Dzongkha

Usage

Dzongkha and its dialects are the native tongue of eight western districts of Bhutan (viz. Wangdue Phodrang, Punakha, Thimphu, Gasa, Paro, Ha, Dagana and Chukha). There are also some native speakers near the Indian town of Kalimpong, once part of Bhutan but now in North Bengal, and in Sikkim.

Dzongkha was declared the national language of Bhutan in 1971. Dzongkha study is mandatory in all schools, and the language is the lingua franca in the districts to the south and east where it is not the mother tongue. The Bhutanese films Travellers and Magicians (2003) and Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019) are in Dzongkha.

Phonology

Tones

Dzongkha is a tonal language and has two register tones: high and low. The tone of a syllable determines the allophone of the onset and the phonation type of the nuclear vowel.

Consonants

All consonants may begin a syllable. In the onsets of low-tone syllables, consonants are voiced. Aspirated consonants (indicated by the superscript h), , and are not found in low-tone syllables. The rhotic is usually a trill or a fricative trill , and is voiceless in the onsets of high-tone syllables.

are dental. Descriptions of the palatal affricates and fricatives vary from alveolo-palatal to plain palatal.

Only a few consonants are found in syllable-final positions. Most common among them are . Syllable-final is often elided and results in the preceding vowel nasalized and prolonged, especially word-finally. Syllable-final is most often omitted when word-final as well, unless in formal speech. In literary pronunciation, liquids and may also end a syllable. Though rare, is also found in syllable-final positions. No other consonants are found in syllable-final positions.

Vowels

• When in low tone, vowels are produced with breathy voice.
• In closed syllables, varies between and , the latter being more common.
• varies between and .
• varies between close-mid and open-mid , the latter being common in closed syllables. is close-mid . may not be longer than at all, and differs from more often in quality than in length.
• Descriptions of vary between close-mid and open-mid .
• is close-mid , but may approach open-mid especially in closed syllables. is close-mid .
• is slightly lower than open-mid, i.e. .
• may approach , especially in closed syllables.
• When nasalized or followed by , vowels are always long.

Phonotactics

Many words in Dzongkha are monosyllabic. Syllables usually take the form of CVC, CV, or VC. Syllables with complex onsets are also found, but such an onset must be a combination of an unaspirated bilabial stop and a palatal affricate. The bilabial stops in complex onsets are often omitted in colloquial speech.

Writing system

The Tibetan script used to write Dzongkha has thirty basic letters, sometimes known as "radicals", for consonants. Dzongkha is usually written in Bhutanese forms of the Uchen script, forms of the Tibetan script known as Jôyi "cursive longhand" and Jôtshum "formal longhand". The print form is known simply as Tshûm.

Romanization

There are various systems of romanization and transliteration for Dzongkha, but none accurately represents its phonetic sound. The Bhutanese government adopted a transcription system known as Roman Dzongkha, devised by the linguist George van Driem, as its standard in 1991.

Grammar

Nouns

Number

Dzongkha nouns distinguish between singular (unmarked) and plural, with the plural either unmarked or suffixed with ཚུ་ -tshu. The use of the plural suffix is not obligatory and is used mainly for emphasis.

Case

Dzongkha nouns are marked for 5 cases: genitive, locative, ablative, dative and ergative.

• genitive case: marks possession and is often translated as "of". There are 4 genitive suffixes in written Dzongkha:
  • གྱི་ -g°i - after words ending in མ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་.
  • གི་ -g°i - after words ending in ག་, ང་ and certain words ending in a vowel.
  • ཀྱི་ -g°i - after words ending in བ་, ད་, ས་.
  • འི་ -i after certain words ending in a vowel.
• locative case - marks location or destination and is often translated as "in", "at" or "on". It's indicated by the suffix ནང་ -na.
• ablative case - marks direction away from the noun and is often translated as "from". It's indicated by the suffix ལས་ -lä.
• dative case - marks the goal or where an activity takes place and is often translated as "to", "for" or "at". It's indicated by the suffix ལུ་ -lu.
• ergative case - used for ergative and instrumental functions. There are 3 ergative suffixes in written Dzongkha:
  • གྱིས་ -g°i - after words ending in མ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་.
  • གིས་ -g°i - after words ending in ག་, ང་ or a vowel.
  • ཀྱིས་ -g°i - after words ending in བ་, ད་, ས་.

Derivation

As in other Tibetic languages, compounding is the most common method for deriving new nouns in Dzongkha. A compound usually consists of two (or, less commonly, more) monosyllabic roots, which can be either free or bound.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

• The honorific pronoun ནཱ༌ nâ and its plural form are used when one wants to show respect to the person being addressed or to a 3rd person of either gender.

Verbs

Dzongkha verbs inflect for tense, aspect and mood, but unlike many languages, they do not show agreement for person and number.

Conjugation

Dzongkha verbs are mainly marked for the progressive (དོ་ -do), the witnessed past (ཡི་ -yi; ཅི་ -ci), the inferred past (ནུག་ -nu), the perfective (སོ་ so), the present continuous (པའི་སྒང་ ‑bigang ~ ‑migang; བའི་སྒང་ ‑wigang), the adhortative (གེ་ ‑ge), the optative (བཅུག་ cu), and the supine (པར་ ‑ba ~ -ma; བར་ ‑wa). They are also marked for things like the steady state present, "acquired knowledge", factual tenses, along many other modals.

Copula

In Dzongkha, there are 5 copular verbs that can be translated as "to be" in English: ཨིན་ 'ing, ཨིན་པས་ 'immä, ཡོད་ yö, འདུག་ du and སྨོ་ 'mo.

Adjectives

Comparison

The comparative is indicated by the suffix བ་ -wa ("than") while the superlative is indicated by the suffix ཤོས་ -sho ("the most", "-est").

Numerals

Vocabulary

The following is a sample vocabulary:

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Dzongkha of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

འགྲོ་

’Gro-

བ་

ba-

མི་

mi-

རིགས་

rigs-

ག་

ga-

ར་

ra-

དབང་

dbaṅ-

ཆ་

cha-

འདྲ་

’dra-

མཏམ་

mtam-

འབད་

’bad-

སྒྱེཝ་

sgyew-

ལས་

las-

ག་

ga-

ར་

ra-

གིས་

gis-

གཅིག་

gcig-

ལུ་

lu-

སྤུན་

spun-

ཆའི་

cha’i-

དམ་

dam-

ཚིག་

tshig-

བསྟན་

bstan-

དགོ།

dgo

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.