East Bodish languages

Last updated
East Bodish
Ethnicity Monpa people etc.
Geographic
distribution		 Bhutan
Linguistic classification Sino-Tibetan
Glottolog main1269

The East Bodish languages are a small group of non-Tibetic Bodish languages spoken in eastern Bhutan and adjacent areas of Tibet and India. They include:

Contents

Overview

"Bod" (བོད) is the endonym for Tibet.

The term "East Bodish" first appeared in Shafer (1955). [1] He classified "Dwags" (Takpa) into the "East Bodish Unit" within the Bodish Branch of Sino-Tibetan. [2]

Michael Aris mentioned the "Bum-thang" language spoken in areas such as "Tongsa", "Mangdelung", Kheng, and "Kurtö", which retains "the most archaic features of all the Bhutanese languages" [3] George van Driem states that Bumthang, Kheng and Kurtöp could be considered dialects of a single language. [4] Bhutanese anthropologist Kelzang Tashi treats Bumthang, Kheng, and Kurtöp as dialects of the language spoken by Üchogpa, which translates to the people of Central Bhutan [5]

The East Bodish languages do not share certain lexical innovations with Old Tibetan (e.g. Tibetan bdun ; Takpa nis for 'seven'). [6] The branch is not a subgroup of Tibetic as defined by Nicolas Tournadre. [7]

George van Driem initially proposed that 'Ole belonged to the group, but later decided that it belonged to a group of its own. [8]

Although the East Bodish languages are closely related, Tshangla and related languages of eastern Bhutan, also called "Monpa" and predating Dzongkha, form a sister branch not to the East Bodish group, but to its parent Bodish branch. [9] [10] Thus the ambiguous term "Monpa" risks separating languages that should be grouped together, whereas grouping languages together that are quite distinct. [11] Zakhring is apparently also related, though strongly influenced by Miju or a similar language. [12]

Internal classification

Languages of Bhutan, including the East Bodish languages Languages of Bhutan with labels.svg
Languages of Bhutan, including the East Bodish languages

Hyslop (2010) [13] classifies the East Bodish languages as follows.

She regards the Dakpa–Dzala and Bumthangic subgroups as secure, and the placement of Phobjip and Chali as more tentative. [14]

Lu (2002) divides the "Menba language" (门巴语) into the following subdivisions: [15]

Reconstruction

Hyslop (2014) [16] reconstructs the following Proto-East Bodish forms.

Additional reconstructions can be found in Hyslop (2016). [17]

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bumthang District</span> District of Bhutan

Bumthang District is one of the 20 dzongkhag (districts) comprising Bhutan. It is the most historic dzongkhag if the number of ancient temples and sacred sites is counted. Bumthang consists of the four mountain valleys of Ura, Chumey, Tang and Choekhor ("Bumthang"), although occasionally the entire district is referred to as Bumthang Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mongar District</span> District of Bhutan

Mongar District is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. Mongar is the fastest-developing dzongkhag in eastern Bhutan. A regional hospital has been constructed and the region is bustling with many economic activities. Mongar is noted for its lemon grass, a plant that can be used to produce an essential oil. It also has a hydroelectric power-plant on the Kuri Chhu river. Mongar is notable for having the longest work time in all the dzongkhags of Bhutan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zhemgang District</span> District of Bhutan

Zhemgang District, is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. It is bordered by Sarpang, Trongsa, Bumthang, Mongar and Pemagatshel Districts, and borders Assam in India to the south. The administrative center of the district is Zhemgang.

The Sharchops are the populations of mixed Tibetan, Southeast Asian and South Asian descent that mostly live in the eastern districts of Bhutan.

The Kheng people are found primarily in the Zhemgang, Trongsa, Bumthang, Dagana, and Mongar Districts of central Bhutan. They speak the Kheng language, a member of the extended Sino-Tibetan language family belonging to the East Bodish languages group; it is mutually intelligible with the Bumthang language and Kurtöp language to the north. The Kheng people are ethnolinguistically same as the Bumthang people and Kurtöp people of central Bhutan and are more closely related to Ngalop people of western Bhutan than to their neighbors in eastern Bhutan, who are primarily Sharchops and speak Tshangla language. SIL International estimates there are 50,000 Kheng speakers as of 2009.

