Ladakhi

The Ladakhi language is a Tibetic language spoken in the disputed 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 with Standard Tibetan. Ladakhis and Tibetans usually communicate with each other in Hindi or English as they do not understand each other’s languages clearly. Ladakhi has several dialects: Lehskat, named after Leh where it is spoken, Shamskat, spoken northwest of Leh, Stotskat, spoken in the Indus valley and which unlike the others is tonal, Nubra, spoken north of Leh, the Changthang language, spoken in the Changtang region by the Changpa people, and the Zangskari language, spoken in the Zanskar region of Ladakh. The Ladakhi language () is also referred to as Bhoti or Bodhi. The classification of Bhoti or Bodhi has connotations with Tibetan Buddhism, a major religion in the area. However, many Ladakhi people contest this classification as there are also Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Sikh speakers of Ladakhi. Nicolas Tournadre considers Ladakhi, Balti, and Purgi 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. Zangskari is a dialect of Ladakhi spoken in Zanskar and also spoken by Buddhists in the upper reaches of Lahaul (Himachal Pradesh) and Paddar (Paldar). It has four subdialects, Stod, Zhung, Sham, and Lungna. It is written using the Tibetan script by Buddhists and the Arabic script by Muslim and Christian Ladakhis. /b d ɡ/ can fricative sounds [β ð ɣ] as allophones that occur within free variation. /k/ has an allophone of a retracted velar stop [k̠]. /l r/ can have allophones [l̥ r̥] when occurring initially before a voiceless consonant. Allophones of /ə/ in word-final position are heard as [ä ɐ]. Allophones of /e o/ are heard as [ɛ̝ ɔ̝]. Allophones occur in free variation.