How much do the Balti, Ladakhi, and Dzongkha ( Bhutanese ) speakers understand Tibetan?
All the Tibetic languages do share some common features . Most of the nouns are same in all Tibetic languages.
Here’s a comparison of these four languages
Names of body parts:
Counting:
In Balti , Ladakhi and Tibetan the same system if mathematical counting is followed :
Number (11–19) are expressed as 10+ (1–9) ,
Number (21-99) are expressed in form of “(tens)+conjunction+(1-9)”. Different conjunctions are used according to the tens.
Balti and different Tibetan dialects:
Balti and Ladakhi belong to North-Western Tibetic language family , also known as Western Archaic Tibetan (non-tonal).
Dzong-kha is categorized as southern Tibetic language .
Standard Tibetan or Lhasa Tibetan falls under the central Tibetan sub group.
Balti resembles more the Kham dialect than other Tibetan dialects of U and Thsang and Amdo etc. First Tibetan settlers of Baltistan could be the Khambas or at least majority of the settlers were Khambas. Though Kham Tibetan is Tonal and Balti is Non Tonal. Among various dailects of Balti , the one spoken in Ghanche district has more resemblance with Ladakhi .
Now back to the question “ How much a Balti speaker understand Tibetan”?
Well , I can’t understand a complete sentence spoken in Tibetan , yet I might be able to understand few words. Balti and Tibetan aren’t mutually intelligible. I seldom listen Tibetan songs and I can’t understand it without English subtitle
let’s take an example:
There are some sentences which are quite similar.
English : Where are you From?
Tibetan: Kyed rang ga nas in?
Balti : Kye yang ga na in?
Then there are sentences which are totally different
English: Nice to meet you.
Tibetan: Kyid-rang mjal tsang dga,po byung
Balti: Kyi-ang na thuk fo rgyal-ba song
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