Burushaski

Burushaski is a language isolate spoken in northern Pakistan and northern India. In Pakistan Burushaski is spoken by about 87,000 Burusho people in the Hunza, Nagar, Yasin and Ishkoman valleys, and some parts of the Gilgit valley, in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan's northen-most area. In India there are about 300 Burushaski speakers in Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir.

Different dialects of Burushaski are spoken in different areas, though they are largely mutually intelligible. The language is also known as Biltum, Brushaski, Burucaki, Burucaski, Burushaki, Burushki, Khajuna or Kunjut.

Until recently, Burushaski was rarely written. A number of texts have been written by native speakers for researchers using a version of the Urdu alphabet. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and the Roman alphabet have also been used to write texts in the language.