The
Ladakhi language now also called
Bhoti, and by linguists more generally called
Western Archaic Tibetan when the Balti and
BurigThe Burig, or Purik, are another group of Tibetan Muslims with small Dardic admixture, who live south of the Balti in Ladakh. Most of them live in Ladakh and Baltistan, especially in Kargil, although significant numbers reside in Leh....
or Purig or Purki dialects are included, is the predominant language in the
LadakhLadakh is a region of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state of the Republic of India. It lies between the Kunlun mountain range in the north and the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent...
region of the
Jammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
state of
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and is also spoken in
BaltistanBaltistan , also known as بلتیول བལིུལ་ in the Balti language, is a region in northern Pakistan which forms Gilgit-Baltistan, bordering the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. In addition, a part of Baltistan also falls into Jammu and Kashmir of India. It is situated in the Karakoram mountains...
. Ladakhi is closely related to
TibetanThe Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
, and the Ladakhi people share cultural similarities with Tibetans, including
Tibetan BuddhismTibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
. There is disagreement as to whether they should be considered distinct languages, but Ladakhi and Central Tibetan are not mutually intelligible, though they share a written form dating back to Old Tibetan. Ladakhi has approximately 200,000 speakers in India, and perhaps 12,000 speakers in the
TibetTibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
region of
ChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, mostly in the Changthang region. Ladakhi has several dialects, Ladakhi proper (also called
Lehskat after the capital of Ladakh,
Leh, where it is spoken);
Shamskat, spoken to the northwest of Leh;
Stotskat, spoken to the southeast in the Indus valley; and Nubra, spoken in the north. The varieties spoken in Upper Ladakh and Zangskar have many features of Ladakhi and many other features of western dialects of Central Tibetan.
Most dialects of Ladakhi lack tone, but Stotskat and Upper Ladakhi are tonal like Central Tibetan.
Written Ladakhi is most often romanised using modified
Wylie transliterationThe Wylie transliteration scheme is a method for transliterating Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English language typewriter. It bears the name of Turrell V. Wylie, who described the scheme in an article, A Standard System of Tibetan Transcription, published in 1959...
, with a
th denoting an
aspiratedIn phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ...
dental
t, for example.
Script
Ladakhi is usually written using
Tibetan scriptThe Tibetan alphabet is an abugida of Indic origin used to write the Tibetan language as well as the Dzongkha language, Denzongkha, Ladakhi language and sometimes the Balti language. The printed form of the alphabet is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday...
with the pronunciation of Ladakhi being much closer to written
TibetanThe Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...
than most other Tibetan dialects. Ladakhis pronounce many of the prefix, suffix and head letters that are silent in
AmdoAmdo is one of the three traditional regions of Tibet, the other two being Ü-Tsang and Kham; it is also the birth place of the 14th Dalai Lama. Amdo encompasses a large area from the Machu River to the Drichu river . While culturally and ethnically a Tibetan area, Amdo has been administered by a...
,
KhamKhams Tibetan is the Tibetan language used by the majority of the people in the Kham region of eastern Tibet . It is one of the four main spoken languages of Tibetan, the other three being those of U-Tsang , Amdo and Western Tibetan...
,
Ü-TsangÜ-Tsang , or Tsang-Ü, is one of the three traditional provinces of Tibet, the other two being Amdo and Kham. Geographically Ü-Tsang covered the central and western portions of the Tibetan cultural area, including the Tsang-po watershed, the western districts surrounding and extending past Mount...
or
LhasaLhasa is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China and the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau, after Xining. At an altitude of , Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world...
Tibetan. This tendency is more pronounced to the west of Leh, and on the Pakistani side of the
Line of ControlThe term Line of Control refers to the military control line between the Indian- and Pakistani-controlled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which, to this day, does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary but is the de facto border...
, in
BaltistanBaltistan , also known as بلتیول བལིུལ་ in the Balti language, is a region in northern Pakistan which forms Gilgit-Baltistan, bordering the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. In addition, a part of Baltistan also falls into Jammu and Kashmir of India. It is situated in the Karakoram mountains...
. For example, a Tibetan would pronounce
sta 'axe' as [ta˦], but a Ladakhi would say [sta]. While a Tibetan would pronounce
’bras 'rice' as [ɳʈɛʔ˨], Ladakhis say [dras], and the
KargilKargil is a district of Ladakh, Kashmir, India. Kargil lies near the Line of Control facing Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's Baltistan to the west, and Kashmir valley to the south. Zanskar is part of Kargil district along with Suru, Wakha and Dras valleys...
pa (
BurigThe Burig, or Purik, are another group of Tibetan Muslims with small Dardic admixture, who live south of the Balti in Ladakh. Most of them live in Ladakh and Baltistan, especially in Kargil, although significant numbers reside in Leh....
) say [bras].
The question of whether to write colloquial Ladakhi in the Tibetan script or to write only a slightly Ladakhified version of Classical Tibetan is controversial in Ladakh. Muslim Ladakhis speak Ladakhi but most do not read the Tibetan script and most Buddhist Ladakhis can sound out the Tibetan script but do not understand Classical Tibetan, but some Ladakhi Buddhist scholars insist that Ladakhi must be written only in a form of Classical Tibetan. A limited number of books and magazines have been published in colloquial Ladakhi.
Recognition
On 27 Feb 2011, The Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh passed a resolution for inclusion of Bhoti language in the
Eight Schedule of the ConstitutionThe languages of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-European languages—Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian languages...
without any opposition.
See also
- Tibetan languages
- Standard Tibetan
Standard Tibetan is the most widely used spoken form of the Tibetan languages. It is based on the speech of Lhasa, an Ü-Tsang dialect belonging to the Central Tibetan languages. For this reason, Standard Tibetan is often called Central Tibetan...
- Khams Tibetan language
Khams Tibetan is the Tibetan language used by the majority of the people in the Kham region of eastern Tibet . It is one of the four main spoken languages of Tibetan, the other three being those of U-Tsang , Amdo and Western Tibetan...
- Amdo Tibetan language
The Amdo language is the spoken language of the majority of the people of Amdo in northeastern Tibet, in Chinese states of Qinghai and some parts of Sichuan and Gansu . It is one of the four main spoken languages of Tibetan, the other three being Standard Tibetan Kham and Ladakhi...
- Balti dialect
External links