A Threat to the Existence of Burushaski Language

Economic Ascendancy & cultural dominance in the Gilgit –Baltistan

By Shahnaz Salim Hunzai Director Burushaski Research Academy Pakistan

Burushaski language is considered to be a unique and among the most ancient

languages of the world, Despite new breakthroughs in ethnographic sciences,
Burushaski defies classification and still remains a Language Isolate. (Dana,
1959) Presently it is spoken by the people living in three different valleys of
Northern Areas of Pakistan: Hunza, Yasin and Nagar; and in parts of Kashmir
India where a migrated minority resides. Two main dialects of Burushaski are
spoken in the Hunza valley and the Yasin Valley. The former is divided into two
closely related sub-dialects of Hunza and Nagar. Most of the languages spoken in
Northern Areas of Pakistan i.e. Mina, Kuwar, etc have their roots in Dardi&
languages (Laic, 2001) while Burushaski, together with Basque, Finnish and about
a dozen other languages of the world, has been classified as a language isolate. The
fact that its mother language has been lost and its sister languages have vanished
make Burushaski an exceptionally unique part of the human heritage

After centuries of isolation, the society where this language was preserved is
increasingly exposed to outside pressures and influences. With the opening of the
area through the Karakoram Highway and other external influences, the language
and culture face new challenges. Economic migration, increased awareness and
influx of various cultures through travel and tourism have brought an immense
cultural change. This economic ascendancy and cultural dominance has become a
threat to Burushaski language. Since the phenomena of economic growth and
cultural influx invariably go hand in hand, below I have narrated facts and
examples, which cover both aspects simultaneously
In spite of the fact that the native inhabitants speak Burushaski as a means of
communication, its inclusion in the school syllabus as a language is still missing,
Urdu, being the national language, is the language of instruction and now with a
flourishing tourism industry English has become another important language for
the local people. Economic gains through trade have also encouraged the locals to
learn and speak Chinese Turkish of the China border. Moreover, the political
structure of the area necessitates the presence of army and government officials
from the southern parts of the country, which entails the presence of other regional
languages, which are mostly Pashtu or Punjabi.
In this unending influx of other languages, Burusho have unconsciously started to
drop their own ancient words and to use Urdu words instead. Due to the external
influences, more than half the present-day Burushaski vocabulary is of Urdu,
Khwar and Shina origin. In addition, over thirty thousand Burusho presently live in
different cities of Pakistan for educational or economic purposes, whose
environment forces them to use different languages. They have failed to retain
Burushaski in their homes, and as a result a considerable number of these families,
particularly children do not speak their mother tongue. All of these factors call for
extraordinary measures to preserve and safeguard a language that not only
represents the identity of a group of people but has scientific and heritage value
globally.

The economic progress of Northern Areas of Pakistan during the past three
decades has been unparalleled in hundreds of years of it history. The opening of
Karakoram Highway has accelerated the pace of economic development to its
unbelievable zenith. The deserts are populated, barren lands cultivated, number of
educational and health institutions keep increasing banks, micro-nuance
institutions, village organizations etc., have multiplied to take advantage of the
economic opportunities available in the area. With. the opening of the china border
trade activities between the two countries have been enhanced considerably.

Goods that were scarce or not available have flowed from southern part of the
country in an unlimited quantity destroying the local culture of labour and hard
work of producing certain things locally. The heavy investments by NGOs,
especially AKRSP etc., to supplement the government's efforts for economic
development have proved very successful. Through the formation of Town
Committees and Village Organizations people are mobilized and energized to
concentrate their efforts to get the best results. The society, which until recently
was managing through a barter system, suddenly transformed into a money
economy, where all kinds of goods are sold and bought.
Such a sudden transformation come with the price the Burushos had to pay for this
economic growth, which was conditioned by cultural dominance of southern
part of the country in particular. The foreign culture and ideas are imported
unconsciously and absorbed and have become part of their thinking discriminating
against their own culture and values.
This sudden pace of development has caused many traditional values and standards
to disappear. Socially and morally the society is going through tremendous
pressure and a great transition. The old values are abolished and new ones have not
been formed yet. In this liquid state of affairs, where diverse forces are trying to
mould the society, like religious and cultural values and traditions, the Burushaski
language is also at stake.
Allamah Nasir Hunzai, the first poet of Burushaski language and linguist of the
area, has suggested eight different categories in which traditional Burushaski
vocabulary exists. These are Agriculture, Cattle, Professions, Life Style (including
housing, food, clothes etc), Sports, Prey, National Celebrations and miscellaneous.
All eight categories of vocabulary are going through incredible pressure and it
needs a very conscious effort to retain the remaining vocabulary, most of it is
already either forgotten or replaced by Urdu language.

