Roman Dzongkha is the official romanization of Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan. It was developed by the Dzongkha Development Commission in 1991 and represents modern Dzongkha pronunciation as spoken in Thimphu and Punakha.
Roman Dzongkha uses the following consonant symbols [1] :
| Consonants | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roman Dzongkha | IPA | Description | ||
| k | [k] | Unaspirated k, like in English skill. | ||
| kh | [kʰ] | Aspirated k, like in English kiss. | ||
| g | [g] | Like the g in English goal. | ||
| g° | [g̥]~[k] | Unaspirated k, but followed by a murmured vowel. | ||
| c | [tɕ] | Alveolar-palatal, unaspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the ch in English churchyard. | ||
| ch | [tɕʰ] | Alveolar-palatal, aspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the ch in English punchy. | ||
| j | [dʑ] | |||
| j° | [d̥ʑ]~[tɕ] | Like c, but followed by a murmured vowel. | ||
| t | [t] | Unaspirated t, like in English stop. | ||
| th | [tʰ] | Aspirated t, like in English take. | ||
| d | [d] | Like the d in English date. | ||
| d° | [d̥]~[t] | Unaspirated t, but followed by a murmured vowel. | ||
| p | [p] | Unaspirated p, like in English space. | ||
| ph | [pʰ] | Aspirated p, like in English part. | ||
| b | [b] | Like the b in English boat. | ||
| b° | [b̥]~[p] | Unaspirated p, but followed by a murmured vowel. | ||
| pc | [ptɕ] | A combination of p + c. | ||
| pch | [ptɕʰ] | A combination of p + ch. | ||
| bj | [bdʑ] | A combination of b + j. | ||
| bj° | [b̥d̥ʑ]~[ptɕ] | Like pc, but followed by a murmured vowel. | ||
| tr | [ʈ] | |||
| thr | [ʈʰ] | |||
| dr | [ɖ] | |||
| dr° | [ɖ̥]~[ʈ] | |||
| ts | [ts] | Unaspirated. Like the zz in English pizza. | ||
| tsh | [tsʰ] | Aspirated. Like the ts in English bats. | ||
| dz | [dz] | Like the ds in English loads. | ||
| sh | [ɕ] | Alveolo-palatal, unaspirated. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the sh in English push. | ||
| zh | [ʑ] | |||
| zh° | [ʑ̥]~[ɕ] | |||
| s | [s] | Like the s in English snake. | ||
| z | [z] | Like the z in English zipper. | ||
| z° | [z̥]~[s] | Like s, but followed by a murmured vowel. | ||
| y | [j] | Like the y in English year. | ||
| w | [w] | Like the w in English water. | ||
| r | [r] | |||
| hr | [r̥] | |||
| l | [l] | Like the l in English lake. | ||
| lh | [ɬ] | |||
| n | [n] | Like the n in English name. | ||
| ng | [ŋ] | Like the ng in English song. | ||
| ny | [ɲ] | |||
| m | [m] | Like the m in English make. | ||
| h | [h] | Like the h in English hat. | ||
Roman Dzongkha uses the following vowel symbols [2] :
| Vowels | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roman Dzongkha | IPA | Description | ||
| a | [ɑ] | Like the a in English father. | ||
| â | [aː] | Like the a in English father, but longer. | ||
| ä | [ɛː] | Like the e in English let, but longer. | ||
| e | [e] | |||
| ê | [eː] | |||
| i | [i] | Like the ee in English bee, but shorter. | ||
| î | [iː] | Like the ee in English bee. | ||
| o | [o] | |||
| ô | [oː] | |||
| ö | [øː] | |||
| u | [u] | Like the oo in English boot, but shorter. | ||
| û | [uː] | Like the oo in English boot. | ||
| ü | [yː] | Like the u in French tu, but longer. | ||
Note: vowels are always long before ng, so â, ê, î and û do not occur in that position.
