Balti (Urdu: بلتی; Tibetan: སྦལ་ཏིའི་སྐད་, Wylie: sbal-ti-skad) is a Tibetan language spoken in Baltistan, and adjoining parts of Ladakh. Baltistan, before 1948, was part of Ladakh province. Many of the written consonants that are silent in Standard Tibetan are pronounced in the Balti language.
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 for different reasons, and after merging in the prevailing Tibetan society, gave birth to a new civilization. All these multi-racial 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 six 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.
