Dzongkha Explained

Dzongkha
Also Known As:Bhutanese
States:Bhutan
Ethnicity:Ngalop people
Speakers:171,080
Date:2013
Ref:e18
Speakers2:Total speakers: 640,000[1]
Familycolor:Sino-Tibetan
Fam2:Tibeto-Burman
Fam3:Tibeto-Kanauri (?)
Fam4:Bodish
Fam5:Tibetic
Fam6:Dzongkha–Lhokä
Ancestor:Proto-Sino-Tibetan
Ancestor2:Old Tibetan
Ancestor3:Classical Tibetan
Script:Tibetan script
Dzongkha Braille
Agency:Dzongkha Development Commission
Dia1:Laya
Dia2:Lunana
Dia3:Adap
Iso1:dz
Iso2:dzo
Iso3:dzo
Glotto:nucl1307
Glottorefname:Nuclear Dzongkhic
Lingua:70-AAA-bf
Map:Dzongkha native language districts.svg
Mapcaption:Districts of Bhutan in which the Dzongkha language is spoken natively are highlighted in yellow.
Notice:IPA

Dzongkha (; pronounced as /d͡zòŋkʰɑ́/) is a Tibeto-Burman language that is the official and national language of Bhutan.[2] It is written using the Tibetan script.

The word means "the language of the fortress", from "fortress" and "language"., Dzongkha had 171,080 native speakers and about 640,000 total speakers.

Dzongkha is a South Tibetic language. It is closely related to Laya and Lunana and partially intelligible with Sikkimese, and to some other Bhutanese languages such as Chocha Ngacha, Brokpa, Brokkat and Lakha. It has a more distant relationship to Standard Tibetan. Spoken Dzongkha and Tibetan are around 50 to 80 percent mutually intelligible.

Usage

Dzongkha and its dialects are the native tongue of eight western districts of Bhutan (viz. Wangdue Phodrang,, Thimphu, Gasa, Paro, Ha, Dagana and Chukha).[3] There are also some native speakers near the Indian town of Kalimpong, once part of Bhutan but now in North Bengal, and in Sikkim.

Dzongkha was declared the national language of Bhutan in 1971. Dzongkha study is mandatory in all schools, and the language is the lingua franca in the districts to the south and east where it is not the mother tongue. The Bhutanese films Travellers and Magicians (2003) and (2019) are in Dzongkha.

Writing system

See main article: Tibetan script, Roman Dzongkha, Dzongkha numerals and Dzongkha Braille.

The Tibetan script used to write Dzongkha has thirty basic letters, sometimes known as "radicals", for consonants. Dzongkha is usually written in Bhutanese forms of the Uchen script, forms of the Tibetan script known as Jôyi "cursive longhand" and Jôtshum "formal longhand". The print form is known simply as Tshûm.[4]

Romanization

There are various systems of romanization and transliteration for Dzongkha, but none accurately represents its phonetic sound.[5] The Bhutanese government adopted a transcription system known as Roman Dzongkha, devised by the linguist George van Driem, as its standard in 1991.

Phonology

Tones

Dzongkha is a tonal language and has two register tones: high and low. The tone of a syllable determines the allophone of the onset and the phonation type of the nuclear vowel.

Consonants

! Bilabial! Dental/
alveolar! Retroflex/
palatal! Velar! Glottal
Nasalpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Stoppronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /pʰ/pronounced as /tʰ/pronounced as /ʈʰ/pronounced as /kʰ/
Affricatepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /tsʰ/pronounced as /tɕʰ/
Sibilantpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Rhoticpronounced as /link/
Continuantpronounced as /link/  pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/

All consonants may begin a syllable. In the onsets of low-tone syllables, consonants are voiced. Aspirated consonants (indicated by the superscript h), pronounced as //ɬ//, and pronounced as //h// are not found in low-tone syllables. The rhotic pronounced as //r// is usually a trill pronounced as /link/ or a fricative trill pronounced as /link/, and is voiceless in the onsets of high-tone syllables.

pronounced as //t, tʰ, ts, tsʰ, s// are dental. Descriptions of the palatal affricates and fricatives vary from alveolo-palatal to plain palatal.

