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- Title
Patterns of Language Use among Balti Speakers of Kargil: A Sociolinguistic Study.
- Authors
Bashir, Zahid; Musavir, Ahmed
- Abstract
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir possesses several minority ethnolinguistic groups speaking different languages. The sustainability of these groups has been under continuous threat over the years. The prolonged language contact and migration of the members of these communities from traditional homelands to cities and towns has adversely altered their patterns of language use. When we notice some altered patterns of language use among indigenous languages, it becomes very difficult for its speaker to retain it in many domains of day-to-day use. Since language stability and maintenance is always seen as to how speakers use and maintain their language in comparison to the dominant language. Baker (2011) points out that language maintenance is the "relative language stability in the number and distribution of its speakers, its proficient usage by children and adults, and its retention in specific domains (e.g., home, school, religion)". Since the Erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir is home to several small and ethnic linguistic groups speaking different languages. The members of these groups have been migrating from their traditional homelands for many reasons to towns and cities. This migration of the speakers has decreased the demographic count of the speakers and the contact with dominant languages has also resulted in partial or complete shift from their mother tongues. The present paper is an attempt to inquire about patterns of language use among Ethnic community of Balti living in the far flung area of Kargil Tehsil of Union territory of Ladakh. The Ethnic Baltis of Kargil are migrating at an alarming rate to Srinagar and Ganderbal districts of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and members of the community are therefore in close contact with the dominant Kashmiri community. Therefore, it is obvious that the dominant languages like Urdu and Kashmiri may have taken some domains of languages which earlier used to be the domains of the ethnic language.
- Subjects
BALTI language; SOCIOLINGUISTICS; ANTHROPOLOGICAL linguistics; LANGUAGE contact; DOMINANT language
- Publication
Language in India, 2022, Vol 22, Issue 4, p36
- ISSN
1930-2940
- Publication type
Article