Attempts have been made to establish links between Burushaski and several different language families, although none has been accepted by a majority oflinguists.
Another proposed family, known as "Karasuk",[14] links Burushaski with Yeniseian.
A relationship to the proposed "Indo-Hittite clade" of theIndo-European family and ancientPhrygian has been suggested byEric P. Hamp andIlija Čašule [mk].[15][16][17][18] The various proposals linking Burushaski to Indo-European make divergent—or in the case of Čašule even contradictory—claims about the nature of the relationship, and are rejected by mainstream scholarship.[19]
Blench (2008) notes that the supposed evidence for external relationships of Burushaski rely on lexical data which may be better explained as originating from language contact. In particular, almost all Burushaski agricultural vocabulary appears to be borrowed fromDardic,Tibeto-Burman, andNorth Caucasian languages.[21]
Following Berger (1956), theAmerican Heritage dictionaries suggested that the word*abel 'apple', the only name for a fruit (tree) reconstructed forProto-Indo-European, may have been borrowed from a language ancestral to Burushaski. ("Apple" and "apple tree" arebáalt in modern Burushaski.)
Burushaski is spoken by about 120,000 speakers in Pakistan, and also by a few hundred in India.[5] In Pakistan, it is spoken in three main valleys:Yasin,Hunza, andNagar. The varieties of Hunza and Nagar diverge slightly, but are clearly dialects of a single language. The Yasin variety, also known by the Khowar exonymWerchikwar, is much more divergent. Intelligibility between Yasin and Hunza-Nagar is difficult, and Yasin is sometimes considered a distinct language and thought to be the "pure" or "original" Burushaski by the speakers of Yasin valley itself.[23] Yasin is the least affected bycontact with neighboring languages, though speakers are bilingual inKhowar. Yasin is spoken by a quarter of Burushaski speakers.[24]
InIndia, Jammu & Kashmir Burushaski (JKB) "has developed divergent linguistic features which make it systematically different from the varieties spoken in Pakistan."[25] The dialect of Burushashki spoken in India has been influenced byKashmiri, as well asHindi andUrdu.[26] Unique to JKB are the features ofvowel syncopation.[1] Jammu & Kashmir Burushaski shares more similarities with the dialect spoken in Nagar than with that spoken in Hunza.[25] TheSrinagar variety of Burushaski has been described as "low toned" and as heavily influenced by other Kashmiri languages.[27] The Srinagar variety of Burushaski has only 300 speakers.
Burushaski primarily has five vowels,/ieaou/. There are two sets of long vowels, distinguished by whether it is the first or the secondmora that bears a stress or higher pitch. Various contractions result in long vowels; stressed vowels (marked with acute accents in Berger's transcription) tend to be longer and less "lax" (less centralised) than unstressed ones ([ieaou] as opposed to[ɪɛʌɔʊ]). Some have described this as an intentional utterance of a rising tone or a falling tone. For example, a wordóosanamاوسَنَم 'I made them say' has a falling tone and the stress is on first mora. Another word,oósanamاݹسَنَم 'I did not say' has a rising tone and stress is on the second mora.[28]
Long vowels only ever appear in stressed syllables, and will thus carry one tone or the other.[28]
^abBerger (1998) regards[w] and[j] as allophones of/u/ and/i/ that occur in front of stressed vowels.
^This phoneme has various pronunciations, all of which are rare sounds cross-linguistically. Descriptions include: "a voiced retroflex sibilant with simultaneous dorso-palatal narrowing" (apparently[ʐʲ]) (Berger 1998); "a fricativer, pronounced with the tongue in the retroflex ('cerebral') position" (apparently[ɻ̝]/[ʐ̞], a sound which also occurs inStandard Chinese, writtenr inPinyin) (Morgenstierne 1945); and "a curious sound whose phonetic realizations vary from a retroflex, spirantized glide to a retroflex velarized spirant" (Anderson forthcoming). In any case, it does not occur in the Yasin dialect, and in Hunza and Nager it does not occur at the beginning of words.
