Information from: “Why Ladakhi must not be written – Being part of the Great Tradition: Another kind of global thinking” (175-194) . Zeisler, Bettina (2006) , Saxena, Anju and Borin, Lars · Mouton de Gruyter
DOMAINS OF USE
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SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
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TRANSMISSION
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- MORE ON VITALITY
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"Children at private and governmental schools in Ladakh get at least some expalanations in Ladakhi, but more and more families tend to send even small children to schools in other parts of India where this is simply impossible, not to speak of learning the Tibetan alphabet.... For a long time, the Ladakhi program of All India Radio which was broadcast from the Leh radio station was the main modern and far-reaching medium of information... Nowadays, the impact of the Leh dialect might be reduced by the upgrading of schools and civil services in remote villages, the installation of a second radio station in Kargil, and the switch to more fashionable media.... Hindi and Urdu, the languages of the media, as well as English, the language of higher education, are associated with high social prestige, so that educated townspeople may refuse to talk Ladakhi with the foreigner, and one may observe two Ladakhi families in Leh handling the matrimonial negotiations basically in Urdu. The language, thus, is under strong pressure, and may soon reach the stage of endangerment. Unfortunately, the oral tradition of story telling has come more or less to an end. The children are too much occupied with their homework, and radio, TV, and videos help to bide the time in a more fashionable way. Furthermore, there is no literary tradition in Ladakhi phalskat that could slow down the trend, and all efforts to establish it are opposed by the dominant Buddhist scholars as being anti-Buddhist or as lacking in traditional scholarship." (p.177-178)
- OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
- Scripts (Writing system)
- Tibetan scripts