The Ladakhi language is a
Tibetic language
The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descended from Old Tibetan (7th to 9th centuries).Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptiv ...
spoken in the Indian
union territory of
Ladakh
Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu and ...
. It is the predominant language in the
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
-dominated district of
Leh
Leh () ( lbj, ) is the joint capital and largest city of Ladakh, a union territory of India. Leh, located in the Leh district, was also the historical capital of the Kingdom of Ladakh, the seat of which was in the Leh Palace, the former res ...
. Though a member of the Tibetic family, Ladakhi is not mutually intelligible with
Standard Tibetan
Lhasa Tibetan (), or Standard Tibetan, is the Tibetan dialect spoken by educated people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
In the traditional "three-branch ...
.
Ladakhi has several dialects: ''Lehskat'' after
Leh
Leh () ( lbj, ) is the joint capital and largest city of Ladakh, a union territory of India. Leh, located in the Leh district, was also the historical capital of the Kingdom of Ladakh, the seat of which was in the Leh Palace, the former res ...
, where it is spoken;
shamskat, spoken in the northwest of Leh; ''Stotskat'', spoken in the
Indus valley
The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...
and which is tonal unlike the others; ''Nubra'', spoken in the north of Leh ,
Changthang language
Changthang Skad, also known as Byangskat or Upper Ladakhi, ( Ladakhi: ཆངཐང་སཀད) is a dialect of Ladakhi language spoken in a Changthang region on the border of Tibet, Ladakh and Baltistan. Speakers identify ethnically with the ...
which is spoken in a changthang region and
Zanskari language
Zangskari (Zanskari, Zaskari) is an endangered Tibetic language. It is mostly spoken in Zanskar in Union Territory of Ladakh, India, and also by Buddhists in the upper reaches of Lahaul, Himachal Pradesh, and Paddar, Jammu and Kashmir. It is ...
which is spoken in zanskar region of Ladakh
Name
The Ladakhi language () is also called Bhoti or Bodhi.
However, since Bhoti and Bodhi sound like “Buddhist” and can alienate Ladakhi Muslims who speak the same language, most Ladakhis usually refer to their language as Ladakhi.
Classification
Nicolas Tournadre
Nicolas Tournadre is a professor at the University of Provence specializing in morphosyntax and typology. He is a member of the LACITO lab of the CNRS.
His research mainly deals with ergative morphosyntax and grammatical semantics of tense, a ...
considers Ladakhi,
Balti, and
Purgi to be distinct languages on the basis of
mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
(Zangskari is not as distinct). As a group they are termed Ladakhi–Balti or Western Archaic Tibetan.
Zangskari is a dialect of Ladakhi spoken in Zanskar and also spoken by Buddhists in the upper reaches of
Lahaul
The Lahaul and Spiti district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh consists of the two formerly separate districts of Lahaul () and Spiti (; or ). The present administrative centre is Kyelang in Lahaul. Before the two districts were merged, ...
(
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...
) and
Paddar
Paddar, also spelled Padar ( hi, pāḍar), is a Sub-District and remote valley in the Kishtwar district of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It falls in the Jammu division. It consists of two tehsils namely Machail and Atholi ...
(Paldar).
It has four subdialects, Stod, Zhung, Sham, and Lungna. It is written using the
Tibetan script
The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system (''abugida'') of Brahmic scripts, Indic origin used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Lhasa Tibetan, Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese language, Sikkimese, Ladakhi language, Ladakhi, Jire ...
by Buddhists and the
Arabic script
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...
by Muslim and Christian Ladakhis.
Phonology
Consonants
* can fricative sounds as allophones that occur within free variation.
* has an allophone of a retracted velar stop .
* can have allophones when occurring initially before a voiceless consonant.
Vowels
* Allophones of in word-final position are heard as .
*Allophones of are heard as .
*Allophones occur in free variation.
Script
Ladakhi is usually written using
Tibetan script
The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system (''abugida'') of Brahmic scripts, Indic origin used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Lhasa Tibetan, Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese language, Sikkimese, Ladakhi language, Ladakhi, Jire ...
with the pronunciation of Ladakhi being much closer to written
Classical Tibetan
Classical Tibetan refers to the language of any text written in Tibetic after the Old Tibetan period. Though it extends from the 12th century until the modern day, it particularly refers to the language of early canonical texts translated from oth ...
than most other
Tibetic languages
The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descended from Old Tibetan (7th to 9th centuries).Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptiv ...
. Ladakhis pronounce many of the prefix, suffix and head letters that are silent in many other Tibetic languages, in particular the
Central Tibetan
Central Tibetan, also known as Dbus, Ü or Ü-Tsang, is the most widely spoken Tibetic languages, Tibetic language and the basis of Standard Tibetan.
''Dbus'' and ''Ü'' are forms of the same name. ''Dbus'' is a transliteration of the name in Ti ...
. This tendency is more pronounced to the west of Leh, and on the Pakistani side of the
Line of Control
The Line of Control (LoC) is a military control line between the Indian and Pakistanicontrolled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary, but serve ...
, in
Baltistan
Baltistan ( ur, ; bft, སྦལ་ཏི་སྟཱན, script=Tibt), also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet ( bft, སྦལ་ཏི་ཡུལ་།, script=Tibt), is a mountainous region in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilg ...
. For example, a Tibetan would pronounce ''sta'' 'axe' as
á but a Lehpa would say
ta and a purgi would pronounce
tare While a Tibetan would pronounce འབྲས་ (’bras) 'rice' as
ʈɛ́ʔ Lehpa say
as and the purgii pronounce it as
ras
Ras or RAS may refer to:
Arts and media
* RAS Records Real Authentic Sound, a reggae record label
* Rundfunk Anstalt Südtirol, a south Tyrolese public broadcasting service
* Rás 1, an Icelandic radio station
* Rás 2, an Icelandic radio stati ...
The question of whether to write colloquial Ladakhi in the Tibetan script or to write only a slightly Ladakhified version of
Classical Tibetan
Classical Tibetan refers to the language of any text written in Tibetic after the Old Tibetan period. Though it extends from the 12th century until the modern day, it particularly refers to the language of early canonical texts translated from oth ...
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.
Written Ladakhi is most often romanised using modified
Wylie transliteration
Wylie transliteration is a method for transliterating Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English-language typewriter. The system is named for the American scholar Turrell V. Wylie, who created the system and published i ...
, with a ''th'' denoting an
aspirated dental ''t'', for example.
Recognition
A section of Ladakhi society has been demanding inclusion of a newly named language, Bhoti, to be added to the
8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. They claim that Bhoti is spoken by Ladakhis, Baltis, Tibetans, and throughout the
Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
from
Baltistan
Baltistan ( ur, ; bft, སྦལ་ཏི་སྟཱན, script=Tibt), also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet ( bft, སྦལ་ཏི་ཡུལ་།, script=Tibt), is a mountainous region in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilg ...
to
Arunachal Pradesh
Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...
.
References
External links
*A. H. Francke 190
A Sketch of Ladakhi Grammar'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal'' 70.1
{{Ladakh
Bodic languages
Languages of Gilgit-Baltistan
Languages of Ladakh
Culture of Ladakh
Languages written in Tibetan script