Burushaski is predominantly a spoken rather than a written language. One of the earliest examples of modern Burushaski literature was the poetry written byProf. Allamah Nasiruddin Nasir Hunzai in the 1940s. He began by using theUrdu alphabet to write the language, but soon realized that Urdu script was not adequate to the task, since it lacked the necessary letters to represent certainphonemes unique to Burushaski. This led him to undertake the task of devising a standardisedUrdu-derived alphabet geared specifically to the accurate transcription of the Burushaski language. To this end, he went on to create the new consonants ݼ [tsʰ], څ [ʈʂ], ڎ [ts], ݽ [ʂ], ڞ [ʈʂʰ], and ݣ [ŋ].[29][30] Furthermore, innovative writers of Burushaski began to usesuperscriptUrdu numbers to indicate different stress patterns, tones and vowel-lengths. For example, in Burushaski, the letter ـو (waw) represents a long vowel with a falling tone, "óo". The letter ـݸ (waw with a superscript2) represents a short vowel "o", and the letter ـݹ (waw with a superscript 3) represents a long vowel with a rising tone, "oó".[4]
Parallel to this, a Latin-derived orthography was created by Hermann Berger - a system which has found favour among many researchers and linguists. The "Burushaski Research Academy" currently recognises both the Urdu-based and the Latin-based orthography.
In the years, 2006, 2009, and 2013, a 3-volume Burushaski-Urdu Dictionary was compiled in a collaboration between the "Burushaski Research Academy" and theUniversity of Karachi, under the auspices ofProf. Allamah Nasiruddin Nasir Hunzai and published by the university's "Bureau of Composition, Compilation & Translation".[31] This dictionary uses primarily the Urdu-derived alphabet, while employing Berger's Latin alphabet-derived orthography in a supplementary capacity.
Tibetan sources record aBru zha language of the Gilgit valley, which appears to have been Burushaski and the script of which was one of five used also to write the extinctZhangzhung language. Although Burushaski may once have been a significantliterary language, noBru zha manuscripts are known to have survived.[32] There is a very voluminous Buddhist tantra of the 'Ancient' (rNying ma) school of Tibetan Buddhism, preserved in Tibetan as themDo dgongs 'dus,[33] which has been the subject of numerous Tibetological publications, including a recent monograph by Jacob P. Dalton,The Gathering of Intentions,[34] which is supposed to be translated from the Burushaski (bru zha'i skad). It contains words that are not Sanskrit but which have not, thus far, been demonstrated satisfactorily to be relatable either to Burushaski, or to any other language (or, for that matter, to be purely "elfic"[definition needed]). If at least part of this text had actually been translated from Burushaski, it would make it one of the major monuments of an apparently lost literature.
In addition, linguists working on Burushaski use various makeshift transcriptions based on the Latin alphabet, most commonly that by Berger (see below), in their publications.
Letteralif at the beginning of a word can serve two functions. First, it precedes vowel letters (اݸ) [o], (او / اُو) [óo][úu], (اݹ / اُݹ) [oó][uú], (اِیـ / اِی) [íi], (اِݶـ / اِݶ) [ií], (اݵـ / اݺ) [e], (ایـ / اے) [ée], or (اݶـ / اݻ) [eé]. Second, it acts as a vowel carrier for diacritics of three short vowels of Burushaski,اَ [a], (اُ) [u], and (اِ) [i].
Vowel phoneme [aː˥˩] (long vowel [a] with a falling tone) is represented with (آ) when at the beginning of a word, and with (ـا / ا) when in the middle or end of a word.
Only occurs at the end of the word. Elsewhere, the short vowel [a] is represented with azabar/fatha diacritic (اَ / ◌َ / ـَ). Alternatively, a finalhe letter (ه / ـہ) can also be used for a word-final short vowel [a]
Unique letter in Burushaski, not in Urdu alphabet. In Burushaski orthography, it is more common to write a smallUrdu number 4 ie۴, in place of 4 dots. However, the letterڇـ ـڇـ ـڇ ڇ is also an acceptable alternative.
Unique letter in Burushaski, not in Urdu alphabet. In Burushaski orthography, it is more common to write a smallUrdu number 4 ie۴, in place of 4 dots. However, the letterݜـ ـݜـ ـݜ ݜ is also an acceptable alternative.
This letter represents three phonemes based on context, consonant [w], or long vowels with falling tone, [oː˥˩], and [uː˥˩]. In order for this letter to represent vowel [u] and not [o], the letter before will have to carry apesh/damma diacritic (◌ؙو / ـُو). If used at the beginning of a word, if representing consonant [w], it will be written standalone (و), if representing a vowel [oː˥˩] or [uː˥˩], it will be preceded byalif (او / اُو). For [u],alef will carry thepesh/damma diacritic.
