Zangskari dialect (Zanskari, Zaskari) is an

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

Tibetic language The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descending from Old Tibetan.Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptive linguistics of the H ...

. It is a dialect of

Ladakhi language The Ladakhi language is a Tibetic language spoken in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. It is the predominant language in the Buddhist-dominated district of Leh district, Leh, and a minority language in the district of Kargil district#Langua ...

. It is mostly spoken in the

Zanskar Zanskar, Zahar (locally) or Zangskar, is the southwestern region of Kargil district in the Indian union territory of Ladakh. The administrative centre of Zanskar is Padum. Zanskar, together with the rest of Ladakh, was briefly a part of the kin ...

region of the

Kargil district Kargil district is a district in Indian-administered Ladakh in the Kashmir#Dispute, disputed Kashmir-region,The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the ...

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

, India and also by

Buddhists Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE. It is the world's fourth ...

in the upper reaches of

Lahaul The Lahaul and Spiti district is a high-altitude district in Himachal Pradesh, north India. This entirely mountainous district consists of two geographically distinct as well as formerly separate political-administrative units, called Lahaul ( ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; Sanskrit: ''himācāl prādes;'' "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a States and union territories of India, state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen Indian Himalayan ...

, and

Paddar Paddar, also spelled Padar (), is a Sub-District and remote valley in the Kishtwar district of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir, India. It falls in the Jammu division, Jammu division. It consists of ...

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

. It is written using the

Tibetan script The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system, or '' abugida'', forming a part of the Brahmic scripts, and used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. Its exact origins ...

. Zangskari is divided into four homogeneous groups, namely Oot (''Stod'') or Upper Zanskari spoken along the

Doda River The Doda River or the Stod River is a river long, which forms the Stod Valley in the Zanskar valley of the Leh district in the Union Territory of Ladakh in India. Geography The Doda River rises from the Drang-Drung Glacier near Pensi La, ...

, Zhung (''Gžun'') or Central Zanskari mostly spoken in

Padum valley Padum (also known as Padam) is the main town and the administrative centre of the Zanskar tehsil in Kargil district, Ladakh, India. Named after the Buddhist guru Padmasambhava, it was historically one of the two main capitals of the Zanskar Kin ...

, Sham (''Gšam'') or Lower Zanskari spoken along the lower portions of

Zanskar River The Zanskar River is the first major tributary of the Indus River, equal or greater in volume than the main river, which flows entirely within Ladakh, India. It originates northeast of the Great Himalayan range and drains both the Himalayas and t ...

and lastly Lungnak (''Luŋnag'') along the upper Zanskar River region.

References

External links

Endangered Languages Project Profile for Zangskari
* *
Free-access archived version of ''Zangskari'' at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015).
Archived 1 December 2016. {{Bodic languages Endangered languages of India Languages of Ladakh Kargil district Languages written in Tibetan script Bodic languages Culture of Ladakh Ladakh

References

Further reading

External links