Brokskat language

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Brokskat
Minaro / مینارو
དརྡ་དི་ཨརྱ།Category:Articles containing Brokskat-language text / بروقسکتCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
Native toIndia, Pakistan
RegionLadakh, Baltistan
EthnicityBrokpa (Dards)
Native speakers
(about 3,000 cited 1996)Category:Language articles with old speaker data[1]
Tibetan script, Nastaliq script[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3bkk
Glottologbrok1247
ELPBrokskat
Category:ISO language articles citing sources other than Ethnologue

Brokskat (Tibetan: འབྲོག་སྐད་, Wylie: ’brog skadCategory:Articles containing Standard Tibetan-language text)[3] or Minaro[4] is an endangered Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Brokpa people in the lower Indus Valley of Ladakh and its surrounding areas.[1][5] It is the oldest surviving member of the ancient Dardic language.[6] It is considered a divergent variety of Shina,[7] but it is not mutually intelligible with the other dialects of Shina.[8] It is only spoken by 2,858 people in Ladakh and 400 people in the adjoining Baltistan (in areas such as the Kharmang Valley), part of Gilgit-Baltistan, a region administered by Pakistan.[9]

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Dental/
alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
plain labialized
Nasal m n ŋ
Stop voiceless p t k
voiced b d ɡ ɡʷ
Affricate voiceless t͡s
voiced d͡z
Fricative voiceless f s h
voiced v z
Approximant l j w
Trill r

Vowels

Vowel inventory[10]
Front Central Back
Close /i/ // /u/ //
Mid /e/ // /o/ //
Open /a/ //

Etymology

Exonym

The term Brokskat translates to 'the language of the Brokpa' in the Tibetic language. The name Brokpa is used by Ladakhi and Balti Tibetic origin people to refer to this ethnic group. Brokpa means 'hill-dweller' or 'hillbilly', reflecting their historical lifestyle as hunters in the upper mountainous regions.

Endonym

The Brokpa themselves refer to their language as MinaroCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text and identify their ethnic group with the term as well. Their ancient religion is also known as Minaro. Recent articles also refer to the Brokpa community as "Dard Aryans", recognizing it as their cultural identity.[11]

Vocabulary

EnglishBrokskat in Roman scriptBrokskat in Bodyig scriptNastaliq Script
WaterwaCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textཝུའ་Category:Articles containing Brokskat-language textواCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
FireghurCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textགཱུརCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textغُورCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
SunSuriCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textསུརིའ་Category:Articles containing Brokskat-language textسُوریCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
MoongyunCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textགྱུནCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textگیونCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
MountainchurCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textཆུརCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textچُھورCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
HumanmushCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textམུཤCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textمُوشCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
LandbunCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textབུནCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textبُونCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
BoybyoCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textབྱོCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textبیوCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
GirlmolayCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textམོལེའ་Category:Articles containing Brokskat-language textمولیہCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
BabybubuCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textབུའབུའCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textبُوبُوCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
KnifecutterCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textཀཊའརCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textقَٹرCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text

Verb tenses

There are two tenses, past and non-past.[12]

EnglishBrokskat-present tenseBrokskat-past tenseBroskat-future tenseImperative
To gobyasCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textgoCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text[note 1]byungsCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textboyaiCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
To standautheisCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textauthaitCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textauthiyungsCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textauthiCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
To breakphitaisCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textphitaiatCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textphitiaungsCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textphitaiCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
To openaunisCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textauniatCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textauniungsCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textauniCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
To laughhazisCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language texthazitCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language texthaziungsCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language texthaziCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
To sitbazhaisCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textbazhitCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textbazhiungsCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textbazhiCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
To walkzazisCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textzazitCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textzaziungsCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textzaziCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
To throwfaitisCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textfaitiatCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textfatiungsCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textfatiCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
To lookskisCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textskaitCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textskiungsCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textskiCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
To cutchhinisCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textchinaitCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textchhiniungsCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textchhiniCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text
To countgyanisCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textgyaniatCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textgyaniungsCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language textgyaniCategory:Articles containing Brokskat-language text

Notes

  1. Not english as per the citation in this section.

References

  1. 1 2 Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George (26 July 2007). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 889. ISBN 978-1-135-79711-9.
  2. "Brokskat-Urdu-Hindi-English Dictionary". 27 May 1989 via Internet Archive.
  3. Bray, John (2008). "Corvée transport labour in 19th and early 20th century Ladakh: a study in continuity and change". In Martijn van Beek; Fernanda Pirie (eds.). Modern Ladakh: Anthropological Perspectives on Continuity and Change. BRILL. p. 46. ISBN 978-90-474-4334-6.
  4. Bhagabati, Dikshit Sarma (3 August 2018). "Onstage and Offstage". Economic and Political Weekly. 53 (31) via academia.edu. The mother tongue of the Brokpa is Dardiarya, an Indo–Aryan language, though their vocabulary heavily borrows from Ladakhi.
  5. Ethnologue, 15th Edition, SIL International, 2005, p. 357 via archive.org, Minaro is an alternate ethnic name. "Brokpa" is the name given by the Ladakhi for the people. "Brokskat" is the language.
  6. Ethnologue, 15th Edition, SIL International, 2005, p. 357 via archive.org, Brokskat' is the language. This is the oldest surviving member of the ancient Dardic language.
  7. Ethnologue : languages of the world. Internet Archive. Dallas, Tex. : SIL International. 2005. ISBN 978-1-55671-159-6. A very divergent variety of Shina{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)Category:CS1 maint: others
  8. Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George (26 July 2007). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-79711-9. And is not mutually intelligible with the other shina language
  9. "بروسکت: پاکستان میں ایک نئی زبان دریافت". Independent Urdu (in Urdu). 16 March 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2022.Category:CS1 Urdu-language sources (ur)
  10. Ramaswamy 1982, p. 7.
  11. "The Dard Aryans of Ladakh: who are this tribe, what are their concerns?". 8 February 2019.
  12. ":: CIIL Grammars ::". grammars.ciil.org. Retrieved 29 January 2026.

Bibliography

  • Ramaswamy, N (1982). Brokskat Grammar. CIIL Grammar Series. Central Institute of Indian Languages.
Category:Dardic languages Category:Languages of Ladakh Category:Languages of Pakistan Category:Languages of Gilgit-Baltistan Category:Languages of India
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