This letter represents short vowel [o]. When a word begins with this vowel phoneme, the letter needs to be preceded byalifاݸ. In a final position, this letter also represents short vowel [u], with the preceding letter carrying apesh/damma diacritic (◌ؙݸ / ـُݸ).
This letter represents vowel phonemes [oː˨˦] and [uː˨˦], long vowels [o] and [u] with a rising tone. When representing [u], the preceding letter will have to carry apesh/damma diacritic (◌ؙݹ / ـُݹ). When a word begins with this vowel phoneme, the letter needs to be preceded byalif (اݸ / اُݸ). For [u],alef will carry thepesh/damma diacritic.
At the end of the word, depending on context, this letter can represent the consonant [h] or the short vowel [a]. For a word-final vowel, analef with superscript "2" (ݳ / ـݳ) can also be used.
Unique letter in Burushaski, not in Urdu alphabet. No word begins with this letter. In Burushaski orthography, it is more common to write a smallUrdu number 4 ie۴, in place of 4 dots. However, a letterye with 4 dots below () is also an acceptable alternative.
This letter represents three phonemes based on context, consonant [j], or long vowels with falling tone, [eː˥˩], and [iː˥˩]. In order for this letter to represent vowel [i] and not [e], the letter before will have to carry azer/kasra diacritic (◌ِیـ / ـِیـ). If used at the beginning of a word, if representing consonant [j], it will be written standalone (یـ), if representing a vowel [eː˥˩] or [iː˥˩], it will be preceded byalif (ایـ / اِیـ). For [i],alef will carry thezer/kasra diacritic. In final position, this letter does not represent the vowel [e]. Instead, the letterbig ye (ے) is used.
This letter represents short vowel [e]. When a word begins with this vowel phoneme, the letter needs to be preceded byalifاݵـ. In a final position, this letter represents short vowel [i]. For writing short vowel [e] in final position, the letterbig ye with a superscript "2" (ݺ) is used.
This letter represents vowel phonemes [eː˨˦] and [iː˨˦], long vowels [e] and [i] with a rising tone. When representing [i], the preceding letter will have to carry azer/kasra diacritic (◌ِݶـ / ـِݶـ). When a word begins with this vowel phoneme, the letter needs to be preceded byalifاݶـ / اِݶـ. For [i],alef will carry thezer/kasra diacritic. In final position, this letter does not represent the vowel [e]. Instead, the letterbig ye with a superscript "3"' (ݻ) is used.
Below table shows the digraphs, a combination of a consonant with the letterround he (ھ) that representaspirated consonants that occur in Burushaski.[4][35][36]
Below poetry, written in praise ofUniversity of Karachi for its role in documentation and preservation of Burushaski language and literature, is presented as a sample text in Burushaski Arabic alphabet, alongside Urdu and English translation of each verse.[37]
ذات خدا کی طرف سے ہم پر یہ ایسی عجیب رحمت ہوئی کہ جامعہ کراچی کی نزدیکی اور ادبی سر پرستی کی لازوال نعمت ہمیں نصیب ہوئی.
It has been such an incredible blessing from God that we have been granted with the eternal gift of proximity and literary patronage of University of Karachi.
جامعہ کراچی ہمارے لئے ایک جدید کا ئنات ہے۔ ساتھیو! چشم دل سے دیکھو اس امر میں اللہ کا ایک معجزہ ہے۔
University of Karachi is a modern institution for us. Colleagues! Look with your eyes and heart, there is a miracle of Allah in this matter.
رَبِّ تَعالیٰ کرم! علم و ادب بُٹ اُیَم! اَلتݸ جَہانِݣ ݽِقَم! شُکرݸ مَنِݽ یا خدا!
اللہ تعالی کے فضل و کرم سے علم وادب بے حد شیریں ہیں، ان سے فیضیاب ہونے والوں کی دنیا و آخرت آباد ہو جاتی ہیں، یا اللہ ہمیں توفیق عطا فرما تا کہ ہم تیرا شکر کریں۔
Knowledge and literature are a limitlessly sweet by the grace and mercy of Allah almighty. Bountiful in this world and the next are those who are blessed by them. Oh Allah, grant us the ability to thank You.
