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Burushaski language

Burushaski is a language isolate spoken by some 40,000-50,000 people in the Hunza and Yasin valleys in northern Pakistan. While it contains many loanwords from the surrounding languages (particularly Urdu, Khowar, and Shina), enough original vocabulary remains to set it apart from these neighbors. While attempts have been made to establish a relationship between Burushaski and Sumerian, Basque, and the Caucasian and Dravidian language families, these efforts have met little acceptance from linguists. There are four dialects of Burushaski: Hunza, Gojal, Nagar, and Yasin.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveo- palatal	Retroflex	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stops	Voiceless	p	t		t.	k	q
	Aspirated	ph	th		t.h	kh
	Voiced	b	d		d.	g
Affricates			ts	tS	ts.
Fricatives	Voiceless		s	S	s.	x		h
	Voiced		z	Z	z.	G
Nasals		m	n			N
Liquids*		w	l	j
Rhotic			r

* Liquids are glides and laterals.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

See also

• Partawi Shah