Dzongkha

Dzongkha and its dialects are the native tongue of eight western districts of Bhutan (viz. Wangdue Phodrang, Punakha, Thimphu, Gasa, Paro, Ha, Dagana and Chukha).^[4] 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.^[5] 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 Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019) are in Dzongkha.

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.^[6]

There are various systems of romanization and transliteration for Dzongkha, but none accurately represents its phonetic sound.^[7] The Bhutanese government adopted a transcription system known as Roman Dzongkha, devised by the linguist George van Driem, as its standard in 1991.^[5]

Dzongkha is a tonal language and has two register tones: high and low.^[8] The tone of a syllable determines the allophone of the onset and the phonation type of the nuclear vowel.^[9]

All consonants may begin a syllable. In the onsets of low-tone syllables, consonants are voiced.^[9] Aspirated consonants (indicated by the superscript h), /ɬ/, and /h/ are not found in low-tone syllables.^[9] The rhotic /r/ is usually a trill [r] or a fricative trill [r̝],^[8] and is voiceless in the onsets of high-tone syllables.^[9]

/t, tʰ, ts, tsʰ, s/ are dental.^[8] Descriptions of the palatal affricates and fricatives vary from alveolo-palatal to plain palatal.^[8][10][9]

Only a few consonants are found in syllable-final positions. Most common among them are /m, n, p/.^[9] Syllable-final /ŋ/ is often elided and results in the preceding vowel nasalized and prolonged, especially word-finally.^[11][9] Syllable-final /k/ is most often omitted when word-final as well, unless in formal speech.^[9] In literary pronunciation, liquids /r/ and /l/ may also end a syllable.^[8] Though rare, /ɕ/ is also found in syllable-final positions.^[8][9] No other consonants are found in syllable-final positions.

• When in low tone, vowels are produced with breathy voice.^[8][11]
• In closed syllables, /i/ varies between [i] and [ɪ], the latter being more common.^[8][9]
• /yː/ varies between [yː] and [ʏː].^[8]
• /e/ varies between close-mid [e] and open-mid [ɛ], the latter being common in closed syllables. /eː/ is close-mid [eː]. /eː/ may not be longer than /e/ at all, and differs from /e/ more often in quality than in length.^[8]
• Descriptions of /øː/ vary between close-mid [øː] and open-mid [œː].^[8][9]
• /o/ is close-mid [o], but may approach open-mid [ɔ] especially in closed syllables. /oː/ is close-mid [oː].^[8]
• /ɛː/ is slightly lower than open-mid, i.e. [ɛ̞ː].^[8]
• /ɑ/ may approach [ɐ], especially in closed syllables.^[8][9]
• When nasalized or followed by [ŋ], vowels are always long.^[11][9]

Many words in Dzongkha are monosyllabic.^[9] Syllables usually take the form of CVC, CV, or VC.^[9] Syllables with complex onsets are also found, but such an onset must be a combination of an unaspirated bilabial stop and a palatal affricate.^[9] The bilabial stops in complex onsets are often omitted in colloquial speech.^[9]

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.^[12] 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.^[13]

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."^[14]

The following is a sample vocabulary:^[15]

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

’Gro-

བ་

ba-

མི་

mi-

རིགས་

rigs-

ག་

ga-

ར་

ra-

དབང་

dbaṅ-

ཆ་

cha-

འདྲ་

’dra-

མཏམ་

mtam-

འབད་

’bad-

སྒྱེཝ་

sgyew-

ལས་

las-

ག་

ga-

ར་

ra-

གིས་

gis-

གཅིག་

gcig-

ལུ་

lu-

སྤུན་

spun-

ཆའི་

cha’i-

དམ་

dam-

ཚིག་

tshig-

བསྟན་

bstan-

དགོ།

dgo

འགྲོ་ བ་ མི་ རིགས་ ག་ ར་ དབང་ ཆ་ འདྲ་ མཏམ་ འབད་ སྒྱེཝ་ ལས་ ག་ ར་ གིས་ གཅིག་ ལུ་ སྤུན་ ཆའི་ དམ་ ཚིག་ བསྟན་ དགོ།

’Gro- ba- mi- rigs- ga- ra- dbaṅ- cha- ’dra- mtam- ’bad- sgyew- las- ga- ra- gis- gcig- lu- spun- cha’i- dam- tshig- bstan- dgo

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.^[16]

• Roman Dzongkha
• Dzongkha Braille
• Dzongkha numerals
• Languages of Bhutan
• Dzongkha keyboard layout

• Bhutanese literatures
• Dzongkha Development Commission Thimphu, Bhutan
• Dzongkha-English Dictionary
• Dzongkha podcast
• Dzongkha Romanization for Geographical Names
• Free textbooks and dictionaries published by the Dzongkha Development Commission
• Bhutan National Policy and Strategy for Development and Promotion of Dzongkha
• Dzongkha Unicode Archived 2021-07-12 at the Wayback Machine – site The National Library of Bhutan (en – dz Archived 2019-12-01 at the Wayback Machine)

• Online searchable dictionary (Dz-En, En-Dz, Dz-Dz)orOnline Dzongkha-English Dictionary – site Dzongkha Development Commission (en – dz)
• Dzongkha Computer Terms(pdf)
• English-Dzongkha Pocket Dictionary(pdf)
• Rigpai Lodap: An Intermediate Dzongkha-English Dictionary(pdf)
• Kartshok Threngwa: A Book on Dzongkha Synonyms & Antonyms(pdf)
• Names of Countries and Capitals in Dzongkha(pdf)
• A Guide to Dzongkha-Translation(pdf)

• A colloquial grammar of the Bhutanese language. by Byrne, St. Quintin. Allahabad: Pioneer Press, 1909
• Dzongkha transliteration Archived 2021-07-11 at the Wayback Machine – site National Library of Bhutan (en – dz Archived 2021-07-11 at the Wayback Machine)
• Dzongkha, The National Language of Bhutan – site Dzongkha Linux (en – dz)
• Romanization of Dzongkha
• Dzongkha : Origin and Description
• Dzongkha language, alphabet and pronunciation
• Dzongkha in Wikipedia: Русский, Français, 日本語, Eesti, English
• Pioneering Dzongkha Text To Speech Synthesis Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine(pdf)
• Dzongkha Grammar & other materials – site The Dzongkha Development Commission (en – dz)
• Коряков Ю.Б. Практическая транскрипция для языка дзонг-кэ
• Classical Tibetan-Dzongkha Dictionary(pdf)