shina

Shina, also known as Shin or Sinaki, is an Indo-Aryan language in the Dardic branch spoken by the Shina people primarily in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. It is widely classified as part of the Dardic subgroup of the Indo-Aryan languages, although the exact relationships of Dardic languages are the subject of ongoing scholarly debate.

Shina has several regional varieties, with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility between dialects. The language is spoken by hundreds of thousands of people, with the highest concentrations in Gilgit-Baltistan and smaller communities in nearby areas. Estimates of the number of speakers vary by source and over time.

Historically, Shina has been written in a Perso-Arabic script in Pakistan; Latin transliterations are used in linguistic descriptions and for educational materials in some settings. There is no single widely standardized orthography, and dialectal differences influence spelling conventions. A body of oral literature exists, including folk songs and stories, alongside growing written material in the last decades.

Shina plays a central role in Shina identity and daily communication for its speakers. In Pakistan, it is recognized as a regional language with limited official status, used in local media and education to varying extents, while Urdu and other regional languages dominate formal domains. The language faces challenges from language shift and limited resources for preservation and education, though community efforts and academic work aim to document and promote Shina.