Tshangla is a Sino-Tibetan language of the Bodish branch closely related to the Tibetic languages. Tshangla is primarily spoken in Eastern Bhutan and acts as a lingua franca in the region; it is also spoken in the adjoining Tawang tract in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and the Pemako region of Tibet. Tshangla is the principal pre-Tibetan language of Bhutan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Bhutan</span> Overview of the languages spoken in Bhutan

There are two dozen languages of Bhutan, all members of the Tibeto-Burman language family except for Nepali, which is an Indo-Aryan language, and Bhutanese Sign Language. Dzongkha, the national language, is the only native language of Bhutan with a literary tradition, though Lepcha and Nepali are literary languages in other countries. Other non-Bhutanese minority languages are also spoken along Bhutan's borders and among the primarily Nepali-speaking Lhotshampa community in South and East Bhutan. Chöke is the language of the traditional literature and learning of the Buddhist monastics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of Bhutan</span> Country in South Asia

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Bhutan:

The Khengkha language, or Kheng, is an East Bodish language spoken by ~40,000 native speakers worldwide, in the Zhemgang, Trongsa, and Mongar districts of south–central Bhutan.

Bodish, named for the Tibetan ethnonym Bod, is a proposed grouping consisting of the Tibetic languages and associated Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in Tibet, North India, Nepal, Bhutan, and North Pakistan. It has not been demonstrated that all these languages form a clade, characterized by shared innovations, within Sino-Tibetan.

The Kurtöp language is an East Bodish language spoken in Kurtoe Gewog, Lhuntse District, Bhutan. In 1993, there were about 10,000 speakers of Kurtöp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tibeto-Burman languages</span> Group of the Sino-Tibetan language family

The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people speak Tibeto-Burman languages. The name derives from the most widely spoken of these languages, Burmese and the Tibetic languages, which also have extensive literary traditions, dating from the 12th and 7th centuries respectively. Most of the other languages are spoken by much smaller communities, and many of them have not been described in detail.

Gongduk or Gongdu is an endangered Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1,000 people in a few inaccessible villages located near the Kuri Chhu river in the Gongdue Gewog of Mongar District in eastern Bhutan. The names of the villages are Bala, Dagsa, Damkhar, Pam, Pangthang, and Yangbari (Ethnologue).

The Dzala language, also called Dzalakha, Dzalamat, or Yangtsebikha, is an East Bodish language spoken in eastern Bhutan, in the Lhuntse and Trashiyangtse Districts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ʼOle language</span> Sino-Tibetan language of western Bhutan

ʼOle, also called ʼOlekha or Black Mountain Monpa, is a possibly Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1,000 people in the Black Mountains of Wangdue Phodrang and Trongsa Districts in western Bhutan. The term ʼOle refers to a clan of speakers.

The Chocha Ngacha language or Chochangachakha or Tsamang is a Southern Tibetic language spoken by about 20,000 people in the Kurichu Valley of Lhuntse and Mongar Districts in eastern Bhutan.

The Bumthang language ; also called "Bhumtam", "Bumtang(kha)", "Bumtanp", "Bumthapkha", and "Kebumtamp") is an East Bodish language spoken by about 20,000 people in Bumthang and surrounding districts of Bhutan. Van Driem (1993) describes Bumthang as the dominant language of central Bhutan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Takpa language</span> Bodish language spoken in Tibet and Bhutan

The Takpa or Dakpa language, Dakpakha, known in India as Tawang Monpa, also known as Brami in Bhutan, is an East Bodish language spoken in the Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, and in northern Trashigang District in eastern Bhutan, mainly in Kyaleng, Phongmed Gewog, Dangpholeng and Lengkhar near Radi Gewog. Van Driem (2001) describes Takpa as the most divergent of Bhutan's East Bodish languages, though it shares many similarities with Bumthang. SIL reports that Takpa may be a dialect of the Brokpa language and that it been influenced by the Dzala language whereas Brokpa has not.