علم و ادبݺ صاحِبان، فضل و ہُنرݺ کامِلان! اُیون کݺ اُیون دوستان! شُکرݸ مَنِݽ یا خدا!
اس وسیلے سے علم وادب اور فضل و کامل والے تمام حضرات کی دوستی کی سعادت ہم کو نصیب ہوئی، خدایا اس نعمت پر ہم تیرا شکر کرتے ہیں۔
By means of this [university], we have been blessed with the friendship of all those who possess knowledge, literature, grace and perfection. God, we thank you for this blessing.
جامِعَه کُڎ نامدار، اسپِ قلَمݺ شَہسَوار علم و ادبݺ تاجدار شُکرݸ مَنِݽ یا خدا!
جامعہ والے تمام صاحبان نامور و نامدار ہیں، وہ رخش قلم کے میدان کے شہسوار ہیں۔ اور علم و ادب کے تاجدار بادشاہ ہیں۔ خدایا ہم تیرا شکر ادا کرتے ہیں۔
All the scholars of the University are famous and renowned, they are the knights of the field of pen. And the crowned kings of knowledge and literature. God we thank you.
جب گلاب نو شگفتہ ہو، تو اسکی خوشبو مثالی ہوتی ہے، جہاں دوستی کی دھنی اور اپنے ماضی کی دھنی بناتے ہیں تو اس کا دھواں بھی شیریں ہوتا ہے، اھل قلم کی شان و مرتبت لذیذ ہوتی ہے، یا اللہ تیرا شکر ہے۔
Just as a newly blooming rose, whose fragrance is ideal, where friendships and memories are made, then its scent is also sweet, the glory of the pen is delicious, O Allah, thanks be to you.
Nouns in Burushaski are divided into fourgenders: human masculine, human feminine, countable objects, and uncountable ones (similar tomass nouns). The assignment of a noun to a particular gender is largely predictable. Some words can belong both to the countable and to the uncountable class, producing differences in meaning. For example, when countable,báalt means 'apple' but when uncountable, it means 'apple tree' (Grune 1998).
Nounmorphology consists of the noun stem, apossessiveprefix (mandatory for some nouns, and thus an example of inherent possession), andnumber andcasesuffixes. Distinctions in number are singular, plural, indefinite, and grouped. Cases includeabsolutive,ergative/oblique,genitive, and severallocatives; the latter indicate both location and direction and may be compounded.
Burushaskiverbs have three basic stems: past tense, present tense, and consecutive. The past stem is the citation form and is also used forimperatives andnominalization; the consecutive stem is similar to a past participle and is used forcoordination.Agreement on the verb has bothnominative andergative features: transitive verbs and unaccusatives mark both the subject and the object of a clause, while unergatives verbs mark only subject agreement on the verb.[clarification needed][dubious –discuss] Altogether, a verb can take up to four prefixes and six suffixes.
In Burushaski, there are fournoun classes, similar to declensional classes inIndo-European languages, but unlike Indo-European, the nominal classes in Burushaski are associated with four grammatical "genders":
Below, the abbreviation "h" will stand for the combination of the m- and f-classes, while "hx" will stand for the combination of the m-, f- and x-classes. Nouns in the x-class typically refer to countable, non-human beings or things, for example animals, fruit, stones, eggs, or coins; conversely, nouns in the y-class are as a rule uncountable abstractions or mass nouns, such as rice, fire, water, snow, wool, etc.
However, these rules are not universal – countable objects in the y-class are sometimes encountered, e.g.ha, 'house'. Related words can subtly change their meanings when used in different classes – for example,bayú, when a member of the x-class, means salt in clumps, but when in the y-class, it means powdered salt. Fruit trees are understood collectively and placed in the y-class, but their individual fruits belong to the x-class. Objects made of particular materials can belong to either the x- or the y- class: stone and wood are in the x-class, but metal and leather in the y-class. Thearticle,adjectives,numerals and other attributes must be inagreement with the noun class of their subject.
