Ladakhi language

Ladakhi
ལ་དྭགས་སྐད།
Native to	India, China, Pakistan
Region	Kashmir (Ladakh and Baltistan)
Native speakers	600,000, all dialects [125,000 Ladakhi (1997), 130,000 Purik (1991), 340,000 Balti (1992)]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) Tibeto-Kanauri Bodish Tibetan Ladakhi
Writing system	Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lbj
ELP	Ladakhi

The Ladakhi language (Tibetan: ལ་དྭགས་སྐད་, Wylie: La-dwags skad), also known as Bodhi, and more generally called Western Archaic Tibetan when the Balti and Burig or Purig or Purki dialects are included, is the predominant language in the Ladakh region of the Jammu and Kashmir state of India, and is also spoken in Baltistan. Ladakhi is closely related to Tibetan, and the Ladakhi people share cultural similarities with Tibetans, including Tibetan Buddhism. 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 Tibet region of China, 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 transliteration, with a th denoting an aspirated dental t, for example.

Script

Ladakhi is usually written using Tibetan script. The phenomenon of diglossia is very much present in Ladakhi, with Ladakhi being much closer in pronunciation to written Tibetan than most other Tibetan dialects. Ladakhis pronounce many of the prefix, suffix and head letters that are silent in Amdo, Kham, Ü-Tsang or Lhasa Tibetan. This tendency is more pronounced to the west of Leh, and on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control, in Baltistan, all the prefix letters are pronounced. For example, a Tibetan would pronounce sta 'axe' as [ta], but a Ladakhi would say [sta]. While a Tibetan would pronounce ’bras 'rice' as [dre], Ladakhis say [dras], and the Kargilpa (Burig) say [bras].

See also

• Tibetan languages
• Standard Tibetan
• Khams Tibetan language
• Amdo Tibetan language
• Balti dialect

External links

• Report for Ladakhi at Ethnologue
• A Bibliography of Tibetan Linguistics