The Nupbi language is an East Bodish language spoken by about 2200 people in central Bhutan.

Basum is a divergent Bodish language spoken by about 2,500 people in Gongbo'gyamda County 工布江达县, Nyingtri Prefecture, Tibet, China. Basum is spoken by 13.5% of the population of Gongbo'gyamda County. Glottolog lists Basum as unclassified within Bodish.

References

  1. ↑ Hyslop, Gwendolyn (2001). A Grammar of Kurtöp (PhD thesis). University of Oregon. p. 41. hdl:1794/11466 . Retrieved 2023-10-07.
  2. ↑ Shafer, Robert (1955). "Classification of the Sino-Tibetan Languages". WORD. 11 (1): 94–111. doi: 10.1080/00437956.1955.11659552 . ISSN   0043-7956.
  3. ↑ Aris, Michael Vaillancourt (1978). A Study on the Historical Foundations of Bhutan, with a Critical Edition and Translation of Certain Bhutanese Texts in Tibetan (PhD thesis). SOAS University of London. p. 14. Retrieved 2023-10-06.
  4. ↑ van Driem (1994), p. 91.
  5. ↑ Tashi, Tashi (2023). World of Worldly Gods: The Persistence and Transformation of Shamanic Bon in Buddhist Bhutan. Oxford University Press. p. 296. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
  6. ↑ Michailovsky, Boyd; Mazaudon, Martine. "Preliminary notes on the languages of the Bumthang group". In Kvaerne, Per (ed.). Proceedings of the 6th seminar of the international association for Tibetan studies, Fagernes 1992. The Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture. pp. 545–557.
  7. ↑ Tournadre, Nicolas (2014). "The Tibetic languages and their classification". Trans-Himalayan Linguistics. De Gruyter. pp. 103–129. doi:10.1515/9783110310832.105. ISBN   978-3-11-031074-0.
  8. ↑ van Driem, George (2011). "Tibeto-Burman subgroups and historical grammar". Himalayan Linguistics Journal. 10 (1): 31–39.
  9. ↑ van Driem, George L. (1994). "Language Policy in Bhutan" (PDF). Bhutan: aspects of culture and development. Kiscadale. pp. 87–105. ISBN   978-1-87083-817-7.
  10. ↑ van Driem, George (2001). Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region. Brill. p. 915. ISBN   978-90-04-12062-4.
  11. ↑ Andvik, Eric E. (2009). A Grammar of Tshangla. Tibetan Studies Library. Vol. 10. Brill. pp. 4–7. ISBN   978-90-04-17827-4.
  12. ↑ Blench, Roger; Post, Mark (2011), (De)classifying Arunachal languages: Reconstructing the evidence (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-26
  13. ↑ Hyslop, Gwendolyn. 2010. On the internal phylogeny of East Bodish. Paper presented at the 5th NEILS meeting, Gauhati University 12–14 February 2010.
  14. ↑ Hyslop, Gwendolyn (2013). "On the internal phylogeny of East Bodish". In Hyslop, Gwendolyn; Morey, Stephen; Post, Mark W. (eds.). North East Indian Linguistics. Vol. 5. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press India. pp. 91–112. ISBN   978-93-82264-72-9.
  15. ↑ Lu, Shaozun 陆绍尊 (2002). 门巴语方言研究[A study of Menba (Monpa) dialects] (in Chinese). Beijing: Ethnic Publishing House 民族出版社.
  16. ↑ Hyslop, Gwendolyn (2014). "A preliminary reconstruction of East Bodish". In Owen-Smith, Thomas; Hill, Nathan W. (eds.). Trans-Himalayan Linguistics: Historical and Descriptive Linguistics of the Himalayan Area. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 155–179. ISBN   978-3-11-031074-0.
  17. ↑ Hyslop, Gwendolyn. 2016. East Bodish reconstructions in a comparative light Archived 2021-07-07 at the Wayback Machine . Fourth Workshop on Sino-Tibetan Languages of Southwest China (STLS-2016). University of Washington, Seattle, September 8–10, 2016.
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