A Phonetic and Acoustic Study of Dento-Alveolar Phonemes in Balti

The present study attempts to classify consonants (Dento-Alveolar phonemes sounds only) of Balti language which is spoken in Baltistan region of Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan. The study selects Balti language because it is one of the lesser known languages in Pakistan and no significant work on the sounds and sound system of Balti language has ever been conducted. In order to classify Balti consonants, 120 different words were selected from different Balti books. Acoustic analysis of Balti consonants have been checked in order to show their physical features by using the software PRAAT. To record the samples of different Balti consonant sounds, the researcher selected 20 native Balti speakers between the age group of 16 to 35 studying in the Govt College (boys) Model Town and University of Management and Technology, Lahore Pakistan. The physical features of the sound samples of Balti native speakers were shown in the form of spectrograms for each sound. Acoustic analyses of Balti consonant sounds demonstrate that there are 5Dento-Alveolar phonemes in Balti language.