Bateri as an Endangered Language

Presented by Ayesha Habib

2014-M.Phil (Eng- Ling)-003

It also known as Bateri Kohistani, Batera Kohistani, Baterwal, Baterwal Kohistani, Dardu. It has been classified as Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Northwestern Zone. Language code is ‘btv’.

Bateri is a Dardic language of the Kohistani group spoken in Kohistan District, Pakistan, with a thousand speaker in India.

The Dardic language or Dardu are a sub-group of the Indo-Aryan languages (dominant language family of the Indian sub-continent, spoken largely by Indo-Aryan people) natively spoken in northern Pakistan’s Gilgit Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Northern India’s Jammu and Kashmir and Eastern Afghanistan. Kashmir is the most prominent Dardic language, with an established literary tradition and official recognition as one of the national languages of India.

Population:

According to the research of 2000, 28,300 speakers of Bateri language are in Pakistan and in rest of the countries total number was 29,100. According to another research, the number of Bateri language in Pakistan in 28,251 and worldwide number is 29,051.

Dialects:

There are no dialects of Bteri language yet. Reportedly more similar to Indus Kohistani than to Kohistani Shin, but distinct from both. Lexical similarity is 58%-61% with Indus Kohistani, 61% with Gowro, 54% with Chilisso, 29% with Kohistani Shina and Torwali, 27% with Kalami.

Bateti lanugaue has been written in Dewanagari Script.