The Bumthang language ( dz, བུམ་ཐང་ཁ་, ); 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 The Kingdom of Bhutan is divided into 20 districts ( Dzongkha: ). Bhutan is located between the Tibet Autonomous Region of China and India on the eastern slopes of the Himalayas in South Asia. are the primary subdivisions of Bhutan. They p ...

. Van Driem (1993) describes Bumthang as the dominant language of central Bhutan.

Related languages

Historically, Bumthang and its speakers have had close contact with speakers of the Kurtöp, Nupbi and Kheng languages, nearby

East Bodish languages 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: * Dakpa (Tawang Monpa) * Dzala * Nyen, including Mangde and Phobjib * Chali * Bumthang ...

of central and eastern Bhutan, to the extent that they may be considered part of a wider collection of "Bumthang languages." Bumthang language is largely lexically similar with Kheng (92%),

Nyen Nyenschantz (russian: Ниенша́нц, ''Nienshants''; sv, Nyenskans; fi, Nevanlinna) was a Swedish fortress at the confluence of the Neva River and Okhta River, the site of present-day Saint Petersburg, Russia. Nyenschantz was built in 16 ...

(75%–77%), and Kurtöp (70%–73%); but less so with Dzongkha (47%–52%) and

Tshangla 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 I ...

(40%–50%, also called "Sharchop"). It is either closely related to or identical with the

Tawang language 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, m ...

of the

Monpa people The Monpa or Mönpa () is a major tribe of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. The Tawang Monpas have a migration history from Changrelung. The Monpa are believed to be the only nomadic tribe in Northeast India – they are totally depend ...

Tawang Tawang is a town and administrative headquarter of Tawang district in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The town was once the capital of the Tawang Tract, which is now divided into the Tawang district and the West Kameng district. Tawang c ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Grammar

Bumthang is an ergative–absolutive language. The ergative case is not used on every transitive subject, but, like in so many other languages of the region shows some optionality, discussed in detail by Donohue & Donohue (2016).

References

Bibliography

* * van Driem, George. 2015. Synoptic grammar of the Bumthang language. ''Himalayan Linguistics''
Open access
h1>

External links

Bumthang language projectHimalayan Languages Project
{{Languages of Bhutan Languages of Bhutan East Bodish languages Languages written in Tibetan script

Related languages

Grammar

See also

References

Bibliography