Purgi, Burig, Purki, Purik, Purigi or Puriki (Tibetan script: པུ་རིག་་སྐད།, Nastaʿlīq script: پُرگِی) is a Tibetic language closely related to the Ladakhi-Balti language. Purgi is natively spoken by the Purigpa people in Ladakh region of India and Baltistan region of Pakistan. There are about 94,000 native speakers of the language in India.[2]

Most of the Purigpas are Shia Muslims, although a significant number of them follow Noorbakhshi and Sunni Islam, and a small minority of Buddhists and Bön followers reside in areas like Fokar valley, Mulbekh, Wakha. Like the Baltis, they speak an archaic Tibetan dialect closely related to Balti and Ladakhi. Purigi is more closely related to Balti than Ladakhi, so there are different opinions among linguists in considering Purigi and Balti as different languages or simply different varieties of the same language.[3][4][5]

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Dental/
Alveolar
Retroflex Post-
alveolar
Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop voiceless p t ʈ k q
aspirated ʈʰ
voiced b d ɖ ɡ
Affricate voiceless t͡s t͡ʃ
aspirated t͡sʰ t͡ʃʰ
voiced d͡z d͡ʒ
Fricative voiceless (f) s ʂ ʃ χ h
voiced z ʒ ʁ
lateral ɬ
Trill/Tap r ɽ
Approximant lateral l
central w j
  • /pʰ/ may also be realized as a fricative [f].
  • /r/ is often fricativized, being heard as [r̝].

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e (ə) o
Open a
  • /a/ may often be heard as back [ʌ] or centralized [ʌ̈], and in certain environments as [ɛ].
  • Sounds /e, o/ may often be heard as [ɛ, ɔ].
  • /e/ can be heard as [ə] when in unstressed syllables.[4]

References

  1. ^ Purki at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ CENSUS OF INDIA 2011, PAPER 1 OF 2018 LANGUAGE INDIA, STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES, P. 11.
  3. ^ * N. Tournadre (2005) "L'aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes." Lalies, 2005, n°25, p. 7–56 [1]
  4. ^ a b Zemp, Marius (2018). A Grammar of Purik Tibetan. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-36631-2.
  5. ^ Rangan, K. (1979). Purki Grammar. Central Institute of Indian Languages.
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