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Burushaski

بُرُݸشسکݵ

Burushaski is a language isolate spoken in India and Pakistan, by about 55 thousand people. Glottolog rates it shifting.

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Burushaski · 36.2°N 74.8°E

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Burushaski is spoken in the Hunza and Nagar valleys of northern Pakistan. Surrounded by Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan and Turkic, it is related to none of them — an isolate.

Burushaski (بُرُݸشَسْکِݵ, burúśaski, Burushaski pronunciation: [bʊˈruːɕʌskiː]; autonym: [miɕáːski] 'our language') is a language isolate, spoken by the Burusho people, native to northern Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan. There are also a few hundred speakers of this language in Kashmir Valley, India.

In Pakistan, Burushaski is spoken by the people of the Hunza District, the Nagar District, the northern Gilgit District, the Yasin Valley in the Gupis-Yasin District, and the Ishkoman Valley of the northern Ghizer District. Their native region is in northern Gilgit–Baltistan. It also borders the Pamir corridor to the north. In India, Burushaski is spoken in Botraj Mohalla of the Hari Parbat region in Srinagar. It is generally believed that the language was spoken in a much wider area in the past, due to the two disconnected regions in which it is spoken currently, which are separated by more easily traversible regions of the Hunza Valley where the Indo-Aryan Shina language is spoken. It is also known as Werchikwar and Miśa:ski.

From Wikipedia · Burushaski · CC BY-SA 4.0

Words in Burushaski

MeaningWordRomanization
waterċhil
catbush
louseکھرو
twoالتݸ
Ija
youun
wemî
yesawá

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Vocabulary

Grammar

Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.

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Glottolog · buru1296 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · bsk