This paper is an effort to highlight the factors that have directly influenced the
language, particularly its vocabulary. It also mentions some anchors, which are
protecting it. The paper also calls for urgent measures to save this very precious and
unique language. We begin by focusing on a few of the above categories of
language to highlight the irreversible loss of vocabulary.

Houses
The economic progress has seen a great change in the life style of Burushos i.e.
houses, clothes, food etc. The traditional Burusho house ha is a single room
multipurpose houses which could accommodate large families. They are built of
mud and stone, which protect the inmates in the different seasons. It has two raised
platforms man for men and women of family to sit and sleep. In the middle, there
is a fireplace, (shi) and a kitchen for the winter. It has four or five pillars each one
with a beautiful name reflecting a specific purpose. The big boxes containing flour
stocks and dried fruits are located in a corner of the house.
The different parts of the house represent different values. The most important
pillar (shri dako) literally means the biggest or most important pillar. This pillar is
designated for the elders of the family or important guests. A particular portion of
the house was reserved to keep shoes or to accommodate people of low cast in the
past. The master of house would stand there in the presence of guests to show his
humility. The house also has a ceiling ventilator (sagam) and traditionally
Burusho believed that the souls of their forefathers observed their families through
(sagam) at night, thus a particular code of conduct was adopted to make them
The whole family used to sit together during the long winter nights telling stories
and eating dried fruits from their own farms, This tradition was known as gars ce
hurutas, which had a lot of charm and attraction, Women spun wool and some
cracked nuts with two stones during those long family gatherings. All oral stories
famous today, were familiar to all the families because they were told and retold.
That was a popular way to transfer the oral traditions. This was also an opportunity
to transfer and inculcate certain religious and cultural values to the younger
members of the family. This quality family time was dearly cherished by the
Burusho. It is reflected through certain proverbs like “amiiran male mast mii
gariban hale mast” meaning "let the wealthy be intoxicated with their wealth, we
the poor are intoxicated by our house (ha)". All the abovementioned activities,
social attitudes and cultural values were nurtured because of that traditional style
of the house.
With economic progress and cultural dominance many have abandoned their
traditional houses happily and have instead built houses according to urban
patterns. Even if a traditional house exists, it is no more than a big storeroom.
Those who have migrated to other cities are compelled to live in urban style houses
that impose a new set of values. In both cases many of Burushaski words have
been dropped from their daily vocabulary and will ultimately be forgotten.
Apart from loss of vocabulary it has also damaged the beautiful concept of
respect and distinct place of the elderly and guests. This has directly affected
their mindset about the norms of res pect and humility. The youth today
sleeping in their own individual bedrooms will never experience that life, love,
emotional contentment, wholeness, sense of belonging and warmth their elders
did by living together under one roof, nor will they know the particular
vocabulary which is associated with ha.

The family time (gari ce hurutas) has also been discarded. People are
watching all kinds of programmes on uncensored TV channels and cable net
while the young minds are not yet sophisticated or perceptive. The culture
propagated through different channels is thought to be the popular culture and
local culture is looked down on as an inferior culture. The power of media is
affecting minds and modifying behaviour. Similarly the traditional fireplace,
stoves etc., are being replaced with modem gas and electric stoves and heaters.
It has affected the use of related vocabulary as well as made it impossible to
understand all the similes, proverbs and metaphors of language related to fire
and traditional ways of cooking and heating. There is a great portion of
vocabulary and beautiful proverbs related to traditional ha (house) and things
used in it, which are no longer in use.
The absence of traditional ha or not using it has created a vacuum socially,
emotionally and physically that is being filled by certain appropriate or
inappropriate things from other cultures. The traditional ha was not just a four-
walled room, rather it was a concept generating values of life and determining
people's behaviour.

Food

The rapid change and economic interests have influenced the diet pattern and
certain activities related to food production and consumption. Some of the
crops and fruits, which were previously sown and grown for family use have
changed into cash crops and are sold straight away.