There are twonumbers in Burushaski: singular andplural. The singular is unmarked, while the plural is expressed by means of suffix, which vary depending on the class of the noun:
h-class: possible suffixes-ting, -aro, -daro, -taro, -tsaro
Some nouns admit two or three different suffixes, while others have no distinctive suffix, and occur only in the plural, e.g.bras 'rice',gur 'wheat',bishké, 'fur', (cf.plurale tantum). On the other hand, there are also nouns which have identical forms in the singular and plural, e.g.hagúr 'horses'. Adjectives have a unique plural suffix, whose form depends on the class of the noun they modify, e.g.burúm 'white' gives the x-class pluralburum-išo and the y-class pluralburúm-ing.
The case suffixes are appended to the plural suffix, e.g.Huséiniukutse, 'the people of Hussein' (ergative plural). The genitive ending is irregular, /mo/, for singular f-class nouns, but /-e/ in all others (identical to the ergative ending). The dative ending, /-ar/, /-r/ is attached to the genitive ending for singular f-class nouns, but to the stem for all others. Examples:
hir-e 'the man's',gus-mo 'the woman's' (gen.)
hir-ar 'to the man',gus-mu-r 'to the woman' (dat.)
The genitive is placed before the thing possessed:Hunzue tham, 'the Emir of Hunza.'
The endings of the secondary cases are formed from a secondary case suffix (or infix) and one of the primary endings /-e/, /-ar/ or /-um/. These endings are directional, /-e/ being locative (answering 'where?'), /-ar/ being terminative (answering 'where to?'), and /-um/ being ablative (answering 'where from?'). The infixes, and their basic meanings, are as follows:
-ts- 'at'
-ul- 'in'
-aṭ- 'on; with'
-al- 'near' (only in the Hunza dialect)
From these, the following secondary or compound cases are formed:
Infix
Locative
Terminative
Ablative
-ts-
-ts-e 'at'
-ts-ar 'to'
-ts-um 'from'
-ul-
-ul-e 'in'
-ul-ar 'into'
-ul-um 'out of'
-aṭ-
-aṭ-e 'on','with'
-aṭ-ar 'up to'
-aṭ-um 'down from'
-al-
-al-e 'near'
-al-ar 'to'
-al-um 'from'
The regular endings /-ul-e/ and /-ul-ar/ are archaic and are now replaced by /-ul-o/ and /-ar-ulo/ respectively.
Nouns indicating parts of the body and kinship terms are accompanied by an obligatory pronominal prefix. Thus, one cannot simply say 'mother' or 'arm' in Burushaski, but only 'my arm', 'your mother', 'his father', etc. For example, the rootmi 'mother', is never found in isolation, instead one finds:
The pronominal, or personal, prefixes agree with the person, number and – in the third person, the class of their noun. A summary of the basic forms is given in the following table:
Singular
Plural
1st person
a-
mi-, me-
2nd person
gu-, go-
ma-
3rd person
m
i-, e-
u-, o-
f
mu-
u-, o-
x
i-, y-
u-, o-
y
i-, e-
Personal pronouns in Burushaski distinguish proximal and distal forms, e.g.khin 'he, this one here', butin, 'he, that one there'. In the oblique, there are additional abbreviated forms.
The Burushaski number system isvigesimal, i.e. based on the number 20. For example, 20altar, 40alto-altar (2 times 20), 60iski-altar (3 times 20) etc. The base numerals are:
1han (orhen,hak)
2altó (oraltán)
3isko (oriskey)
4wálto
5čindó
6mishíndo
7thaló
8altámbo
9hunchó
10tóorumo (alsotoorimi andturma)
100tha
Examples of compound numerals:
11turma-han, 12turma-alto, 13turma-isko, ... , 19turma-hunti;20altar, 30altar-toorumo, 40alto-altar, 50alto-altar-toorumo, 60iski-altar and so on;21altar-hak, 22altar-alto, 23altar-isko and so on.
The verbal morphology of Burushaski is extremely complicated and rich in forms. Many sound changes can take place, includingassimilation,deletion andaccent shift, which are unique for almost every verb. Here, we can specify only certain basic principles.
The Burushaskifinite verb falls into the following categories:
the four noun classes m, f, x and y (only in the 3rd person)
For manytransitive verbs, in addition to the subject, the (direct) object is also indicated, also by pronominal prefixes which vary according to person, number and class. All verbs have negative forms, and many intransitive verbs also have derived transitive forms. Theinfinitive forms – which in Burushaski are the absolutives of the past and present, the perfect participle, and two infinitives – admit all the finite variations except tense and mood. Infinitive forms are made together with auxiliary verbs and periphrastic forms.
