Ladakhi language

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Ladakhi
Spoken in:	India, China,Pakistan
Region:	Kashmir, Tibet
Total speakers:	200,000
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.

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 Ladakhi people share cultural similarities with Tibetans, including Tibetan Buddhism. Scholars disagree, but most would accord Ladakhi the status of being a separate language because Ladakhi and Tibetan are not mutually intelligible, though they share a written form. 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 after the capital of Ladakh, Leh, where it is spoken); Sham skat, spoken to the northwest of Leh; Stopta, spoken to the south east in the Indus valley; and Nubra, spoken in the north. A variant of Ladakhi is also spoken by most people in Zanskar.

Ladakhi lacks the tonal elements of Tibetan.

Ladakhi is most often romanised using Wylie transliteration, with a'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 Ladakhi being much closer in pronunciation to written Tibetan than most other Tibetan dialects. Ladakhis pronounce many of the prefix and suffix letters that are silent in Amdo, Kham, or 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, or rice, as 'de' or 'dre', Ladakhis say 'dras', and Kargilpa will say 'bras'.