Languages of Bhutan - Dzongkha and Other Tibetan Languages

Dzongkha and Other Tibetan Languages

The Central Bodish languages are a group of related Tibetan languages descended from Old Tibetan, or Chöke. 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 with approximately 160,000 speakers as of 2006. It is the dominant language in Western Bhutan, and has been the language of government and education in Bhutan since the 1971. The Chocangacakha, a "sister language" to Dzongkha, is spoken in the Kurichu Valley of Eastern Bhutan by about 20,000 people.

The Lakha (8,000 speakers) and Brokkat languages (300 speakers) in Central Bhutan, as well as the Brokpa 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 pastoral yakherd communities.

Layakha, closely related to Dzongkha, is spoken near the northwestern border with Tibet by some 1,100 Layaps. Layaps are an indigenous nomadic and semi-nomadic people who traditionally herd yaks and dzos. Dzongkha speakers enjoy a limited mutual intelligibility, mostly in basic vocabulary and grammar.

The Khampa Tibetan language is spoken by about 1,000 people in two enclaves in Eastern Bhutan, also the descendants of pastoral yakherding communities. Although it also is a by all accounts a Tibetan language, its exact subgrouping varies.