Ladakhi language

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Ladakhi
Spoken in:	India, China
Region:	Kashmir, Tibet
Total speakers:	120,000
Language family:	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Bodic Bodish Tibetan Western Ladakhi
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`—`
ISO 639-3:	`lbj`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

The Ladakhi language is the predominant language in the Ladakh region of the Jammu and Kashmir state of India. Ladakhi is closely related to Tibetan, and the Ladakh people share cultural similarities with Tibetans, including Tibetan Buddhism. Ladakhi has approximately 100,000 speakers in India, and perhaps 12,000 speakers in the Tibet region of China. Ladakhi has several dialects, Ladakhi proper (also called after the capital of Ladakh, Leh, where it is spoken); Shamma, spoken to the northwest of Leh; Stopta, spoken to the south east in the Indus alley; Nubra, spoken in the north. A variant of Ladakhi is also spoken by some in Zanskar. Ladakhi is romanised in a similar way to Hindi, 'th' denoting an aspirated 't,' for example.

[edit] Script

Ladakhi is usually written using Tibetan script. The phenomenon of diglossia is very much present in Ladakhi, with written Ladakhi being much closer to Tibetan proper^{[citation needed]}.