Previously, most of the fresh fruits like apricots, Russian olives, apples,
peaches, pears and grapes were consumed fresh. Surplus production of apricots
was dried and stored for winter consumption. Other fruits like apple, grapes,
peach, a special variety of peach (lutku) and plums were also dried and stored.
Apples were dried and ground into powder (bastaw). This was used for cold
drinks (two spoons full in a glass of water) in summer instead of manufactured
powder drinks like Tang, etc.

Less ripe fresh apples and pears were put into wheat straw (khurk) in
traditional store (cikis) and kept for six months from September till March. The
elder women took out a few of them and give them to all family members
during the long winter nights and spring starvation time. Fresh mulberries were
dried and stored again for winter consumption.

A paste of all dry nuts and mulberry mix (sultan qooq), was prepared
traditionally which was considered to be full of energy and was eaten to develop
immunity against severe cold. It was specifically prepared for pregnant women
and women who had just delivered babies.

All these activities were related to their social life also and certain procedures of
drying fruits, squeezing oil, the equipment used were well known to each
family. Now all the apricot trees are contracted in advance with merchants
coming from North West Frontier Province in exchange for cash. People sell
traditional healthy fruits to merchants from the southern part of the country and
get cash to buy goods. This cash is, mostly spent unwisely on drinking,
smoking, etc.
Mulberries are no longer grown and the existing trees are dying; the new
generation does not even have the concept of dried mulberries. All nuts like
walnuts, apricot nuts were shelled by women during the long winter nights and
were stored. There is not enough dried fruit available to a family now to
continue this activity.
All the fruit trees, especially apple and apricots are handled by men for their
marketing and women have lost that traditional role and involvement in fruit
production, as a result they have also lost interest in such activities. Picking
apricots, drying, cracking nuts and storing was all in women's control
previously, and they were responsible to divide them among all stakeholders
like children, elders, pregnant and new mothers, visitors or relatives.

At present people are happy and contented to buy cakes, shakes, cola drinks,
and ice creams for the money their trees earn for them. Consequently, the
youth in most cases is least interested in production and consumption of fresh
fruits. They are mostly concerned about cash for cigarettes, jeans, tea bags,
spicy food and fast food.

It is hard to find traditional storerooms in the newly constructed houses, which

previously were a necessary part of a house to preserve fresh fruits for six
months.
This change has affected the relevant vocabulary and verbal expressions
concerning the fruits and their related activities.
Wheat, barley, buckwheat and peas were grown for whole year consumption.
Whole production was stored in a wooden box (sager) and was in the control of
women to make it last for the whole year, since there was no external source to
obtain wheat.

People have now given up sowing wheat, barley, buck wheat, etc, Lorimer
(1979) mentions seven different kinds of wheat being sown in this area, each
with a different name. A particular kind (quhai) was only sown by the kings
and no one else was allowed to grow it. Wheat is replaced by cash crops like
potatoes and fodder. It is hardly surprising that even the locally based educated
group does not know the names of different kinds of wheat.
Maize is grown as a cash crop. Few plots of wheat are seen and the major
portion of land is used for growing fodder and potatoes. Together with fruit and
crops all other traditional dishes made by local wheat, barely, berries, kernels
like gumaldi, diramsuro, chap suro, baline camik, fel ce fago, baye galetc
(Hunzai, 1991) are almost forgotten; the new generation may not even know
their names and even if they do, they would have no idea as to what kind of
meal that was.

Poultry farms have been introduced as a major source of income and the poultry
breed comes from the southern part of the country. It has brought a set of values
and vocabulary that is getting more popular as a replacement of the original
words.

The customary juice made with dried apricots (baler ce dawdo) which was
consumed in breakfast has been replaced by tea. All traditional nourishing food
supplements like sultan gooq, etc are abandoned and the majority of population
today does not even know their names. Chicken burger and pizza are getting
more popular instead. Goods coming from other cities look attractive to local
people and have reduced the value of local production. This attitude has
damaged a greater part of the vocabulary and its use.

Dressing
The dressing code has also been affected greatly with development. People
prefer to dress up in an urban style and, to a great extent, have left out the
traditional attire. The traditional cap, which the women of the area have worn
for hundreds of years, is disappearing fast. The young girls do not find it
comfortable to continue this tradition. They want to appear like urban women.
Those who do wish to continue it fear comments and the ridicule of other
people. They cannot take pride in their own culture and are impressed by
imported cultures.

