Balti

Also known as Balti language

Tibetan language spoken in Baltistan, in Gilgit–Baltistan of Pakistan and adjoining parts of Ladakh

Key facts

Native to: Pakistan , India
Region: Baltistan , Ladakh
Ethnicity: Balti
Native speakers: 425,000 in Pakistan (2018) Total users in all countries: 438,800 (2018)
Language family: Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Kanauri (?) Bodish Tibetic Ladakhi–Balti Balti
Writing system: Perso-Arabic script (current) Tibetan script (current) Balti (Historical)
Iso 639 3: bft
Glottolog: balt1258
Elp: Balti

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image: Balti in nastaliq.svg

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Article

This is a video example of Balti being spoken by Rizwan, a speaker of Balti

Balti (Perso-Arabic script: بلتی, Tibetan: སྦལ་ཏི།, Wylie: sbal ti) is a Tibetic language natively spoken by the ethnic Balti people in the Baltistan region of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, Nubra Valley of the Leh district and the Kargil district of Ladakh, India. The language differs 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 multi-syllabic words while Standard Tibetan has a complex and distinct pitch system that includes tone 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 with loanwords.