All verb forms can be constructed according to a complex but regular position system. Berger describes a total of 11 possible positions, or slots, although not all of these will be filled in any given verb form. Many positions also have several alternative contents (indicated by A/B/C below). The verb stem is in position 5, preceded by four possible prefixes and followed by seven possible suffixes. The following table gives an overview of the positions and their functions
The formation of the tenses and moods involves the use of several positions, or slots, in complicated ways. The preterite, perfect, pluperfect and conative are formed from the 'simple stem,' whereas the present, imperfect, future and conditional are formed from the 'present stem,' which is itself formed from the simple stem by placing -č- in position 7. The optative and imperative are derived directly from the stem. Altogether, the schema is as follows:
The formation of the tenses and moods of the verbher 'to cry', without prefixes:
Simple stem tenses
Grammatical category
Construction
Form and meaning
Conative
stem + personal suffix
her-i 'he starts to cry'
Preterite
stem [+ linking vowel] + m-suffix + personal suffix
The subject and object of the verb are indicated by the use of personal prefixes and suffixes in positions 3, 8 and 10 as follows:
Affix
Position
Function
Prefixes
3
direct object of transitive verbs, subject of intransitive ones
Suffixes
8/10
subject of transitive and intransitive verbs
The personal prefixes are identical to the pronominal prefixes of nouns (mandatory with body parts and kinship terms, as above). A simplified overview of the forms of the affixes is given in the following table:
Personal prefix (Position 3)
Person/ noun class
Singular
Plural
1st Person
a-
mi-
2nd Person
gu-
ma-
3rd Person m
i-
u-
3rd Person f
mu-
u-
3rd Person x
i-
u-
3rd Person y
i-
Personal suffixes (Positions 8 and 10)
Person/ noun class
Singular
Plural
1st/2nd Person
-a
-an
3rd Person m
-i
-an
3rd Person f
-o
-an
3rd Person x
-i
-ie
3rd Person y
-i
For example, the construction of the preterite of the transitive verbphus 'to tie', with prefixes and suffixes separated by hyphens, is as follows :
i-phus-i-m-i "he ties him" (filled positions: 3-5-8-9-10)
mu-phus-i-m-i "he ties her (f)"
u-phus-i-m-i "he ties them (pl. hx)"
mi-phus-i-m-i "he ties us"
i-phus-i-m-an "we/you/they tie him"
mi-phus-i-m-an "you/they tie us"
i-phus-i-m-a "I tie it"
gu-phus-i-m-a "I tie you"
The personal affixes are also used when the noun occupies the role of the subject or the object, e.g.hir i-ír-i-mi 'the man died'. With intransitive verbs, the subject function is indicated by both a prefix and a suffix, as in:
gu-ir-č-u-m-a "you will die" (future)
i-ghurts-i-m-i "he sank" (preterite)
Personal prefixes do not occur in all verbs and all tenses. Some verbs do not admit personal prefixes, others still do so only under certain circumstances. Personal prefixes used with intransitive verbs often express a volitional function, with prefixed forms indicating an action contrary to the intention of the subject. For example:
hurúṭ-i-m-i "he sat down" (volitional action without prefix)
i-ír-i-m-i "he died" (involuntary action with prefix)
ghurts-i-mi "he went willingly underwater", "he dove" (without prefix)
i-ghurts-i-m-i "he went unwillingly underwater", "he sank" (with prefix)
A number of verbs – mostly according to their root form – are found with the d-prefix in position 2, which occurs before a consonant according tovowel harmony. The precise semantic function of the d-prefix is unclear. With primary transitive verbs the d-prefix, always without personal prefixes, forms regular intransitives. Examples:
i-phalt-i-mi 'he breaks it open' (transitive)
du-phalt-as 'to break open, to explode' (intransitive)
A master's thesis research work of a native speaker of Burushaski on Middle Voice Construction in the Hunza Dialect claims that the [dd-] verbal prefix is an overt morphological middle marker for MV constructions, while the [n-] verbal prefix is a morphological marker for passive voice.[38] The data primarily come from the Hunza dialect of Burushaski, but analogous phenomena can be observed in other dialects. This research is based on a corpus of 120 dd-prefix verbs. This research has showed that position {-2} on the verb template is occupied by voice-marker in Burushaski. The author argues that the middle marker is a semantic category of its own and that it is clearly distinguished from the reflexive marker in this language. The middle marker (MM) means the grammatical device used to "indicate that the two semantic roles of Initiator and Endpoint refer to a single holistic entity" (Kemmer 1993: 47). In the view of that definition, I look at a middle marked verb in Burushaski and illustration follows the example.[38]
^abcMunshi, Sadaf (2006).Jammu and Kashmir Burushashki: Language, Language Contact, and Change. The University of Texas at Austin. p. 6.The J & K Burushos – speakers of the variety of Burushaski spoken in Jammu & Kashmir (henceforth "JKB") in India – are settled in and around a small locality by the foothills of Hari Parbat Fort in Srinagar, the capital of the state of Jammu & Kashmir (henceforth "J & K").
