Balti (language)
Balti is a Tibetan language spoken in the Baltic region of Gilgit-Baltistan , Pakistan , the Nubra Valley of Leh District, and the Kargil District of Ladakh , India . Balti is very different from Tibetan. Balti took over the vowels of Old Tibetan and thus preserved them. Balti is a language whose words are emphasized in monosyllables. In contrast, Old Tibetan has polysyllabic stressed words.
ethnography
The people of Baltistan are known as Balti. The Greeks adopted the Tibetan word Byaltae ( transcription : sbal-ti ). Sbal-ti means water canyon in Tibetan. The historian Ptolemy named the region Byaltae in his book. Baltistan is the Persian translation of home of the Balti . The Balti live on both banks of the Indus . The Balti ethnic group is Tibetan. A small part of the Shina people speak Shinain some rural areas of Baltistan. The Shina language has many loan words from the Balti. Historian and linguist, Yusuf Hussain Abadi, works to preserve Balti and its history and script. He reintroduced the Balti font in Baltistan in 1980. Abadi wrote a book on the language in 1990. He translated the Quran into the Balti language in 1995. Abadi's work resulted in other historians writing books on Balti's grammar. The books were translated into English and Urdu and published in 1995. The Balti people are known to be patient, hospitable and cheerful. The Balti very frequently occupied the regions and cities of Ladakh , Chitral and Gilgit during the Maqpon Dynasty . The current generation of the Balti is a mix of different ethnic groups. Tibetans make up 75% of the population outside of Baltistan. The Balti people live in rural areas in Pakistan.
classification
The linguist and Tibetologist Nicolas Tournadre sees the Ladakhi , Purgi and Balti languages as different languages, as there is no mutual understanding . The orientalist Heinrich August Jäschke classified Balti in his Tibetan – English Dictionary (1881) as the most western Tibetan language.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Syed Muhamad Abbas Kazmi: History of Balti language . In: PN Pushp, K. Warikoo (ed.): Jammu, Kashmir ans Ladakh: Linguistic predicament , Har-Anand, Delhi 1996 (English).
- ^ Nicolas Tournadre (2005) L'aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes. In: Lalies . Volume 25, 2005, pp. 7–56 [1]
- ^ Heinrich August Jäschke : A Tibetan-English Dictionary, with Special Reference to the Prevailing Dialects: To which is Added an English-Tibetan Vocabulary . Unger Brothers (T. Grimm), 1881.