A divergent variety of the Shina Language

Brokskat
Minaro
འབྲོག་སྐད་ / بروقسکت
Native toIndia, Pakistan
RegionLadakh, Baltistan
EthnicityBrokpa (Minaro)
Native speakers
(about 3,000 cited 1996)[1]
Tibetan script, Nastaliq script[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3bkk
Glottologbrok1247
ELPBrokskat

Brokskat (Tibetan: འབྲོག་སྐད་, Wylie: ’brog skad)[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, part of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.[9]

Etymology

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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 Minaro and identify their ethnic group by the same name, Minaro. Interestingly, their ancient religion is also known as Minaro.

Vocabulary

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Caption text
English Brokskat in Roman script Brokskat in Bodyig script
Water wa ཝུའ་
Fire ghur གཱུར
Sun Suri སུརིའ་
Moon gyun གྱུན
Mountain chur ཆུར
Human mush མུཤ
Land bun བུན
Boy byo བྱོ
Girl molay མོལེའ་
Baby bubu བུའབུའ
Knife cutter ཀཊའར

Verb tenses

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Caption text
English Brokskat -present tense Brokskat-past tense Broskat-future tense Imperative
To go byas go byungs boyai
To stand autheis authait authiyungs authi
To Break phitais phitaiat phitiaungs phitai
To open aunis auniat auniungs auni
To laugh hazis hazit haziungs hazi
To sit bazhais bazhit bazhiungs bazhi
To walk zazis zazit zaziungs zazi
To throw faitis faitiat fatiungs fati
To look skis skait skiungs ski
Cut chhinis chinait chhiniungs chhini
To Count gyanis gyaniat gyaniungs gyani

References

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  1. ^ a b Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George (2007-07-26). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 889. ISBN 978-1-135-79711-9.
  2. ^ Brokskat-Urdu-Hindi-English Dictionary
  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 (2018-08-03). "Onstage and Offstage". Economic and Political Weekly. 53 (31) – via academia.edu. The mother tongue of the Brokpa is Minaro, 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)
  8. ^ Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George (2007-07-26). 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). 2022-03-16. Retrieved 2022-12-30.