Burushaski: Hunza's Unique Language Explained

Burushaski is the language of central Hunza, Nagar and the Yasin valley, and one of the few languages in the world that linguists call an isolate: no one has shown that it is related to any other language, living or dead. It is spoken by somewhere over 100,000 people, most of them Burusho. You will hear it all around Karimabad, Altit and Aliabad, though everyone you deal with as a visitor also speaks Urdu.

This guide explains what makes Burushaski unusual, where it is spoken and where it isn't, the theories about where it came from, how it came to be written down, and a handful of words and greetings that people in Hunza will be pleased to hear.

What does "language isolate" mean?

Most languages belong to families. Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto and English are distant cousins in the Indo-European family; Balti is related to Tibetan; Wakhi, spoken in upper Hunza, is an Iranian language related to Persian. A language isolate is one for which no such relatives have been demonstrated. Basque, in Spain and France, is the best-known example in Europe.

Burushaski has borrowed a great many words from its neighbours over the centuries, from Shina, Khowar, Urdu and Persian, so an everyday conversation in Karimabad is full of words a Punjabi or Urdu speaker will recognise. Take away the loanwords, though, and the core vocabulary and grammar match nothing around them. That is what puts it in a category of its own.

Where is Burushaski spoken?

Burushaski is spoken in three main areas of Gilgit-Baltistan:

• Central Hunza, the villages around Aliabad, Karimabad and Altit. This is the Hunza dialect.
• Nagar, across the river from Karimabad. The Nagar dialect is very close to Hunza's, and speakers understand each other easily.
• Yasin, in Ghizer district to the west. The Yasin dialect, called Werchikwar, differs more, and some local speakers regard it as a separate language.

A few hundred speakers also live in the Kashmir valley near Srinagar, descended from Burusho families who settled there long ago.

It is worth knowing that Hunza is not all Burushaski. The district has three language zones along the Karakoram Highway. Lower Hunza, the villages below Aliabad, speaks mainly Shina. Central Hunza speaks Burushaski. Gojal, from Attabad Lake up to the Chinese border, speaks Wakhi; our post on the Chipursan valley covers one of its most remote corners. A small community in central Hunza and Nagar also keeps its own endangered language, Domaaki. Urdu is the common language across all of them, and English is widely understood in hotels and among younger people.

Where did Burushaski come from?

Nobody knows. It has been compared with almost every language family on earth, and several proposals have been published:

• Yeniseian, a family of languages from central Siberia, of which only Ket survives. Some researchers have listed dozens of possible shared words.
• North Caucasian or a wider "Dene-Caucasian" grouping, which would link it to Basque, Yeniseian and others in a very ancient family.
• Indo-European, argued in detail by the Macedonian linguist Ilija Čašule, who sees links with the ancient languages of the Balkans and Anatolia.

None of these has convinced most linguists, and the standard classification remains "isolate". What is widely accepted is that Burushaski was here, in these mountain valleys, before the languages that now surround it. The Burusho themselves are proud of that distinctness, and questions about it will usually get an interested answer.

What makes Burushaski unusual?

Even without a single related language, Burushaski would stand out for its grammar:

• Four noun classes. Nouns are sorted into human males, human females, animals and countable things, and materials or abstract ideas. Words like "this" change form to match: one form for a man, another for a woman, another for an animal or object, another for a substance such as water.
• Counting in twenties. Burushaski counts in twenties, much as French does with quatre-vingts. The word for twenty is altar, forty is "two twenties", and ninety is "four twenties and ten".
• Built-in possession. Many words, especially body parts and family members, can't stand alone; they always carry a prefix saying whose they are. You don't say "face", you say "my face" or "his face".
• Verbs that carry a lot. A single verb can take several prefixes and suffixes showing who did what to whom, and the same prefixes that show possession on nouns can mark the object of a verb.

Linguists have written that it is no harder than Turkish or Finnish once you know the system. For a visitor with a week in Hunza, a few words are the realistic goal.

How was Burushaski written down?

For most of its history Burushaski was spoken, not written, and carried its songs, stories and poetry by memory. The first word lists were collected by British officials in the 19th century, beginning with Alexander Cunningham in 1854, followed by John Biddulph and Gottlieb Leitner.

The first large study was by David Lorimer, the British Political Agent in Gilgit, who published The Burushaski Language in three volumes between 1935 and 1938. In 1998 the German linguist Hermann Berger published a full grammar and dictionary, working with the Hunza scholar and poet Allamah Nasiruddin Nasir Hunzai.

Nasir Hunzai also developed a way of writing Burushaski in the Perso-Arabic script, adding letters for sounds Urdu doesn't have, and his religious poetry was among the first sustained written literature in the language. Since then, writers, musicians and community groups have kept adapting both Perso-Arabic and Roman spellings. Today you will see Burushaski written on social media and in song lyrics, but spellings still vary from writer to writer.

Useful words and greetings for visitors

You will manage perfectly well in Hunza with Urdu, but a word or two of Burushaski is always noticed. Spellings vary, so don't worry about getting them exactly right.

Two notes on greetings. Ya Ali Madad is the greeting of Ismaili Muslims, who make up most of Hunza; Nagar, across the river, is mostly Twelver Shia, and there Assalam-o-alaikum is the natural choice. If in doubt, use Assalam-o-alaikum, which is always right. For "thank you", shukriya is universally understood.

Is Burushaski endangered?

UNESCO lists Burushaski as "vulnerable", the lowest of its levels of concern. Children in central Hunza and Nagar still grow up speaking it at home, which is the most important sign of a living language. The pressure comes from outside: schooling in Urdu and English, television and phones, marriages across language lines, and young people moving to Gilgit, Islamabad and Karachi for study and work.

Burusho writers, musicians and community organisations have responded with dictionaries, poetry, recorded music and online material in the language. The smaller languages around it are in a weaker position: Domaaki, with only a few hundred speakers, is seriously endangered.

Hearing Burushaski on a visit

You don't have to seek it out. In Karimabad and Altit it is the language of the street, the tea shop and the family, and many shopkeepers and guides slip between Burushaski, Urdu and English in the same conversation. Traditional music in central Hunza is sung in Burushaski, and you may hear it at weddings, festivals and gatherings in the season.

A few courtesies go a long way. Ask people about their language rather than treating it as a curiosity, and don't film or record people speaking or singing without asking first. If you want to understand where the language sits in the wider story of the valley, our guide to the history of Hunza covers the Mirs and the old state, and our overview of culture and traditions in Gilgit-Baltistan covers the region's other languages and faiths.

For the places where you'll hear Burushaski spoken, our Gilgit and Hunza page and our list of places to visit in Hunza are the place to start.

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