Brokskat

Not to be confused with the Brokkat language of Bhutan.

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]

Brokskat
Minaro, Dardi
འབྲོག་སྐད་ / بروکسکت
Native to	India, Pakistan
Region	Ladakh, Baltistan
Ethnicity	Brokpa (Minaro, Makhano)
Native speakers	(about 3,000 cited 1996)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Eastern Dardic Shinaic Brokskat
Writing system	Tibetan script, Nastaliq script[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bkk
Glottolog	brok1247
ELP	Brokskat

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental/ alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
					plain	labialized
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t		k	kʷ
	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

	Front		Back
	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	/i/	/y/	/u/
Mid	/e/	/ø/	/o/
Open			/ɒ/

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.^{[citation needed]}

Endonym

The Brokpa themselves refer to their language as "Minaro" and identify their ethnic group by the Minaro as well. Interestingly, their ancient religion is known as "Minaro". Recent articles also refer to the Brokpa community as "Dard Aryans," recognizing it as their cultural identity.^[10]

Vocabulary

English	Brokskat in Roman script	Brokskat in Bodyig script	Brokskat in Nastaliq Script
Water	wa	ཝུའ་	وا
Fire	ghur	གཱུར	غُور
Sun	Suri	སུརིའ་	سُوری
Moon	gyun	གྱུན	گیون
Mountain	chur	ཆུར	چُھور
Human	mush	མུཤ	مُوش
Land	bun	བུན	بُون
Boy	byo	བྱོ	بیو
Girl	molay	མོལེའ་	مولئی
Baby	bubu	བུའབུའ	بُوبُو
Knife	cutter	ཀཊའར	قَٹر

Verb tenses

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
To cut	chhinis	chinait	chhiniungs	chhini
To count	gyanis	gyaniat	gyaniungs	gyani