Bhutia language

Sikkimese
Drenjongké, lhokay, Bhutia
འབྲས་ལྗོངས་སྐད་
bras ljongs skad
RegionSikkim, Nepal (Koshi Province), and Bhutan
EthnicityBhutia
Native speakers
70,000 (2022)[1]
Tibetan script
Official status
Official language in
 India
Language codes
ISO 639-3sip
Glottologsikk1242
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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]

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