Balti scripts

[Greg Cooper]

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Dear James,

I have no first hand knowledge, but I've read the following from various
sources:
In the early 1900s, four books of the New Testament were published, mostly
in Arabic script.
A few mullahs translated some poems from Persian into Balti, retaining the
Persian script.
By the late 1960s the educated Baltis were employing mainly the
Persian-Arabic alphabet.
By the late 20th century Perso-Arabic script was still the more accepted
one.
Arabic script is preferred by the older generation and Roman characters by
the younger.
Tibetan script has had relatively little use.

(No substantial differentiation is meant here between the labels of
'Arabic', 'Persian' and 'Urdu', as they apply to Balti.)

Hope this is of interest.

Greg Cooper.


-----Original Message-----
From: South Asian Linguists [mailto:VYAKARAN at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU]On Behalf
Of James Ward
Sent: Monday, 7 April 2003 3:04 PM
To: VYAKARAN at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Balti scripts


VYAKARAN: South Asian Languages and Linguistics Net
Editors:  Tej K. Bhatia, Syracuse University, New York
          John Peterson, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
Details:  Send email to listserv at listserv.syr.edu and say: INFO VYAKARAN
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Dear Listmembers,

Do any of you happen to know if any extended examples of the Balti
language written in Urdu script have been published?  It seems to be
rather difficult to find any examples of such writing.

I have read recently that people are beginning to use the Tibetan script
to write Balti.  Is this becoming a widespread phenomenon, or is Urdu
script still mostly used when Balti is written?

Thank you for any help you can offer with regard to these questions.

Sincerely,

James Ward
Santa Ana, California