^abcdHunzai, A. N. N., Burushaski Research Academy, & University of Karachi. (2006).Burushaski Urdu Dictionary – Volume 1 / بروشسکی اردو لغت - جلد اول (الف تا څ). Bureau of Composition, Compilation & Translation, University of Karachi.ISBN969-404-66-0{{isbn}}: ignored ISBN errors (link)Archive.org
^abc"Pakistan's 'Burushaski' Language Finds New Relatives". NPR. 20 June 2012. Retrieved23 September 2017.It's spoken by about 90,000 people, the Burusho people, and nearly all of them live in Pakistan. A few hundred live in India.
^John Bengtson,Some features of Dene–Caucasian phonology (with special reference to Basque). Cahiers de l'Institut de Linguistique de Louvain (CILL) 30.4: 33-54,
^John Bengtson and V. Blazek, "Lexica Dene–Caucasica". Central Asiatic Journal 39, 1995, 11-50 & 161-164
^George van Driem (2001)Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region, Brill
^Casule, Ilija. 2003. Evidence for the Indo-European laryngeals in Burushaski and its genetic affiliation with Indo-European.The Journal of Indo-European Studies 31:1–2, pp 21–86.
^Smith, Alexander D. (2017). "Burushaski". In Lyle Campbell (ed.).Language isolates. Routledge Language Family Series. New York: Routledge. pp. 117–138.
^abMunshi, Sadaf (2006).Jammu and Kashmir Burushashki: Language, Language Contact, and Change. The University of Texas at Austin. pp. 13, 19.
^Munshi, Sadaf (2006).Jammu and Kashmir Burushashki: Language, Language Contact, and Change. The University of Texas at Austin. pp. 17–18.Linguistic influence from Urdu on JKB is primarily via second language speakers of Urdu. This is because Urdu is the second language of the people of the state of Jammu & Kashmir. On the other hand, linguistic contact with Kashmiri is mediated through first language or native speakers of Kashmiri. In addition to language contact via spoken interaction, contact with Urdu is also mediated through local media and television. Television is also a source of linguistic influence from Hindi, which is very close to Urdu.
^abcPiar, Karim. 2012. « Phonological Sketch of the Hunza Dialect of Burushaski: The CVXTheory and Burushaski Syllable Structure ». University of Texas.[1]
^Complete title:De bzhin gshegs pa thams cad kyi thugs gsang ba'i ye shes | don gyi snying po rdo rje bkod pa'i rgyud | rnal 'byor grub pa'i lung | kun 'dus rig pa'i mdo | theg pa chen po mngon par rtogs pa | chos kyi rnam grangs rnam par bkod pa zhes bya ba'i mdo, in the mTshams brag edition of the rNying ma rgyud 'bum: vol. 16 (Ma), p. 2-617.
^Dalton, Jacob P. 2016. Columbia University Press.ISBN978-0231176002. This book is a state of the art history of thistantra in Tibet, but does not deal in depth with the issue of its original source and whether it was actually translated from the Burushaski.