Old jewellery is an object of the past and is rarely seen; samples of it have lately
become showpieces to be sold at antique shops with English names. This is just
another technique to attract tourists, which undermines the preservation of the
culture or the beautiful name it originally had. Needless is to say that with
change in dressing style the whole cultural context and related vocabulary has
been lost.
 Equipment
Fruits and vegetables like apricot, spinach, which were previously dried and
stored for winter, are now, being sold in market immediately. Previously
Burushos had no choice but to collect all extra fruit and preserve it and save it
for winter in which they feared facing food shortage. Thus, all those words used
for the drying, preserving and the equipment used for that procedure are
disappearing fast. They are inevitably replaced by modern equipment available
in the market. Most of the young people of the area do not even know the
traditional equipment and its use.

To make diluted curd diltar, there were specific traditional methods, which have
been replaced by machines now. Earlier methods included leather bag, tarin, a
long wooden pan, etc. They would beat the curd in a long wooden pan with a
long wooden spoon or shake the tarin violently to get diltar, now they simply
do it with machines.

The kernels of apricots were broken on stones; they were then squeezed in
traditional pots in a specific way to get oil. All these methods have been
replaced by modem equipment, and as a result, the old equipment is
disappearing and all the related vocabulary too. Similarly, clothes were washed
by hand often near hot springs in some of the villages. Here women would get
together, have fun, wash their clothes, bathe and boil eggs and potatoes in
boiling water to eat after they had finished their chores. Since clothes are now
being washed in machines at home, all the related vocabulary is in danger.

Similarly, mobile phones have affected letter writing or visiting people to

convey some important messages. It has also reduced family gatherings and
social interaction, traditional indoor games etc.

Previously wheat and barely was being ground in a traditional mill which is now
being done with machines. Also the seed was separated from hay by a
traditional way, which is now done through threshers. Overall traditional
equipment redundant and have led the related vocabulary to be irreversibly lost
 Migration
Economic opportunities have encouraged local people to move to various parts of
the country and abroad where they have settled now among the majority of people
speaking a different language. Here they are obviously adopting consciously and
absorbing unconsciously, the cultural and moral behaviour from their
surroundings. Being apologetic about their traditions, they shun their traditions
rather quickly and behave like other people thinking that would increase their
acceptance in the new society.

Moreover, the whole set of that natural environment, vegetation, cattle breeding is
missing in the urban setting, which never allows them to learn about those
activities. They dominantly speak different regional or the national language of
Pakistan. The youth in such migrant families in most of the cases do not even
know their mother tongue. Even if they know it a little they feel ashamed to speak
their own language. The cultural, lingual, social and ethnic identities have eroded
so easily in pursuing economic interests that they may fail to associate themselves
with the area, its culture and language in the foreseeable future.

Traditional Festivals

Historically there were a number of festivals celebrated by Burusho like

thurnusalin, (burning statue of a tyrant king) bophaw, (seed sowing) ginai
(harvesting), etc. Each event had a history, significance, a meaning and a way to
make preparations for and to celebrate it. (Hunzai, 2004). There were certain
mental concepts and vocabulary attached to it which may be lost with the lessening
of the significance of these celebrations.

Traditionally weddings, different religious and social occasions were celebrated

with great fervor and dedication. Now many such programmes are held in hotels,
almost completely sweeping away the cultural context these occasions traditionally
had.
 Women Related Vocabulary

Since the role and interests of women have changed drastically, many of the
particular games, activities, social gatherings, etc., have also changed. Symbolic
language like muring dukhatila, shi se nibo, gapal mukhuljibi, which was used to
tell family members that a girl or a woman of the house was going through a
menstrual cycle seems to be no more a part of the vocabulary. Similarly words
representing different stages of pregnancy, pre and post delivery factors, specific
illnesses of women are surprisingly replaced by English words and even old
women seem to be taking pride in using those terms rather than their own
traditional vocabulary.
Women traditionally used the most beautiful part of the language the language of
love and affection, sweet expressions of language, (uyam baas), ( Hu a i , 2003) and
phatic phrases (sapicin), the beautiffil praying expressions (Tiffou, 1993). The
stormy wave of social and economic change has occupied people mentally, as well
as changed their mindset because of which their vocabulary is becoming void of
these beautiful expressions. Traditionally women would address each other as
sakar mama, (sweet mother) sakar asagun (sweet nephew/niece), etc. The beautiful
prayers offered for those who served any communal or national cause constituted
the most touching part of the language: chabaye bo gumanis, (may you become like
a millet seed, may your off spring be numerous!), chis bone daman rizaa! (May the
Lord of mountain pastures be pleased! A prayer used by shepherds mostly) are
some of the beautiful examples.