Standard Dzongkha is a tonal language with two tones. As mentioned in #Consonants, certain consonants are always followed by either a high or low tone, making the tone predictable for words starting with those consonants. In Roman Dzongkha, tone is only indicated when it is unpredictable, that is, when a word starts with a vowel, voiced nasal or a glide.
| Tibetan Script | Wylie | Roman Dzongkha | Meaning | Notes [4] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ས་ཁྲ་ | sa khra | sapthra | map | p is sometimes found at the end of a syllable in Roman Dzongkha where it's not suggested by the traditional orthography. |
| འཆར་གཞི་ | 'char gzhi | charzhi | governmental | Syllable-final r only occurs in literary words and names borrowed from Classical Tibetan. It's always dropped in native Dzongkha words. |
| ལྟོ་ཚང་ | lto tshang | totsha | friend | Syllable-final ng is sometimes dropped in Roman Dzongkha. This is not predictable. |
| བལྟ་ཤིག་ | blta shig | tash | look (imperative) | Syllable-final sh corresponds to the particle ཤིགshig in Dzongkha script. |
The lyrics to the national anthem of Bhutan (Druk Tsenden): [5]
| Dzongkha original [6] | Roman Dzongkha | IPA [lower-alpha 1] | Official English translation [7] |
|---|---|---|---|
འབྲུག་ཙན་དན་བཀོད་པའི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ནང་༎ | Dru tsend°en kepä gäkhap na | [ɖ(ʐ)ṳ̀e̯ t͡sén.d̥è̤n ké.pɛ́ː | gɛ̤̀ː(l).kʰɑ́(p̚) nɑ̤̀] | In the Kingdom of Bhutan adorned with cypress trees, |
The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system (abugida) of Indic origin used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. It has also been used for some non-Tibetic languages in close cultural contact with Tibet, such as Thakali and Old Turkic. The printed form is called uchen script while the hand-written cursive form used in everyday writing is called umê script. This writing system is used across the Himalayas and Tibet.
"Druk Tsenden" is the national anthem of Bhutan. Adopted in 1953, the lyrics were written by Dolop Droep Namgay and possibly translated into English by Dasho Gyaldun Thinley. The accompanying music was composed by Aku Tongmi.
Dzongkha is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script.
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 Ngalop are people of Tibetan origin who migrated to Bhutan as early as the ninth century. Orientalists adopted the term "Bhote" or Bhotiya, meaning "people of Bod (Tibet)", a term also applied to the Tibetan people, leading to confusion, and now is rarely used in reference to the Ngalop.
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.
The Sikkimese language, also called Sikkimese, Bhutia, or Drenjongké, Dranjoke, Denjongka, Denzongpeke and Denzongke, belongs to the Tibeto-Burman languages. It is spoken by the Bhutia in Sikkim, India, and in parts of Koshi, Nepal. It is the official language in Sikkim. The Sikkimese people refer to their own language as Drendzongké and their homeland as Drendzong. Up until 1975, Sikkimese was not a written language. After gaining Indian statehood, the language was introduced as a school subject in Sikkim and the written language was developed.
Thimphu District is a dzongkhag (district) of Bhutan. Thimphu is also the capital of Bhutan and the largest city in the whole kingdom.
The SASM/GNC/SRC romanization of Standard Tibetan, commonly known as Tibetan pinyin or ZWPY, is the official transcription system for the Tibetan language in China. It is based on the pronunciation used by China National Radio's Tibetan Radio, which is based on the Lhasa dialect. It has been used within China as an alternative to the Wylie transliteration for writing Tibetan in the Latin script since 1982.
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.
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.
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.
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 Dzongkha Development Commission is the pre-eminent body on matters pertaining to the Dzongkha language. The DDC was officially established in 1986 by Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the fourth king of Bhutan, to preserve and promote the use of Dzongkha as the national language of Bhutan. The DDC offices are now located in the Kawajangtsa area of Thimphu, close to the National Library of Bhutan and the Ministry of Education.
The Dzala language, also called Dzalakha, Dzalamat, or Yangtsebikha, is an East Bodish language spoken in eastern Bhutan, in the Lhuntse and Trashiyangtse Districts.
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 Brokpa language is a Tibetic language spoken by around 5’000 people. It is spoken by descendants of pastoral yakherd communities.
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.
Laya is a Tibetic variety spoken by indigenous Layaps inhabiting the high mountains of northwest Bhutan in the village of Laya, Gasa District. Speakers also inhabit the northern regions of Thimphu and Punakha Districts. Its speakers are ethnically related to the Tibetans. Most speakers live at an altitude of 3,850 metres (12,630 ft), just below the Tsendagang peak. Laya speakers are also called Bjop by the Bhutanese, sometimes considered a condescending term. There were 1,100 speakers of Laya in 2003.
