| Balti | |
|---|---|
| بلتی སྦལ་འཐུས་ | |
 | |
| Native to | Pakistan, India |
| Region | Baltistan, Ladakh |
| Ethnicity | Balti |
Native speakers | 425,000 in Pakistan (2018) Total users in all countries: 438,800 (2018)[1] |
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bft |
| Glottolog | balt1258 |
| ELP | Balti |
 Balti language speaking areas | |
Balti (Nastaʿlīq script: بلتی, Tibetan script: སྦལ་ཏི།, Wylie: sbal ti) is a Tibetic language natively spoken by the ethnic Balti people in the Baltistan region of Gilgit-Baltistan,Nubra Valley of the Leh district and in the Kargil district of Ladakh, India.[2] 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[3] 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.[4]
- ^ Balti at Ethnologue (24th ed., 2021)
- ^ Census of India, 1961: Jammu and Kashmir. Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. 1961. p. 357.
- ^ Sprigg, R. K. (1966). "Lepcha and Balti Tibetan: Tonal or Non-Tonal Languages?". Asia Major. 12: 185–201.
- ^ Shams, Shammim Ara (2020). "The Impact of Dominant Languages on Regional Languages: A Case Study of English, Urdu and Shina". Pakistan Social Sciences Review. 4 (III): 1092–1106. doi:10.35484/pssr.2020(4-III)79.
