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 Gewogs 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 mountai ...
.
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 St ...
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 wor ...
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
The Arunachal Prades ...
in 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.
*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 ...
**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 ...
**Lagam
**Mago
**Thingbu
**Lakuthang
*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 mountai ...
**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 share ...
.
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 with ...
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