The Shina Language and Gilgit-Baltistan

Dr Amir Haider is a distinguished linguist whose work reflects a deep and well-established understanding of the Shina language. His scholarly study of Shina is of considerable value, particularly at a time when greater attention is needed to document, preserve, and understand the linguistic heritage of Gilgit-Baltistan.

The piece referred to below is especially significant in this regard. It offers valuable insights into the origin, evolution, structure, and continuing vitality of Shina, and can serve as an important contribution towards a deeper understanding of this ancient and living language. It deserves to be read not merely as a linguistic study, but also as an effort to illuminate an important dimension of the cultural heritage of the Shina-speaking people.

“A Language Should Neither Be Frozen nor Artificially Altered”

By Dr. Amir Haider

Shina is an ancient and living language. Its survival is itself evidence that, over the centuries, its speakers have adapted to changing circumstances, new realities and the influence of other languages in their own distinctive way. We should therefore neither regard Shina as a language that must remain completely unchanged, nor as one that anyone may alter at will.

Both extremes can be harmful. On the one hand, freezing a language in an unchanging form can hinder its natural evolution. On the other, allowing everyone to coin or modify words according to personal preference, without linguistic research or understanding, can create confusion and inconsistency within the language.

The better course lies somewhere between these two extremes. We should respect the natural use of the language, document the actual speech of native speakers, understand its linguistic principles and, wherever necessary, adopt standardized forms through consultation with language experts.

The Shina language belongs to no single individual, group or institution. It is the shared heritage of all those who have spoken it and passed it down from one generation to another. Therefore, when discussing new words and names, we should avoid questioning one another’s intentions. Instead, our discussions should be grounded in linguistic principles, the authentic usage of native speakers and sound research.

A new word should not be changed merely because it has been borrowed from another language. Nor should it necessarily be retained in exactly the same form simply because it is written that way in the language from which it originated.

The fundamental question should be:

Does this form conform to Shina’s phonological system, word structure, meaning, grammar and the actual usage of its native speakers?

If we adopt this principle, the incorporation of new words into Shina can become an academic, scientific and collective process rather than a matter of personal preference and disagreement.

To understand a language is perhaps the best way of loving it; and to improve a language is impossible without first understanding its natural character and inherent linguistic temperament.

— Dr. Amir Haider

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