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The Khengkha language (Dzongkha ྨཕགལཔམཕ), or Kheng, is an East Bodish language spoken by ~40,000 native speakers worldwide, in the
Zhemgang Zhemgang is a town in Zhemgang District, Bhutan. It is the capital ( dzongkhag thromde A thromde (Dzongkha: ཁྲོམ་སྡེ་; Wylie: ''khrom-sde'') is a second-level administrative division in Bhutan. The legal administrative status o ...
,
Trongsa Trongsa, previously Tongsa (, ), is a Thromde or town, and the capital of Trongsa District in central Bhutan. The name means "new village" in Dzongkha. The first temple was built in 1543 by the Drukpa lama Ngagi Wangchuck, who was the great-gran ...
, and
Mongar Mongar (Dzongkha: མོང་སྒར) is a town and the seat of Mongar District in eastern Bhutan. it had a population of 3502. Mongar is on the road from Thimphu to Trashigang. It is one of the oldest educational hubs of the country. It ha ...
districts of south–central
Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
.


Classification

Khengkha is a dialect found in the small Himalayan kingdom of
Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
. Khengkha is part of the larger branch of Sino-Tibetan language family but falls into the subcategories of: Tibetio-Burman, Western Tubeto-Burman, Bodish, East Bodish, Bumthang, and Khengkha.


Language codes

ISO 639-3 xkf Glotolog khen1241


Geographical distribution

Khengkha is an East Bodish language spoken in the south-central districts of
Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
. Khengkha is mainly found in the
Sarpang Sarpang, also transliterated as Sarbhang or Sarbang, is a thromde or town in Sarpang District in southern Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in So ...
district but can also be found in southwest
Mongar Mongar (Dzongkha: མོང་སྒར) is a town and the seat of Mongar District in eastern Bhutan. it had a population of 3502. Mongar is on the road from Thimphu to Trashigang. It is one of the oldest educational hubs of the country. It ha ...
district, rural areas in southeast
Trongsa Trongsa, previously Tongsa (, ), is a Thromde or town, and the capital of Trongsa District in central Bhutan. The name means "new village" in Dzongkha. The first temple was built in 1543 by the Drukpa lama Ngagi Wangchuck, who was the great-gran ...
district and in
Zhemgang Zhemgang is a town in Zhemgang District, Bhutan. It is the capital ( dzongkhag thromde A thromde (Dzongkha: ཁྲོམ་སྡེ་; Wylie: ''khrom-sde'') is a second-level administrative division in Bhutan. The legal administrative status o ...
district.


Dialects

The three main dialects in
Bumthang district Bumthang District (Dzongkha: བུམ་ཐང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Bum-thang rzong-khag'') is one of the 20 dzongkhag (districts) comprising Bhutan. It is the most historic dzongkhag if the number of ancient temples and sacred s ...
are Bumthap (Lower Kheng), Khempa (Middle Kheng), and Kurtop (Upper Kheng). Comprehension between the three dialects differs as Bumthap is the most similarly related language, however conversation with Kurthop is difficult.


Phonology


Consonants

* /r/ can be heard as either a trill or an approximant in free variation. * Alveolo-palatal sounds /tɕ, tɕʰ, dʑ, ɕ, ʑ/ can also range to palato-alveolar sounds ʃ, tʃʰ, dʒ, ʃ, ʒin free variation. *


Vowels

* A centralized rounded ̈does appear, but is mostly borrowed from words in Dzongkha. * /a/ can appear slightly back as or within diphthongs or codas. * /i, e/ can be heard as , ɛwhen in short form.


Grammar

In most Khengkha sentences, it only marks grammatical relations through word order. The subject constituent precedes the object and the verb constituents follow it. Khengkha follows the same typology as
Dzongkha Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 n ...
. The example below demonstrates how the grammatical roles of each constituent are marked only by the position relative to the verb: When nouns are addressed in Khengkha there are two ways it can be written, depending on the other. # Relatives before noun heads or articles. # Adjectives after noun heads. Khengkha is an oral language without a writing system, making tones and nuances important during communication.


Language Use

Khengkha is a vigorous language in limited areas. Khengkha is not allowed to be taught in schools around
Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
, making it only spoken at home, for commerce, local politics, and traditional religion. Due to the increasing modernization of
Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...
, there are negative attitudes towards those who speak Kheng instead of
Dzongkha Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 n ...
or the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
. Lower Kheng is considered to be spoken backward, while Middle Kheng is seen as more prestigious. Middle Kheng region is the strongest and most developed economically, while lower Kheng is least developed.


Language Development

Since Khengkha is an oral language there is a low
literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...
rate for native Khengkha speakers in
Dzongkha Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 n ...
. There is literacy rate of 20% in
Dzongkha Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 n ...
.


Common phrases

As there is no official English romanization of Dzongkha script, many words are spelled out phonetically. Therefore, there may be multiple spellings of the same word. ''English translation of the conversation:'' Dorji: Hi, my name is Dorji. Sonam: Hi, my name is Sonam. Where are you from? Dorji: I’m from Zhemgang. Sonam: What are you doing nowadays? Dorji: I’m studying. Sonam: I’m happy to meet you. Dorji: I’m also happy to meet you. Let’s meet again. Sonam: Okay.


Numerical

Khengkha counting system is written in
Dzongkha Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 n ...
script but pronounced differently. Below is a comparison of Khengkha and
Dzongkha Dzongkha (; ) is a Sino-Tibetan language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script. The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language". , Dzongkha had 171,080 n ...
numbers. Below are audio records of Khengkha and Dzongkha numbers being spoken. Khengkha numbers: #REDIREC

Dzongkha numbers: #REDIREC


Writing system

Khengkha is an oral language without its own written system. But it unofficially borrows from the Tibetan script and Uchen style of writing. Khengkha and Dzongkha numerical script are written the same.


Related languages

Historically, Kheng and its speakers have had close contact with speakers of the Kurtöp language, Kurtöp, Nupbi and
Bumthang language 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. ...
s, nearby languages of central and eastern Bhutan, to the extent that they may be considered part of a wider collection of "Bumthang languages".


See also

*
Languages of Bhutan 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 wit ...
*
Kheng people The Kheng people are found primarily in the Zhemgang, Trongsa, Bumthang, Dagana, and Mongar Districts of central Bhutan. They speak the Kheng language, a member of the extended Tibetan language family belonging to the East Bodish languages group ...


References


Bibliography

* * * * *


External links


Himalayan Languages Project
{{Languages of Bhutan Languages of Bhutan East Bodish languages