Anchors
In this extremely chaotic state of affairs there are anchors, which are offering help
to the ship of Burushaski to keep sailing, such as Burushaski Devotional Poetry,
Burushaski Research Academy and Radio Programmes in Burushaski.
The Burushaski devotional poetry has played a very significant role in retaining its
important vocabulary. People remember these poems by heart and recite them
extensively, which binds them to a particular kind of vocabulary. Many poets of
the area are struggling to retain the vocabulary by devotional and other kinds of poetry.
Burushaski Research Academy has been founded by the first (sufi ) poet of Burushaski
language and the scholar of the area also known as Father of Burushaski Allamah
Nasir Hunzai. The Academy has published some valuable literature on Burushaski
Grammar, trained people at grass root level to teach the language, organizes
occasional cultural cum literary programmes for the people of the area and for
Burusho inhabitants of urban centres. The Academy has also published the first
Burushaski Urdu Dictionary in affiliation with the University of Karachi.
The Burushaski Radio Programmes and different artists of the area have also
played a crucial part in preserving the language.

Measures Required
Despite sporadic efforts to preserve the language, the ground reality is that
Burushaski vocabulary is being replaced fast by Urdu or English or other
regional languages. Some words are lost, some are dropped contentedly and
other new words are being imposed genuinely as people have no choice but to
use them.
There is an urgent need to create awareness among Burusho youth especially
about the beauty of their own culture and suggest ways and means of how they
could compatible manner with the changing times.

It appears that the Burusho have allowed themselves to be swept up by the

wave of change moving at a stormy speed, they have made no effort to stop
themselves and reflect upon what is happening to their culture and language.
They have become apologetic in their attitude about their traditional ways of
living and feel that they have to behave differently to be accepted by the
mainstream.
The strong sense of owning their culture and taking pride in it has to be
inculcated through positive literature, cultural shows, training women and
youth
Leitner (1985) believes that the customs and the historical and other
associations of a race are the basis of the so-called rules of grammar. The loss
of these customs could therefore lead to an irretrievable loss. He also calls the
destroying of a language by foreign intervention as an act of barbarism.

To preserve a language like Burushaski, which is an extremely precious

heritage of human history requires immediate attention. This according to
Hunzai (1998) is such an old language that it has some words of Hebrew in it
like iilikinas (worshipping).
This is an enormous challenge, which needs a lot of trained human resource,
material resources, initiation and will. Local and indigenous associations are
struggling against great odds. Many foreign researchers are aware in an
academic sense, ' but the actual change can only be the one that takes place in
the land of burushahski speaking people . this paper has tried to demonstrate
the interlinks ed nature of cultural and linguistic change brought about by
economic and cultural dominance issues. It is clear that in order to minimize
the negative impact of such rapid change there needs to be a strong co-
operative effort on the part of the community assisted by academia, civil
society organizations, NGOs and local and national government agencies..

References
Dani, A. H. (2001). History of Northern Areas of Pakistan (Upto 2000 AD).
Lahore: Sang-Meel Publications

Hunzai, N. (2005). Burushaski Jawhir Paray. Karachi: Burushaski Research

Academy in association with Bureau of Composition, Compilation and
Translation, University of Karachi, Academy of Letters Sindh Pakistan.

Hunzai, N. (2003) Shimol Bok. Karachi: Burushaski Research Academy in

association with Bureau of Composition, Compilation and Translation, University
of Karachi
Letiner, G. W. (1989, reprint, 1985). Dartistan in 1866, 1886 and 1893 The
Hunza and Nagar Handbook. Karachi : Indus Publications.

Hunzai, N. (n.d.) Buruso Birkis. Hunzo – Giilt Karaaci:Burusaski Risarc Ekadami.

Hunzai, N. (n.d.). Dekaran. Burusaski Research Papers Karachi :Burusaski

Research Academy

Lorimer, D. L. R. (1979), Materialien Zur Ethnographie Von Dardistan

(Pakistan). Graz!Austria: Akademische Druck - u. Verlagsanstalt.

Tiffou, E., Morin, Y. Ch., Berger, H., Lorimer, D. L. R. & Hunzai, N. (1993).
Hunza Proverbs. Calgary. Alberta: University of Calgary Press.