Balti language

Presented by Ayesha Ghazanfar

Balti language is spoken in  Division Baltistan  in Gilgit Baltistan and some parts of Ladakh in India. It is also known as Sbalti, Baltistani, Bhotia of Baltistan, Baltī, Sbalt, Bhōṭiā of Baltistan. Before 1948 Baltistan was part of ladakh province. The language is the sub dialect of Ladkhi and an archaic dialect of Tibetan Language.  It is spoken by 35% population of Gilgit Baltistan. The total speaker of this language are 290000 in all over the country.

The main script for writing Balti is the Tibetan Balti script but it is also written in the Persian script especially within Pakistan. The present Persian script of Balti Language was introduced to the people od Balti in the seventeen century by Mir Sham Ud Din Iraqi who was a Muslim Preacher when he came to Bultistan to preach Islam to the people of that era. After the partition of India and Pakistan the Balti Language has differed from the main Tibetan Language due to the influence of Urdu. At present Balti heavily influenced by   Urdu, Turkish and it is also affected by Islamic literature. Balti language has adopted words from Arabic and Persian due to the process of Islamization. The Balti language shares up to ninety percent of the vocabulary with the Ladakhi Language, as well as with   Kham and Amdo dialect of North Eastern Tibet. 

The Balti Language has always been at a disadvantage. Its original Tibetan script was changed to an artificial one based on Persian which never corresponded with the letters and requirement of the Balti, and as a result it has lost its standard originality and deviated from the original Tibetan language.