-. urushaski is a `language isolate` whose relation to any other language family is not yet clear and is spoken by the Burusho people, primarily in the Hunza, Nagar and Yasin valleys of northern Pakistan. Shina is part of the Dardic family of Indo-Iranian languages and is spoken widely in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan areas of Pakistan. It is estimated that some 100,000 people speak Burushaski and over a million people speak Shina.

According to author Ijlal Hussainpur, `This book, a contribution to our understanding of two of Pakistan`s over seventy languages, is a labour of love on my part.` He goes on to explain that this book attempts to fill the huge gap of research on language use in everyday life in Pakistan.

Out of six chapters of the book, chapters 4, 5 and 6 effectively address the title of the book directly Language and Society in Gilgit-Baltistan: Shifting Patterns of Politeness in Burushaski and Shina Languages through detailed account of other research studies on Burushaski and Shina (mostly done by Europeans). Modes of address, including the use of personal pronouns, honorific titles, kinship terms, vocatives and endearment terms, requests, greetings and apologies, are explained and illustrated through examples.

Non-verbal signals of politeness, such as hand movements and more bodily gestures and those with the eyes, are described in chapter 5.

Hussainpur observes that local political leaders address most of their public meetings in Urdu but they also switch to Shina and Burushaski to put across certain points that they want to emphasise in their speeches. In formal settings, junior and senior government officials address each other in Urdu, even if they speak the same mother tongue, ie Burushaski or Shina. They switch back to their mother tongue as soon as the meeting or the formal event is over.

Another important finding related to politeness expressed in code-switching is that Burushaski and Shina do not have any third-person polite verbs, whereas the polite third-person verb is a common feature in Urdu.

Hussainpur stresses the `unprecedented` process of ongoing changein the world and that modernisation is impacting the patterns of behaviour of traditional or rural societies, including the language syntax.

About two-thirds of the book is dedicated to the history of scholarly research studies carried out in the languages of North Pakistan. There are also numerous tables included in the book. Many of these may be termed as highly technical for the average reader. In this respect, the author writes that `The tradition of studies on Shina and Burushaski, dating back to the middle of the 19th century, has been carried out to this day.

Many scholars from Pakistan and abroad have continued research on these and other languages of Gilgit-Baltistan. `In this respect, there are three monumental works that have contributed immenselyto promoting research and scholarship in the languages, history and culture of Gilgit-Baltistan.

The first and second research projects were led by a team of accomplished researchers from the Summer Institute of Linguistics (now known as SIL Global) who worked in collaboration with the National Institute of Pakistan Studies (NIPS) at the Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.

The team`s first and foremost contribution is the five-volume Sociolinguistic Survey of Northern Pakistan (SSNP, 1992), which contains the most comprehensive linguistic survey of 25 languages from within northern Pakistan. The areas included in the survey were Swat, Hunza, Kohistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral.

The second major contribution of SIL and NIPS is the publication in 2001 of The Bibliography of Languages of Northern Pakistan, regarded as `the first volume` and a `work in progress` by its authors Joan Baart and Esther Baart-Bremer.

The third research project is Culture Area Karakuram, popularly known as CAK. The project has made an invaluable contribution to multidisciplinary research on the high mountain regions of GilgitBaltistan. The German Research Foundation (DFG) funded CAK from 1989-1998. The project was jointly led by Professor Irmtraud Stellrecht from Germany and Professor A.H. Dani from Pakistan, who conducted extensive research in northern Pakistan on topics ranging from glaciology and the environment to prehistory and linguistics.

The author observes that Gilgit-Baltistan is largely bilingual and, in most cases, multilingual due to increased language contact within the region and with the outside world. Urdu, with varied levels of proficiency, is spoken in almost all parts of the region and it is popular as the second language among speakers of all the dialects of Burushaski and Shina.

`In addition to Urdu, proficiency in Shina among the native speakers of Burushaski in Gilgit, Hunza and Nagar is clearly noticeable.

Many speakers of Wakhi in Upper Hunza can also speak Burushaski, together with Wakhi and Urdu. The Shina speakers of Skardu can speak Balti as competently as a native Balti speaker.

The reasons for this widespread multilingualism are manifold.

First, Urdu is the common medium of instruction in schools across Gilgit-Baltistan. Secondly, the desire for advancement, good jobs and better business opportunities is a powerful motivating factor in language use choice. Urdu and English are generally seen as the keys to these opportunities.

Thirdly, the Burushaski speakers` contact with Shina in Gilgit and Khowar in Yasin is almost on a daily basis, because `Shina in Gilgit and Khowar in Yasin have the status of environmental languages and carry more prestige.

The author Ijlal Hussainpur is the founder and director of the Silk Road Centre, which works to promote cultural heritage, education and civil society. He has a PhD in Asian Studies and an MPhil in Pakistani Linguistics from the Quaid-i-Azam University.

The study in the book can be a valuable source for scholars and researchers on Gilgit-Baltistan`s society, culture and languages.

Some allusion to the indigenous literature folk, fiction and nonfiction would have made the study even more so, especially for a general reader.

The reviewer is afreelance writer and translator.

He can be reached at mehwer@yahoo.com