ར་མ་ལུག་སྐད་
Ramaluk
Ramaluk (ra-ma-lug skad), literally “half-goat half-sheep” (language), is the informal term employed by Tibetans to refer to a range of different code-mixing practices, which may serve as a lingua franca for people from across the Himalaya. In New York, this most typically refers to mixing between Tibetan varieties and Nepali, as most ethnic Tibetans come to the city by way of Nepal, but as noted by Tournadre (2003), this term is also in wide use on the other side of the Nepali border to refer to code-mixing practices involving Tibetan and Chinese. The goat and sheep of the Ramaluk label signify hybridity but are variables that can stand for any language, lending even more ambiguity to the project of enumerating named language practices above and beyond the already difficult nature of enumerating languages themselves. Moreover, the “impure” nature of Ramaluk is seen as evidence of endangerment of Tibetan as it gives way to surrounding languages. Nepal-born individuals of Tibetan ancestry may claim to “only be able to speak Ramaluk as opposed to "pure" Tibetan.
Sites
NYC neighborhoods or towns in the metro region where the language community has a significant site, marked by a point on the map: