Language development
www.ethnologue.com classifies the language status as 6a – Vigorous, with an increasing language population, but not written. However it is clear to see that the language has improved to stage 5 – Developing, which means it is in the initial stages of being written as well. Allamah Nasiruddin Nasir Hunzai, often called the “Father of Burushaski”, Ghulam Uddin, who translated the Holy Qur’an into Burushaski , and Qudratullah Baig are the most senior mother tongue writers. Others follow more and more. Nowadays many Burushos use Burushaski on the mobile phone or to chat online. Thus, it is already a written language, but still without a commonly recognised orthography.
Scripts
About 80 years ago, when modern education came to Hunza, some educated Burushos started to write Burushaski. First, Haji Qudratullah Baig (passed away), who created the first Burushaski primer, in which he laid the foundation for writing Burushaski with Roman-English and Arabic-Urdu letters. After him came Allama Nasiiruddin Nasiir Hunzai (passed away) who wrote Burushaski poetry (Diwan-e-Nasiri), and who passed on the Burushaski alphabet with Roman-English letters developed by Hermann Berger, to the community.
