Balti language
| Balti | |
|---|---|
|
بلتی སྦལ་འཐུས་ |
|
 |
|
| Native to | Baltistan, Ladakh |
| Region | Pakistan (Kashmir, Gilgit–Baltistan), Kargil, and small pockets in Karachi, Rawalpindi, Islamabad & Lahore |
| Ethnicity | Balti people |
|
Native speakers
|
(290,000 cited 1992–2001) |
| Urdu script and modified Tibetan script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | balt1258 |
Balti (Perso-Arabic: بلتی; Wylie: sbal ti skad, THL: Beltiké ) is a Tibetic language spoken in the Baltistan division of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. It is quite different 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 multisyllabic words while Standard Tibetan has a complex and distinct pitch system that includes tone contour.
All people living in Baltistan may be referred to as Balti. The Greeks derived Byaltae from Tibetan: སྦལ་ཏིའི་, Wylie: sbal-ti, which, in Tibetan, means "water gorge." The historian Ptolemy, also a general in the army of Alexander the Great, named the region "Byaltae" in his book. In fact, Baltistan is the Persian translation of Baltiyul, "homeland of Balti." Balti people are settled on both banks of the Indus River from Kargil district in the east to Haramosh Peak in the west and from the Karakoram in the north to Deosai National Park in the south.
...
Wikipedia