Short Sketch of Balti English Grammar" by Ghulam Hassan Lobsang, 1995.
Everson, Michael. ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2985: Proposal to add four Tibetan characters for Balti to the BMP of the UCS Archived 5 August 2019 at the Wayback Machine. 2005-09-05
Read, A.F.C. Balti grammar.London:The Royal Asiatic society, 1934.
Sprigg, Richard Keith. Balti-English English-Balti dictionary. Richmond: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002.
Backstrom, Peter C. Languages of Northern Areas (Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, 2), 1992. 417 pp. ISBN 969-8023-12-7.