| Bumthang | |
| States: | Bhutan |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Speakers: | 20,000 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Fam2: | Tibeto-Burman |
| Fam3: | Tibeto-Kanauri (?) |
| Fam4: | Bodish |
| Fam5: | East Bodish |
| Iso3: | kjz |
| Glotto: | bumt1240 |
| Glottorefname: | Bumthangkha |
| Map: | Languages of Bhutan with labels.svg |
| Mapcaption: | Linguistic map of Bhutan, showing the location where Bumthang is spoken |
The Bumthang language (dz|བུམ་ཐང་ཁ་,); also called "Bhumtam", "Bumtang(kha)", "Bumtanp", "Bumthapkha", and "Kebumtamp") is an East Bodish language spoken by about 20,000 people in Bumthang and surrounding districts of Bhutan.[1] [2] Van Driem (1993) describes Bumthang as the dominant language of central Bhutan.[2]
Historically, Bumthang and its speakers have had close contact with speakers of the Kurtöp, Nupbi and Kheng languages, nearby East Bodish languages of central and eastern Bhutan, to the extent that they may be considered part of a wider collection of "Bumthang languages."[3] [4] [5]
Bumthang language is largely lexically similar with Kheng (98%), Nyen (75%–77%), and Kurtöp (70%–73%); but less so with Dzongkha (47%–52%) and Tshangla (40%–50%, also called "Sharchop").[1] It is either closely related to or identical with the Tawang language of the Monpa people of Tawang in India and China.[1]
Bumthang is either written with the Tibetan or Romanized Dzongkha scripts.
| Tibetan script | Romanization | Phonetic value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ཀ་ | k | [k] | |
| ཁ་ | kh | [kʰ] | |
| ག་ | g | [g] | |
| ང་ | ng | [ŋ] | |
| ཅ་ | c | [c] | |
| ཆ་ | ch | [cʰ] | |
| ཇ་ | j | [ɟ] | |
| ཉ་ | ny | [ɲ] | |
| པ་ | p | [p] | |
| ཕ་ | ph | [pʰ] | |
| བ་ | b | [b] | |
| མ་ | m | [m] | |
| ཏ་ | t | [t̪] | |
| ཐ་ | th | [t̪ʰ] | |
| ད་ | d | [d̪] | |
| ན་ | n | [n̪] | |
| ཏྲ་ | tr | [ʈ] | |
| ཐྲ་ | thr | [ʈʰ] | |
| དྲ་ | dr | [ɖ] | |
| ཙ་ | ts | [t͡s] | |
| ཚ་ | tsh | [t͡sʰ] | |
| ཛ་ | dz | [d͡z] | |
| ས་ | s | [s] | |
| ཟ་ | z | [z] | |
| ཤ་ | sh | [ʃ] | |
| ཞ་ | zh | [ʒ] | |
| ཤྲ་ | shr | [r̥] | |
| ཧྲ་ | hr | [rʰ] | |
| ཞྲ་ | zhr | [ɼ] | |
| ཝ་ | w | [w] | |
| ཡ་ | y | [j] | |
| ལ་ | l | [l] | |
| ལྷ་ | lh | [l̥] | |
| ར་ | r | [r] | |
| ཧ་ | h | [h] | |
| ཧྱ་ | hy | [hʲ] | |
| འ་ | a | à | |
| ཨ་ | 'a | á | |
| འ་ེ | e | è | |
| ཨ་ེ | 'e | é |
| Plosive | Voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ <tr> | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Aspirated | ʈh | ch | kh | ||||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /link/, t͡sh | ||||||||
| Fricative | Voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | h hj | |||||
| Voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Lateral | pronounced as /link/, l̥ | ||||||||
| Trill | rh <hr>, r̥ | ɼ | |||||||
| Close | i i: <î> y: <ü> | u u: <û> | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close-mid | e e: <ê> | ||
| Mid | o o: <ô> | ||
| Open-mid | œ: <ö> | ||
| Open | æ <ä> | ɑ ɑ: <â> |
Bumthang is an ergative–absolutive language. The ergative case is not used on every transitive subject, but, like in many other languages of the region shows some optionality, discussed in detail by Donohue & Donohue (2016).[6] Using the ergative denotes a high degree of agentivity of the subject.
| Absolutive | Ergative | Genitive | Dative | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | singular | plural | singular | plural | singular | plural | |
| 1st | ngat | nget | ngai (ngaile) | ngei (ngeile) | ngae (ngale) | nge (ngele, ngegi) | ngado | ngedo |
| 2st | wet | yin | wi (wile) | yinle | we (wele) | yinde | wedo | yindu |
| 3rd | khit | bot | khi (khile) | boi (boile) | khi (khile) | böegi (boeli) | khidu | bodo |
The numeral system of Bumthang is largely base-20. The numeral thek 'one' is also used to denote 'a/an, a certain one'.
| 1 | thek | 11 | chwaret | 21 | khaethek neng thek | |
| 2 | zon | 12 | chwa'nyit | 22 | khaethek neng zon | |
| 3 | sum | 13 | chusum | 40 | khaezon | |
| 4 | ble | 14 | cheble | 60 | khaesum | |
| 5 | yanga | 15 | chänga | 400 | nyishuthek | |
| 6 | grok | 16 | chöegrok | 420 | nyishuthek neng tsathek | |
| 7 | 17 | cher'nyit | 440 | nyishuthek neng tsazon | ||
| 8 | jat | 18 | charjat | 481 | nyishuthek neng tsable doma thek | |
| 9 | dogo | 19 | chöedogo | 800 | nyishuzon | |
| 10 | che | 20 | khaethek | 8000 | khaechenthek |