Ladakhi language
| Ladakhi | |
|---|---|
|
ལ་དྭགས་སྐད། Ladaks Skat |
|
| Native to | India, China, Pakistan |
| Region | Leh district of Jammu and Kashmir, Baltistan |
|
Native speakers
|
130,000 (2000–2001) |
| Tibetan script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either: lbj – Ladakhi zau – Zangskari |
| Glottolog |
lada1244 (Ladakhi)zang1248 (Zangskari)
|
The Ladakhi language (Tibetan: ལ་དྭགས་སྐད་, Wylie: La-dwags skad), also called Bhoti, is the predominant language in the Leh district of Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir, India. Ladakhi is a Tibetic language, but is not mutually intelligible with Standard Tibetan.
Ladakhi has approximately 100,000 speakers in India, and perhaps 12,000 speakers in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, mostly in the Qiangtang 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.
Nicolas Tournadre considers Ladakhi, Balti, and Purik to be distinct languages on the basis of mutual intelligibility. (Zangskari is not as distinct.) As a group they are termed Ladakhi–Balti or Western Archaic Tibetan, as opposed to Western Innovative Tibetan languages such as Spiti Bhoti.
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Wikipedia