The Burushaski language is considered a language isolate (i.e, has no known historical or linguistic relationship to any other languages) by many linguists. Burushaski is spoken by around 350 people of the Burusho community of Kashmir and around 100,000 people of the Hunza, Nagar and Gupis-Yasin districts in Gilgit-Baltistan. Photo: Nazrah Khan and Darash Dawood
The Burushaski language is considered a language isolate (i.e. it has no known historical or linguistic relationship to any other languages) by many linguists. Burushaski is spoken by around 350 people of the Burusho community of Kashmir and around 100,000 people of the Hunza, Nagar and Gupis-Yasin districts in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Most members of the Burusho community in Kashmir are descendants of two former kings of the erstwhile princely states of Hunza and Nagar (located in present-day Gilgit-Baltistan). The community migrated to Kashmir in 1888 after their forefathers were persecuted by the British.
Despite being a small population, the community has been able to preserve their language through intergenerational communication and by prioritising their mother tongue over other languages in Kashmir.
Reporter: Nazrah Khan and Darash Dawood
Camera/Edit: Nazrah Khan and Darash Dawood
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Nazrah khan is a freelance multimedia journalist based out of India-administered Kashmir. Darash Dawood is a freelance multimedia Journalist based out of India-administered Kashmir. He tweets @DarshDawood_