INTRODUCTION
|
0.1
|
Family of languages
|
|
There are four major families of languages in India, viz,
Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman. The
languages spoken in Ladakh district belong to the Tibeto-Burman
family of languages and the Indo-Aryan. Purki belongs to the
former.
|
|
|
0.1.1.
|
Tibeto-Burman family
|
The languages of the Tibeto-Burman are spoken in Tibet in the
north and extend upto Burma in the south. Starting from
Baltistan in the west they extend to the Chinese provinces in
the east. They belong to the larger family of Indo-Chinese.
Indo-Chinese covers the Chinese Tai and the Burman family of
languages. Tibeto-Burman is further subdivided into Western
Tibetan, Central Tibetan, Southern Tibetan and North-eastern
Tibetan. The following genealogical tree shows the place of
purki in the Tibeto-Burman family.
|
|
INDO-CHINESE |
 |
|
|
0.1.2.
|
Some features of Tibeto-Burman family
|
|
The languages of the Tibeto-Burman family differ from the
languages of the Chinese-Tai in certain respects. Unlike the
languages of Chinese and Tai which have subject-verb-object (SVO)
word order, the languages of the Tibeto-Burman family have the
subject -object-verb (SOV) word order. Another significant
feature that should be pointed out is the exdtensive use of
auxiliasry words in Tibeto-Burman in order to connect the words
of a sentence and to explain their mutual relationship.
|
0.2.
|
Geographical distribution
|
The dialect under analysis is spoken in the Ladakh district of
Jammu and Kashmir. In the Ladakh district, Kargil tehsil is the
area where Purki speakers are concentrated. Purki area starts
from Zojila Pass and extendss upto Bhod-Kharbu, a village on the
highway from Srinagar to Leh.2
|
|
Purki is surrounded by the speakers of the Shina language and
Brokskat language. These two languages belong to Indo-Aryan
family. Most of the speakers of Shina and Brokskat languages are
bilinguals in Purki. They use Shina and Brokskat in their
respective villages and Purki when visiting Kargil for business
and official purposes. Purki speakers have contact with Ladakhi
speakerrs also. Ladakhi, another Tibeto Burman language of the
district, is the majority language of the district spoken by
sixdty percent of the total population.
|
Purki is the major language in the following villages of the
Ladakh district:
|
1. Kargil 2. Minji 3. Tripson 4. Salaskote 5. Lankenchai 6.
Farona 7. Sankoo 8. Panikhar 9. Namsoo 10. Tehsuru 11. Khawas
122. Achambur 13. Parachik 14. Jhoskor3 15. Tambis
16. Kanoor 17. Safi 18. Batambis 19.Umba 20. Pushkum 21.
Akchamal 22. Soath 23. Barchai 24. Apati 25. Yurbaltak 26.
Shakar 27. Chicktan 28. Hagnis 29. Lamsu
|
