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ʼOle language

ʼOle, also called ʼOlekhaorBlack Mountain Monpa, is a possibly Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1,000 people in the Black MountainsofWangdue Phodrang and Trongsa Districts in western Bhutan. The term ʼOle refers to a clan of speakers.^[2]

According to the Ethnologue, ʼOlekha is spoken in the following locations of Bhutan.

• Trongsa District: 3 enclaves west of Mangde river
• Wangdue Phodrang District: Adha, Jangji, Rukha, Thrumzur, and Wangling villages

Dialects are separated by the Black Mountains.

Black Mountain Monpa is spoken in at least 6 villages. The variety spoken in Rukha village, south-central Wangdi is known as ʼOlekha.^[3] Out of a population of 100-150 people (about 15 households) in Rukha village, there is only one elderly female fluent speaker and two semi-fluent speakers of ʼOlekha.^[3]

George van Driem (1992)^[4] reports a Western dialect (spoken in Rukha and Reti villages) and Eastern dialect (spoken in Cungseng village).

According to Tournadre & Suzuki (2023),^[5] there are three dialects, spoken by 500 speakers in Tronsa ཀྲོང་སར་ and Wangdi Phodr’a དབང་འདུས་ཕོ་བྲང་ districts..

• western (in Riti and Rukha)
• northern (in Wangling, Jangbi, and Phumz’ur)
• southern (in Cungseng and Berti)

ʼOle was unknown beyond its immediate area until 1990,^{[citation needed]} and is now highly endangered, and was originally assumed to be East Bodish.^[6] George van Driem described ʼOle as a remnant of the primordial population of the Black Mountains before the southward expansion of the ancient East Bodish tribes.^[7]

More recently, Gwendolyn Hyslop (2016),^[3] agreeing with van Driem, has suggested that ʼOle is an isolate branch of the Sino-Tibetan family that has been heavily influenced by East Bodish languages.^[8] Because of the small number of cognates with East Bodish languages once loans are identified, Blench and Post provisionally treat ʼOle as a language isolate, not just an isolate within Sino-Tibetan.^[6]

ʼOle forms a distinct branch of Sino-Tibetan/Tibeto-Burman. it is not closely related to Tshangla language of eastern Bhutan, also called "Monpa" and predating Dzongkha in the region, which belongs to a different branch of the family.^[8]

Gerber (2018)^[9] notes that Black Mountain Mönpa has had extensive contact with Gongduk before the arrival of East Bodish languagesinBhutan. The following comparative vocabulary table from Gerber (2020) compares Gongduk, Black Mountain Mönpa, and Bjokapakha, which is a divergent Tshangla variety.^[10]

Comparison of numerals:^[10]

Comparison of pronouns:^[10]

• Consonants in parentheses are only found in loanwords.
• /s z/ are realized as dental fricatives [θ ð] in eastern dialects.
• The stops /t k/ are glottalised and unreleased [ʔt̚ ʔk̚] at the end of syllables.

• /a/ can often be heard as [ɑ~ə].
• A distinction in vowel length can be attested, but it is not known whether it is phonemic.

Additionally, ʼOle has two tones^[10]; high and low.

Hyslop (2016)^[3] notes that ʼOlekha has borrowed heavily from East Bodish and Tibetic languages, but also has a layer of native vocabulary items. Numerals are mostly borrowed from East Bodish languages, while body parts and nature words are borrowed from both Tibetic and East Bodish languages. Hyslop (2016) lists the following ʼOlekha words of clearly indigenous (non-borrowed) origin.

The pronouns and lexical items for all foraged plants are also of indigenous origin. Additionally, the central vowel /ɤ/ and voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/ are only found in non-borrowed words.^[3]

Words whose origin is not certain (i.e., may or may not be borrowed) are:^[3]

The cardinal numerals are:^[10]

1. tɛk
2. nhü
3. sam
4. blö
5. lɔŋ
6. o̤ːk
7. nyí
8. jit [ʤit]
9. doːga
10. chö

• Namgyel, Singye. The Language Web of Bhutan. Thimphu: KMT.
• van Driem, George L; Karma Tshering of Gaselô (collab) (1998). Dzongkha. Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region. Leiden: Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies. ISBN 905789002X.
• van Driem, George (2001). Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region: Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language. Brill. ISBN 9004120629.
• van Driem, George (2007). "Endangered Languages of Bhutan and Sikkim: East Bodish Languages". In Moseley, Christopher (ed.). Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages. Routledge. p. 295. ISBN 070071197X.

• Himalayan Languages Project: Black Mountain Mönpa