Bhutia language

Sikkimese
Sikkimese
Drenjongké, lhokay, Bhutia
འབྲས་ལྗོངས་སྐད་; bras ljongs skad
	'bras ljongs skad' in Bhutia script
Region	Sikkim, Nepal (Koshi Province), and Bhutan
Ethnicity	Bhutia
Native speakers	70,000 (2022)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Kanauri (?) Bodish Tibetic Dzongkha–Lhokä Sikkimese; ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Tibetan script
Official status
Official language in	India Sikkim;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sip
Glottolog	sikk1242
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Sikkimese (Tibetan: འབྲས་ལྗོངས་སྐད་, Wylie: 'bras ljongs skad, THL: dren jong ké, "rice valley language")^[2] is a language of the Tibeto-Burman languages spoken by the Bhutia people in Sikkim in northeast India, parts of Koshi province in eastern Nepal, and Bhutan. It is one of the official languages of Sikkim.

The Bhutia refer to their own language as Drendzongké (also spelled Drenjongké, Dranjoke, Denjongka, Denzongpeke or Denzongke) and their homeland as Drendzong (Tibetan: འབྲས་ལྗོངས་, Wylie: 'bras-ljongs, "Rice Valley").^[3] Up until 1975, Bhutia was not a written language. After gaining Indian statehood, the language was introduced as a school subject in Sikkim and the written language was developed.^[4]

^ Sikkimese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ "Lost Syllables and Tone Contour in Dzongkha (Bhutan)" in David Bradley, Eguénie J.A. Henderson and Martine Mazaudon, eds, Prosodic analysis and Asian linguistics: to honour R. K. Sprigg, 115-136; Pacific Linguistics, C-104, 1988
^ Lewis, M. Paul, ed. (2009). "Bhutia". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (16 ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
^ Yliniemi, Juha Sakari (18 November 2021). "A descriptive grammar of Denjongke". Himalayan Linguistics. 20 (1). doi:10.5070/H920146466. ISSN 1544-7502. S2CID 244424106.

[e18-1] Sikkimese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] "Lost Syllables and Tone Contour in Dzongkha (Bhutan)" in David Bradley, Eguénie J.A. Henderson and Martine Mazaudon, eds, Prosodic analysis and Asian linguistics: to honour R. K. Sprigg, 115-136; Pacific Linguistics, C-104, 1988

[SIL-3] Lewis, M. Paul, ed. (2009). "Bhutia". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (16 ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Retrieved 16 April 2011.

[Yliniemi-2021-4] Yliniemi, Juha Sakari (18 November 2021). "A descriptive grammar of Denjongke". Himalayan Linguistics. 20 (1). doi:10.5070/H920146466. ISSN 1544-7502. S2CID 244424106.

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Sikkimese
Drenjongké, lhokay, Bhutia
འབྲས་ལྗོངས་སྐད་ bras ljongs skad
'bras ljongs skad' in Bhutia script
Region	Sikkim, Nepal (Koshi Province), and Bhutan
Ethnicity	Bhutia
Native speakers	70,000 (2022)^[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Kanauri (?) Bodish Tibetic Dzongkha–Lhokä Sikkimese
Writing system	Tibetan script
Official status
Official language in	India Sikkim
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`sip`
Glottolog	`sikk1242`
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.