| 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)[1] |
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bft |
| Glottolog | balt1258 |
| ELP | Balti |
 Balti language speaking areas | |
Balti (Perso-Arabic script:بلتی,Tibetan script: སྦལ་ཏི།,Wylie:sbal ti) is aTibetic language natively spoken by the ethnicBalti people in theBaltistan region ofGilgit-Baltistan,Pakistan,Nubra Valley of theLeh district and theKargil district ofLadakh,India.[2] The language differs fromStandard Tibetan; many sounds ofOld Tibetan that were lost in Standard Tibetan are retained in the Balti language. It also has a simplepitch accent system only in multi-syllabic words[3] while Standard Tibetan has a complex and distinct pitch system that includestone 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 withloanwords.[4]
Balti is spoken in Baltistan in Pakistan and Kargil and Nubra, Ladakh in India. According to theGilgit-Baltistan Scouts, the language is mostly spoken in theSkardu,Shigar,Ghanche,Roundu, andKharmang regions of Gilgit-Baltistan.[5] In the twin districts of Ladakh region (Kargil and Leh), it is spoken inKargil city and its surrounding villages likeHardass, Lato, Karkitchhoo, and Balti Bazar, as well as inTurtuk,Bogdang, andTyakshi, includingLeh city and nearby villages. Balti is also spoken by immigrants inKarachi,Lahore,Peshawar,Islamabad,Quetta, and other cities of Pakistan. In India, it is found inDehradun,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]
Historically,Buddhists in Leh have referred to allMuslims in Ladakh as Balti.[citation needed]
The Balti language has four variants or dialects. Despite differences in phonology and vocabulary, they aremutually intelligible. For example,to keep isyuq in other varieties, butjuq in the southern dialect of Kharmang and Kargil. Similarly,milk isoma in the eastern Chorbat-Nubra, the central Khaplu, and the southern Kharmang-Kargil varieties, butona in the western dialect of Skardu, Shigar, and Rondu valley. The four variants or dialects of Balti are:[7][8]
| 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 |
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Open | ɑ | ||
The predominant writing system currently in use for Balti is thePerso-Arabic script, although there have been attempts to revive theTibetan 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 ofLatin script-[13] as well asDevanagari-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 theISO 10646 andUnicode standards in order to support renderingUrdu loanwords present in modern Balti using the Yige 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/ |
| Additional Balti Yige Letter | Romanization | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| ཫ | q | /q/ |
| ཁ༹ | x | /χ/ |
| ག༹ | ɣ | /ʁ/ |
| ཊ | ʈ | /ʈ/ |
| ཋ | ʈʰ | /ʈʰ/ |
| ཌ | ɖ | /ɖ/ |
| ཬ | ɽ | /ɽ/ |
| ཕ༹ | f | /f/ |
| ཤ | ɕ | /ɕ/ |
| ཥ | ʂ | /ʂ/ |
| 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/ |
| 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⟩ | ||||
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 |
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 theEpic of King Gesar and the stories ofrgya lu cho lo bzang andrgya lu sras bu. All other literature is in verse. Balti literature has adopted numerousPersian 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 asPashto,Khowar and Shina, areIndo-Aryan orIranic languages, but Balti is one of theSino-Tibetan languages. As such, it has little in common with neighboring languages except some loanwords absorbed as a result of linguistic contact. Balti andLadakhi are closely related.
The major issue facing Balti literature is its centuries-long isolation fromTibet 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
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WesternHimalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand,Nepal,Sikkim) |
|  | |||
| EasternHimalayas (Tibet,Bhutan,Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
| ||||
| East andSoutheast Asia |
| ||||
| Dubious (possible isolates,Arunachal) |
| ||||
| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
