Shina (also known as Tshina) is a Dardic language spoken by a plurality of people in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan and Dras in Ladakh of India. The valleys in which it is spoken include Astore, Chilas, Dareil, Tangeer, Gilgit, Ghizer, and a few parts of Baltistan and Kohistan. It is also spoken in Gurez, Drass, Kargil, Karkit Badgam and Ladakh valleys of Jammu and Kashmir. There were 321,000 speakers of Gilgiti Shina as of 1981, and an estimated total of speakers of all dialects of 550,000. Many Shina speakers are also found in Pakistan's major urban centres of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Abbottabad, Hyderabad and Karachi.