Only a few consonants are found in syllable-final positions. Most common among them are pronounced as //m, n, p//. Syllable-final pronounced as //ŋ// is often elided and results in the preceding vowel nasalized and prolonged, especially word-finally. Syllable-final pronounced as //k// is most often omitted when word-final as well, unless in formal speech. In literary pronunciation, liquids pronounced as //r// and pronounced as //l// may also end a syllable. Though rare, pronounced as //ɕ// is also found in syllable-final positions. No other consonants are found in syllable-final positions.

Vowels

Vowel phonemes!! Front! Back
Closepronounced as /link/  pronounced as /link/  pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/  pronounced as /link/
Midpronounced as /link/  pronounced as /link/  pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/  pronounced as /link/
Openpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/  pronounced as /link/

Phonotactics

Many words in Dzongkha are monosyllabic. Syllables usually take the form of CVC, CV, or VC. Syllables with complex onsets are also found, but such an onset must be a combination of an unaspirated bilabial stop and a palatal affricate. The bilabial stops in complex onsets are often omitted in colloquial speech.

Classification and related languages

Dzongkha is considered a South Tibetic language. It is closely related to and partially intelligible with Sikkimese, and to some other Bhutanese languages such as Chocha Ngacha, Brokpa, Brokkat and Lakha.

Dzongkha bears a close linguistic relationship to J'umowa, which is spoken in the Chumbi Valley of Southern Tibet.[6] It has a much more distant relationship to Standard Tibetan. Spoken Dzongkha and Tibetan are around 50% to 80% mutually intelligible, with the literary forms of both highly influenced by the liturgical (clerical) Classical Tibetan language, known in Bhutan as Chöke, which has been used for centuries by Buddhist monks. Chöke was used as the language of education in Bhutan until the early 1960s when it was replaced by Dzongkha in public schools.[7]

Although descended from Classical Tibetan, Dzongkha shows a great many irregularities in sound changes that make the official spelling and standard pronunciation more distant from each other than is the case with Standard Tibetan. "Traditional orthography and modern phonology are two distinct systems operating by a distinct set of rules."[8]

Vocabulary

The following is a sample vocabulary:[9]

Dzongkha
DzongkhaTransliteration (Wylie)Pronunciation (Roman Dzongkha)Meaning
tâtiger
tönto teach
pcingglue
tîmheel
mengname
'moshisn't it so?

Grammar

See main article: Dzongkha grammar.

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Dzongkha of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

See also

Bibliography

External links

Vocabulary

Grammar

Notes and References

  1. Web site: How many people speak Dzongkha?. languagecomparison.com. 2018-03-15.
  2. Web site: Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan. Art. 1, § 8 . Government of Bhutan . 2008-07-18 . 2011-01-01 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110706162637/http://www.constitution.bt/TsaThrim%20Eng%20%28A5%29.pdf . 2011-07-06 .
  3. Book: Dzongkha. George. van Driem. George van Driem. Karma. Tshering of Gaselô. Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region. I. 1998. Research CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies, Leiden University. Leiden, The Netherlands. 3. 90-5789-002-X.
  4. Book: Driem. George van. Dzongkha = Rdoṅ-kha. 1998. Research School, CNWS. Leiden. 90-5789-002-X. 47.
  5. See for instance Report on the current status of the United Nations romanization systems for geographical names: Tibetan Report on the current status of the United Nations romanization systems for geographical names: Dzongkha
  6. Book: van Driem, George . George van Driem . Moseley . Christopher . Endangered Languages of Bhutan and Sikkim: South Bodish Languages . Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages . limited . 2007 . 294 . Routledge . 978-0-7007-1197-0 .
  7. Book: Dzongkha. van Driem. George. George van Driem. Karma. Tshering of Gaselô. Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region. I. 1998. 7–8. Research CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies, Leiden University. Leiden, The Netherlands. 90-5789-002-X.
  8. Book: Driem. George van. Dzongkha = Rdoṅ-kha. 1998. Research School, CNWS. Leiden. 90-5789-002-X. 110. Traditional orthography and modern phonology are two distinct systems operating by a distinct set of rules..
  9. Book: Driem, George van. George van Driem

    . George van Driem. The Grammar of Dzongkha. Thimphu, Bhutan . Dzongkha Development Commission of the Royal Government of Bhutan. 1992.

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