Balti is a Tibetic language spoken by approx. 290,000 people in Baltistan, Lahore and Islamabad (Pakistan) and also in some regions of the Indian administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Related to Ladakhi, Purik, Zangskari, and, more remotely, Tibetan, although it retains its own pronunciation and is not mutually intelligable with any of those languages.
First written in Ayge script, the Urdu and Persian scripts have also been adapted to represent the sounds of Balti as has more recently a Roman script version. There is some debate as to which script will dominate in the future.
| Reference | |
| Cloud-dwellers of the Himalayas : the Bhotia | BALTI REF 1 |
| Dictionaries | |
| Balti-english / english-balti dictionary | BALTI DICO 1 |