Languages of Bhutan - Other Tibeto-Burman Languages

Other Tibeto-Burman Languages

Part of the Sino-Tibetan language family, largely following Thurgood and La Polla (2003). Here, the Monpa and Lepcha languages are shown as sister languages to Old Tibetan (all are grouped into the Bodic languages).

Four other Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken in Bhutan. These languages are more distantly related to the Bodish languages, and are not necessarily members of any common subgroup.

The Tshangla language, has approximately 138,000 speakers. It is the mother tongue of the Sharchop people. It is the dominant language in Eastern Bhutan and was formerly spoken as a lingua franca in the region.

The Gongduk language is an endangered language that has approximately 1,000 speakers in isolated villages along the Kuri Chhu river in Eastern Bhutan. It appears to be the sole representative of a unique branch of the Tibeto-Burman language family, and retains the complex verbal agreement system of Proto-Tibeto-Burman. Van Driem (1993) describes its speakers as a remnant of the ancient population of Central Bhutan before the southward expansion of the East Bodish tribes.

The Lepcha language has approximately 2,000 ethnic Lepcha speakers in Bhutan. It has its own highly stylized Lepcha script.

The Lhokpu language has approximately 2,500 speakers. It is one of the autochthonous languages of Bhutan and is yet unclassified within Tibeto-Burmese. Van Driem (1993) describes it as the remnant of "the primordial population of Western Bhutan," and comments that Lhokpu or a close relative appears to have been the substrate language for Dzongkha, explaining the various ways in which Dzongkha diverged from Tibetan.