The Shamskat dialect ( lbj, ) of the

Ladakhi language The Ladakhi language is a Tibetic language spoken in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. It is the predominant language in the Buddhist-dominated district of Leh. Though a member of the Tibetic family, Ladakhi is not mutually intelligible wi ...

is spoken in the Sham region 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 ...

, a region administered by India as a union territory. Along the Indus, there is a clear geographical boundary between two dialects of Shamskat and Kenskat. Nimo, the first village of Shamskat speakers, lies in the sharply cut basin near the narrow gorge of Indus river. It is the predominant language in the west of 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 ...

. Shamskat pronunciation resembles classical Tibetan language. Shamskat retains its classical Tibetan vocabulary while the

Balti language Balti (Nastaʿlīq script: , Tibetan script: སྦལ་ཏི།, ) is a Tibetic language natively spoken by the ethnic Balti people in the Baltistan region of Gilgit−Baltistan, Pakistan, Nubra Valley of the Leh district and in the Karg ...

and

Purgi language Purgi, Purigi or Puriki (Tibetan script: , Nastaʿlīq script: ) is a Tibetic language closely related to the Balti language. Purgi is natively spoken by the Purigpa people in Ladakh region of India and Baltistan region of Pakistan. Most of t ...

have little influence from its neighbour Shina vocabulary. The native speakers of these languages are called shamma.

Pronunciation

Shamskat 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 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 ...

. Shamskat pronounces many of the prefix, suffix and head letters that are silent in many other Tibetic languages, in particular

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 ...

.Bielmeier, Roland. 1985. 'A Survey of the Development of Western and South-western Tibetan dialects', in Barbara Nimri Aziz and Matthew Kapstein (eds.), ''Soundings in Tibetan Civilisation''.

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