Dzongkha

Dzongkha is the official national language of Bhutan. It belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The name Dzongkha literally means "the language of the fortress." This name comes from the words for fortress and language.

People often refer to it by the exonym Bhutanese. It serves as a vital tool for communication across the country. It acts as a lingua franca in many southern and eastern districts. This is especially true where Dzongkha is not the primary mother tongue.

The language uses the Tibetan script for writing. There are several distinct styles of this script used in Bhutan. Jôyi is a form of cursive longhand used for writing. Jôtshum is a more formal style of longhand. For printed materials, a style known as Tshûm is used.

The script contains thirty basic letters called radicals for consonants. While the writing is based on Tibetan, the spoken sounds are quite different. In fact, the official spelling and standard pronunciation follow different rules. This creates a gap between traditional orthography and modern phonology.

Dzongkha is a tonal language with two specific register tones. These tones are classified as high and low. The tone of a syllable changes the sound of the consonants and vowels. For example, in low-tone syllables, consonants are voiced. Some aspirated consonants are never found in low-tone syllables. Vowels also change depending on the tone used. In a low tone, vowels are produced with a breathy voice.

Many words in Dzongkha are monosyllabic, meaning they have only one syllable. Most syllables follow a CVC, CV, or VC pattern.

The history of the language is closely tied to religious traditions. For centuries, Buddhist monks used a language called Chöke. Chöke is a liturgical or clerical form of Classical Tibetan. It served as the primary language of education in Bhutan for a long time. This changed in the early 1960s when Dzongkha replaced Chöke in public schools. In 1971, the government officially declared Dzongkha as the national language. Although it descended from Classical Tibetan, it has developed many unique irregularities.

Grammatically, Dzongkha nouns are marked for five different cases. These cases include the genitive, locative, ablative, dative, and ergative cases. The genitive case marks possession, while the locative marks a location. The ablative indicates direction away from a noun. The dative marks a goal or destination. The ergative case is used for instrumental functions.

Nouns can also be singular or plural. Plurality is often shown by a suffix, though it is not always required. Using the suffix is mostly done for emphasis.

Verbs in Dzongkha function in a unique way. They inflect for tense, aspect, and mood. However, they do not show agreement for person or number. This means the verb does not change based on who is speaking. Verbs can be marked for many different states. These include the progressive, the witnessed past, and the inferred past. They can also show the perfective or the present continuous. There are even five different copular verbs that translate to "to be."

Today, Dzongkha remains a vibrant and growing language. There are approximately 640,000 total speakers in the world. Of these, about 171,080 are native speakers. The language is the native tongue in eight western districts of Bhutan. These include Thimphu, Paro, Gasa, and Wangdue Phodrang. It is also spoken in parts of Sikkim and near Kalimpong in India. You can even see the language in modern Bhutanese films. Examples include the movies Travellers and Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom.