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] | Alveolar-palatal, voiced. No direct equivalent in English, but similar to the j in English jeep. | ||
| 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] | Like the ö in German schön. | ||
| 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 | In Roman Dzongkha, p sometimes appears at the end of a syllable, even though it is not present in Tibetan script. |
| 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 Tibetan script. |
The lyrics to the national anthem of Bhutan (Druk Tsenden): [5]
| Dzongkha original [6] | Roman Dzongkha | IPA [a] | 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, or abugida, derived from Brahmic scripts and Gupta script, and used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. It was originally developed c. 620 by Tibetan minister Thonmi Sambhota for King Songtsen Gampo.
"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.
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