The Brokpa language (Brokpa kay) ( dz , དྲོག་པ་ཁ།, དྲོགཔ་ཁ།, ''Dr˚okpakha'', ''Dr˚opkha''), also called the Merak-Sakteng language after its speakers' home regions, is a Southern Tibetic language spoken by about 5,000 people mainly in Mera and

Sakteng Gewog Sagteng Gewog ( dz, སག་སྟེང་, sag steng, size=150%), also called Sakteng is a gewog (village block) of Trashigang District, Bhutan. Sakten and Merak Gewogs comprise Sakten Dungkhag (sub-district). Much of the gewog lies within th ...

s in the Sakteng Valley of

Trashigang District Trashigang District ( Dzongkha: བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie: ''Bkra-shis-sgang rdzong-khag''; also spelled "Tashigang") is Bhutan's easternmost dzongkhag (district). Culture The population of the district ...

in Eastern

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 mountainou ...

. Brokpa is spoken by descendants of pastoral

yak The domestic yak (''Bos grunniens''), also known as the Tartary ox, grunting ox or hairy cattle, is a species of long-haired domesticated cattle found throughout the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent, the Tibetan Plateau, Kachin S ...

herd communities. The word brokpa has two parts. 'brok' and 'pa'. In Tibetic 'Brok' means pastoral land and 'pa' is a

demonym A demonym (; ) or gentilic () is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, ...

, so the word 'Brokpa' refers to the language spoken by the people living on the mountains.

Roger Blench Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and w ...

has also recently named a language complex called Senge spoken in three villages northwest of

Dirang Dirang is a village in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. West Kameng is the name of the district that contains village Dirang. Dirang is one of the 60 constituencies of Legislative Assembly of Arunachal Pradesh. Name of current MLA (August ...

West Kameng district West Kameng (pronounced ) is a district of Arunachal Pradesh in northeastern India. It accounts for 8.86% of the total area of the state. The name is derived from the Kameng river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, that flows through the distric ...

. Dondrup (1993:3) lists the following Brokpa villages. *

**Lubrung **Dirme **Sumrang **Nyokmadung **Undra first letter missing in book **Sengedrong *

Tawang district Tawang district (Pron:/tɑ:ˈwæŋ or təˈwæŋ/) is the smallest of the 26 administrative districts of Arunachal Pradesh state in northeastern India. With a population of 49,977, it is the eighth least populous district in the country (out o ...

**Lagam **Mago **Thingbu **Lakuthang *

**Sakteng **Merak The 1981 census counted 1,855 Brokpa people in

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares ...

References

*Dondrup, Rinchin 1993. ''Brokeh language guide''. Itanagar: Directorate of Research, Arunachal Pradesh Government.

External links

Himalayan Languages Project
Languages of Bhutan South Bodish languages {{Bhutan-stub

See also

References

External links