^abHunzai, A. N. N., Burushaski Research Academy, & University of Karachi. (2009).Burushaski Urdu Dictionary – Volume 2 / بروشسکی اردو لغت - جلد دوم (د تا غ). Bureau of Composition, Compilation & Translation, University of Karachi.Archive.org
^abHunzai, A. N. N., Burushaski Research Academy, & University of Karachi. (2013).Burushaski Urdu Dictionary – Volume 3 / بروشسکی اردو لغت - جلد دوم (ف تا ی). Bureau of Composition, Compilation & Translation, University of Karachi.Archive.org
^Hunzai, A. N. N. (2005)Jawaahir Paaree – Some Glimps of Burushaski language Burushaski Research Academy. University of Karachi: Bureau of Composition, Compilation & Translation, University of Karachi. Pakistan Literature Academy.[2] (Archive)
Anderson, Gregory D. S. 1997. Burushaski Morphology. InMorphologies of Asia and Africa, ed. by Alan Kaye. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
Anderson, Gregory D. S. 1997. Burushaski Phonology. InPhonologies of Asia and Africa, ed. by Alan Kaye. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
Anderson, Gregory D. S. 1999. M. Witzel's "South Asian Substrate Languages" from a Burushaski Perspective.Mother Tongue (Special Issue, October 1999).
Anderson, Gregory D. S. forthcoming b. Burushaski. InLanguage Islands: Isolates and Microfamilies of Eurasia, ed. by D.A. Abondolo. London: Curzon Press.
Backstrom, Peter C.Burushaski in Backstrom and Radloff (eds.),Languages of northern areas, Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan, 2. Islamabad, National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Qaid-i-Azam University andSummer Institute of Linguistics (1992), 31–54.
Berger, Hermann. 1974.Das Yasin-Burushaski (Werchikwar). Volume 3 ofNeuindische Studien, ed. by Hermann Berger, Lothar Lutze and Günther Sontheimer. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Berger, Hermann. 1998.Die Burushaski-Sprache von Hunza und Nager [The B. language of H. and N.]. Three volumes:Grammatik [grammar],Texte mit Übersetzungen [texts with translations],Wörterbuch [dictionary]. Altogether Volume 13 ofNeuindische Studien (ed. by Hermann Berger, Heidrun Brückner and Lothar Lutze). Wiesbaden: Otto Harassowitz.
Karim, Piar. 2013.Middle Voice Construction in Burushaski: From the Perspective of a Native Speaker of the Hunza Dialect.Unpublished MA Thesis. Denton: University of North Texas. Department of Linguistics.
Morgenstierne, Georg. 1945. Notes on Burushaski Phonology.Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap 13: 61–95.
Munshi, Sadaf. 2006.Jammu and Kashmir Burushaski: Language, language contact, and change. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. Austin: University of Texas at Austin, Department of Linguistics.
Munshi, Sadaf. 2010. "Contact-induced language change in a trilingual context: the case of Burushaski in Srinagar". In Diachronica. John Benjamins Publishing Company. 27.1: pp32–72.
Bashir, Elena. 2000. A Thematic Survey of Burushaski Research.History of Language 6.1: 1–14.
Berger, Hermann. 1956. Mittelmeerische Kulturpflanzennamen aus dem Burušaski [Names of Mediterranean cultured plants from B.].Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 9: 4-33.
Berger, Hermann. 1959. Die Burušaski-Lehnwörter in der Zigeunersprache [The B. loanwords in theGypsy language]. Indo-Iranian Journal 3.1: 17–43.
Casule Ilija. 2016. Evidence for the Indo-European and Balkan Origin of Burushaski.München: Lincom GmbH. 205 p. Lincom Etymological Studies 05.
Casule, Ilija. 2017. Burushaski etymological dictionary of the inherited Indo-European lexicon. München: Lincom GmbH. 325 p. (LINCOM Etymological Studies; no. 6)
Casule, Ilija. 2018, New Burushaski etymologies and the origin of the ethnonym Burúśo, Burúśaski, Brugaski and Miśáski. Acta Orientalia. Vol. 79: 27–71.
Lorimer, D. L. R. 1935–1938.The Burushaski Language (3 vols.). Oslo: Instituttet for Sammenlignende Kulturforskning.
van Skyhawk, Hugh. 1996. Libi Kisar. Ein Volksepos im Burushaski von Nager.Asiatische Studien 133.ISBN3-447-03849-7.
van Skyhawk, Hugh. 2003. Burushaski-Texte aus Hispar. Materialien zum Verständnis einer archaischen Bergkultur in Nordpakistan.Beiträge zur Indologie 38.ISBN3-447-04645-7.
Tiffou, Étienne. 1993.Hunza Proverbs. University of Calgary Press.ISBN1-895176-29-8
