| Lhokpu | |
|---|---|
| Lhobikha, Taba-Damtoe-Bikha | |
| Native to | Bhutan |
| Region | southwestBhutan (Samtse,Chukha) |
| Ethnicity | Lhop people |
Native speakers | (2,500 cited 1993)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | lhp |
| Glottolog | lhok1238 |
| ELP | Lhokpu |
 Map of the Lhokpu language | |
 Lhokpu is classified as Definitely Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Lhokpu, alsoLhobikha orTaba-Damtoe-Bikha, is one of the autochthonous languages ofBhutan spoken by theLhop people. It is spoken in southwestern Bhutan along the border ofSamtse andChukha Districts. Van Driem (2003) leaves it unclassified as a separate branch within theSino-Tibetan language family.[2]
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | ɒ |
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | aspirated | plain | aspirated | |||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | pʰ | t | tʰ | c | k | |
| voiced | b | bʱ | d | dʱ | ɟ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
George van Driem (2001:804)[3] notes that Lhokpu, although unclassified, may be more closely related to theKiranti languages than toLepcha. Gerber, et al. (2016)[4] also notes a particularly close relationship between Lhokpu and Kiranti. Furthermore, van Driem (2001:804–805) notes thatDzongkha, the national language ofBhutan, may in fact have a Lhokpusubstratum.
Grollmann & Gerber (2017)[5] consider Lhokpu to have a particularly close relationship withDhimal andToto.
Lhokpu is spoken by theLhop—aDzongkha term meaning "Southerners"—, who "represent the aboriginal [gdung] Dung population of western Bhutan.[6]
According to theEthnologue, Lhokpu is spoken in Damtey, Loto Kuchu, Lotu, Sanglong, Sataka, and Taba villages, located between Samtsi and Phuntsoling, inSamtse District,Bhutan.
TheLhop people are animists rather than Buddhists, burying their dead rather than cremating them as Buddhists do. Their society ismatrilineal andmatrilocal.[7]
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WesternHimalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand,Nepal,Sikkim) |
|  | |||
| EasternHimalayas (Tibet,Bhutan,Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
| ||||
| East andSoutheast Asia |
| ||||
| Dubious (possible isolates,Arunachal) |
| ||||
| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
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