Shina Language: A Quick Guide for Visitors

The language of Gilgit is Shina, and the form spoken in and around the city is known as the Gilgiti dialect. Shina has around 1.1 million speakers across Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan, and in Gilgit-Baltistan alone it is the first language of roughly a third of households, second only to Balti. You do not need it to travel: Urdu is understood everywhere, and most people working in tourism speak some English. This guide explains what you are hearing, where it changes, and how the language is written and taught today.

Where is Shina spoken?

Shina is the main local language of four districts of Gilgit-Baltistan: Gilgit, Astore, Diamer and Ghizer. A 2023 analysis in Pamir Times, based on a 2017 household survey, estimated about 535,000 Shina speakers in Gilgit-Baltistan, around 36 per cent of households, close behind Balti at 38 per cent and well ahead of Burushaski at 17 per cent. It found Shina-speaking households in nine districts, including small numbers in Nagar, Skardu and Hunza.

In Diamer, the district around Chilas, Shina is spoken by almost all communities, alongside smaller languages such as Gujari. South of Gilgit-Baltistan, a form called Kohistani Shina is spoken in the Kohistan valleys of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with about 458,000 speakers in 2018; its dialects are named after Palas, Jalkot and Kolai.

There is also a small Shina-speaking community in the Neelum valley of Azad Kashmir. Across the Line of Control, Shina is the majority language of Gurez and is spoken in Dras and the far north of Kargil, where India's 2011 census counted about 32,200 speakers.

Which languages will you hear instead?

Gilgit-Baltistan has several languages, and the change from one valley to the next is part of what makes travelling here interesting:

• Hunza and Nagar: mainly Burushaski, a language isolate unrelated to Shina; see our Burushaski guide.
• Upper Hunza (Gojal): Wakhi, related to the languages of the Pamirs.
• Skardu, Shigar, Khaplu: Balti, a Tibetan language; see our Balti language guide.
• Ghizer: Shina alongside Khowar, the language of Chitral, and others; see our Khowar guide.

Gilgit city sits where several of these areas meet, which is one reason it has long been a trading and administrative centre rather than a one-language town. Our overview of Gilgit-Baltistan's languages maps them all.

Where does Shina fit in the language family?

Shina is an Indo-Aryan language, in the same broad family as Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi, but in the Dardic branch spoken across the mountains of the north-west. Its closest relatives form a small Shinaic group: Brokskat in Ladakh, Kundal Shahi in Azad Kashmir, Palula and Sawi in Chitral and Afghanistan's Kunar, Ushojo in Swat and Kalkoti in Dir.

What does Shina sound like?

To an Urdu speaker, some words will feel familiar and the rhythm will not. Shina has five vowels, each with a short and a long form, and most can be nasalised. It is also tonal, as Punjabi is: pitch can change the meaning of a word. Shina has three contrasting tones, level, rising and falling, and the tone falls only on long vowels.

Modern Shina is also borrowing heavily from Urdu, English, Arabic and Persian, so you will hear plenty of familiar words mixed into conversation in Gilgit's bazaars.

Dialects

Shina changes from valley to valley. Linguists use "Gilgiti" only for the dialect of Gilgit and its surroundings, and describe separate Kohistani and Drasi varieties; older classifications also separate the speech of Astore and of Chilas. The differences follow the geography: valleys cut off from each other by high ridges developed their own forms of the language.

How is Shina written?

For most of its history Shina was spoken, not written. It is now written in an extended form of the Perso-Arabic Nastaliq script used for Urdu, with extra letters for sounds Urdu does not have. The spelling was only standardised in the late 2010s, and the Gilgit-Baltistan government has since endorsed primers and dictionaries. Shina in Pakistan and Shina in Dras use two different spelling conventions.

In 2017 the Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan announced that five regional languages, Shina, Balti, Burushaski, Wakhi and Khowar, would be taught in schools as optional subjects, and set aside PKR 50 million for the region's cultures and languages. How far that has reached classrooms is unclear: a 2023 Pamir Times opinion piece argued the languages were still missing from the curriculum.

For visitors, the practical point is that you will almost never see Shina written. Signs, menus, bus boards and official notices are in Urdu and English.

Does the census count Shina?

Only partly. The 2023 census added Shina to the list of mother tongues people could choose. But the census does not cover Gilgit-Baltistan or Azad Kashmir, so its figure, about 0.05 per cent of those counted, mainly reflects Shina speakers living elsewhere in Pakistan rather than in the language's homeland. That is why estimates for Gilgit-Baltistan come from household surveys instead.

What this means for a visitor

You will hear Shina constantly in Gilgit, Chilas, Astore and the Ghizer valley: in markets, on public vans and in everyday conversation. You will not need it. Urdu works everywhere, and people are used to visitors from the rest of Pakistan.

A few practical points:

• Ask, don't read. If you want to learn a greeting, ask your driver or host how they say it. Spellings in phrase lists vary, and the local word may differ from one valley to the next.
• Don't assume one language for the north. A word learnt in Gilgit will not help in Karimabad, where Burushaski is spoken, or in Skardu, where people speak Balti.
• Use Urdu for anything important. Directions, prices, medical needs and police checkposts are all handled in Urdu.
• Show interest. People in Gilgit-Baltistan are proud of their languages, and a question about them usually starts a friendly conversation.

Our travel guide covers other basics for a first trip north, and our Gilgit and Hunza page covers the region.

Frequently asked questions