There are two dozenlanguages of Bhutan, all members of theTibeto-Burman language family except forNepali, which is anIndo-Aryan language, and theBhutanese Sign Language.[1]Dzongkha, the national language, is the only native language ofBhutan with a literary tradition, thoughLepcha and Nepali are literary languages in other countries.[2] Other non-Bhutanese minority languages are also spoken along Bhutan's borders and among the primarily Nepali-speakingLhotshampa community in South and East Bhutan. Chöke (orClassical Tibetan) is the language of the traditional literature and learning of the Buddhist monastics.
Geographically, sinceBhutan is predominantly located on theTibetan Plateau, almost all spoken languages of the country belong to the family ofSino-Tibetan languages, or more specifically, theBodish sprachbund.
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The Central Bodish languages are a group of relatedTibetic languages descended fromOld Tibetan. Most Bhutanese varieties of Central Bodish languages are of the Southern subgroup. At least six of the nineteen languages and dialects of Bhutan are Central Bodish languages.
Dzongkha is a Central Bodish language[2] with approximately 160,000 native speakers as of 2006.[3] It is the dominant language in Western Bhutan, where most native speakers are found. It was declared the national language of Bhutan in 1971.[4] Dzongkha study is mandatory in schools, and the majority of the population speaks it as a second language. It is the predominant language of government andeducation.[2] TheChocangaca language, a "sister language" to Dzongkha, is spoken in theKurichu Valley of Eastern Bhutan by about 20,000 people.[2]
TheLakha (8,000 speakers) andBrokkat languages (300 speakers) in Central Bhutan, as well as theBrokpa language (5,000 speakers) in far Eastern Bhutan, are also grouped by Van Driem (1993) into Central Bodish. These languages are remnants of what were originally pastoralyakherd communities.[2]
TheLaya dialect, closely related to Dzongkha, is spoken near the northwestern border withTibet by some 1,100Layaps. Layaps are an indigenous nomadic and semi-nomadic people who traditionally herd yaks anddzos.[5][6][7] Dzongkha speakers enjoy a limited mutual intelligibility, mostly in basic vocabulary and grammar.[8]
Khams Tibetan is spoken by about 1,000 people in two enclaves in Eastern Bhutan, also the descendants of pastoral yakherding communities.[2] Although it also is a by all accounts a Tibetic language, its exact subgrouping is uncertain.
Eight of the languages of Bhutan areEast Bodish languages, not members of the closely related Tibetic group but still likely descended from a close kin.[9]
TheBumthang language, orBumthangkha, is the dominant language in Central Bhutan. It has approximately 30,000 speakers. TheKheng andKurtöp languages are closely related to Bumthang. They have 40,000 and 10,000 speakers, respectively.
TheDzala language, orDzalakha, has about 15,000 speakers. TheNyen language, also calledHenkha orMangdebikha, and the'Ole language (also called the "Black Mountain language" or "Mönkha") are spoken in theBlack Mountains of Central Bhutan by about 10,000 and 3 speakers, respectively. Van Driem (1993) describes 'Ole as the remnant of the primordial population of the Black Mountains before the southward expansion of the ancient East Bodish tribes.[2]
TheDakpa (Dakpakha), also known as Brami in Bhutan,[10] andChali (Chalikha) languages are each spoken by about 1,000 people in Eastern Bhutan.[2]
![Part of the Sino-Tibetan language family, largely following Thurgood and La Polla (2003).[11] Here, the Monpa and Lepcha languages are shown as sister languages to Old Tibetan (all are grouped into the Bodic languages).](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aSinoTibetanTree.svg)
Other Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken in Bhutan. These languages are more distantly related to theBodish languages, and are not necessarily members of any common subgroup.
TheTshangla language, a subfamily of its own of theBodish languages, has approximately 138,000 speakers. It is the mother tongue of the Tshangla people, generally known by its exonymSharchops. It is the dominant language in Eastern Bhutan and was formerly spoken as alingua franca in the region.[2]
TheGongduk language is an endangered language that has approximately 1,000 speakers in isolated villages along theKuri Chhu river in Eastern Bhutan. It appears to be the sole representative of a unique branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family,[12] and retains the complex verbal agreement system of Proto-Tibeto-Burman.[13] Van Driem (1993) describes its speakers as a remnant of the ancient population of Central Bhutan before the southward expansion of the East Bodish tribes.[2]
TheLhokpu language has approximately 2,500 speakers. It is one of the autochthonous languages of Bhutan and is yet unclassified within Tibeto-Burmese. Van Driem (1993) describes it as the remnant of "the primordial population of Western Bhutan," and comments that Lhokpu or a close relative appears to have been the substrate language for Dzongkha, explaining the various ways in which Dzongkha diverged from Tibetan.[2] It is spoken by theLhop people.
TheLepcha language has approximately 2,000 ethnicLepcha people in Bhutan.[2] It has its own highly stylizedLepcha script.
TheSikkimese andGroma languages, bothTibetan languages, are spoken along the Sikkim-Bhutan and Tibet-Bhutan borders in Western Bhutan.[citation needed]
TheToto language is generally classified as belonging to thesub-Himalayan branch of the Tibeto-Burman family.[14] It is spoken by the isolatedToto tribe inTotopara and along theWest Bengal-Bhutan border in South Bhutan. The total Toto population was about 1,300 people in 2006,[14] mainly on theIndian side of the border.
TheNepali language is the onlyIndo-Aryan language spoken by native Bhutanese. Inside Bhutan, it is spoken primarily in the south by the approximately 265,000 residentLhotshampa as of 2006.[15] While the Lhotshampa are generally regarded as Nepali speakers (linguistically), the Lhotshampa include many smaller non-Indo-Aryan (esp. non-Gorkhali) groups such as theTamang[16] andGurung[16] in Southern Bhutan, and theKiranti groups (including theRai andLimbu peoples) found in Eastern Bhutan. Among these minorities are speakers ofChamling,Limbu, andNepal Bhasa.
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
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| WesternHimalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand,Nepal,Sikkim) |
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| EasternHimalayas (Tibet,Bhutan,Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
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| East andSoutheast Asia |
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| Dubious (possible isolates,Arunachal) |
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| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
