| Laya | |
|---|---|
| ལ་ཡ་ཁ་,layakha | |
| Native to | Bhutan |
| Region | Laya Gewog,Gasa District; northernPunakha District;Lingzhi Gewog,Thimphu District |
| Ethnicity | Layap |
Native speakers | 1,100 (2003)[1] |
| Tibetan | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | lya |
| Glottolog | laya1253 |
Laya (Dzongkha: ལ་ཡ་ཁ་, ལ་ཡག་ཁ་;Wylie:la-ya-kha,la-yag-kha)[2] is aTibetic variety spoken byindigenousLayaps inhabiting the high mountains of northwestBhutan in the village ofLaya,Gasa District. Speakers also inhabit the northern regions ofThimphu (Lingzhi Gewog) andPunakha Districts. Its speakers are ethnically related to theTibetans. Most speakers live at an altitude of 3,850 metres (12,630 ft), just below theTsendagang peak. Laya speakers are also calledBjop by the Bhutanese, sometimes considered a condescending term. There were 1,100 speakers of Laya in 2003.[3][4]
Laya is a variety ofDzongkha, thenational language of Bhutan.[5] There is a limited mutual intelligibility with Dzongkha, mostly in basic vocabulary and grammar.[6]
{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)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. | |||||
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