Balti Language - Balti

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, had named the region "Byaltae" in his book. In fact, Baltistan is the Persian translation of Baltiyul, "the Homeland of Balti." People of Balti ethnicity are settled on both banks of the river Indus from Kargil in the east to Haramosh in the west, and from Karakoram range in the north to Deosai plains in the south. The Balti ethnicity is primarily Tibetan in origin, with some Dardic admixture. However people migrated to this area in different periods of ancient times on account of different reasons, and after merging in the prevailing Tibetan society, gave birth to a new civilization. All these multi-racial groups speak Balti language, which is a branch of ancient Tibetan. However in some rural areas, the Sheen people still speak Shina language. To develop the Balti language literally, local intellectuals like Yousuf Hussainabadi has worked on Balti language. He discovered history and script of Balti Language and revived the Tibetan Script in Baltistan after 6 Centuries (1980). He wrote the book 'Balti Zabaan' in 1990 which was the first book on Balti language. Yousuf Hussainabadi did the translation of the Quran into Balti Language (1995), Later on many people inspired by Yousuf Hussainabadi started their work on Balti Language. Hassan Lobsang wrote a book 'Balti Grammar' in both English and Urdu versions, i.e. "Balti Grammar" and "Balti English Grammar". The latter was published by Bern University Switzerland in 1995.

The Balti have a reputation for being very forbearing, cheerful, and hospitable people. During the Rmakpon dynasty (from the 12th century to 1840) the Balti invaded Ladakh and Tibet in the east and Gilgit and Chitral many times, thus making these people acknowledge the martial abilities of the Balti.

The modern population of Baltistan is a heterogeneous mixture of ethnic groups. Tibetans form the principal ethnic group in the area accounting for 60 percent of the population. Outside Baltistan, there are several Balti communities located in Pakistan's urban and rural areas.