Lhokpu language
| Lhokpu | |
|---|---|
| Lhobikha, Taba-Damtoe-Bikha | |
| Native to | Bhutan |
| Region | southwest Bhutan (Samtse, Chukha) |
| Ethnicity | Lhop people |
Native speakers | (2,500 cited 1993)[1] |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | lhp |
| Glottolog | lhok1238 |
| ELP | Lhokpu |
 Map of the Lhokpu language | |
 Lhokpu is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Lhokpu, also Lhobikha or Taba-Damtoe-Bikha, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Lhop people. It is spoken in southwestern Bhutan along the border of Samtse and Chukha Districts. Van Driem (2003) leaves it unclassified as a separate branch within the Sino-Tibetan language family.[2]
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | ɒ |
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | aspirated | plain | aspirated | |||||
| Stop | voiceless | p | pʰ | t | tʰ | c | k | |
| voiced | b | bʱ | d | dʱ | ɟ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
Classification
Lhokpu is a Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by the Lhop people in Bhutan.
Grollmann & Gerber (2017)[3] consider Lhokpu to have a particularly close relationship with Dhimal and Toto.
Name
Lhokpu is spoken by the Lhop—a Dzongkha term meaning "Southerners"—, who "represent the aboriginal [gdung] Dung population of western Bhutan.[4]
Geographic distribution
According to the Ethnologue, Lhokpu is spoken in Damtey, Loto Kuchu, Lotu, Sanglong, Sataka, and Taba villages, located between Samtsi and Phuntsoling, in Samtse District, Bhutan.
Culture
The Lhop people are animists rather than Buddhists, burying their dead rather than cremating them as Buddhists do. Their society is matrilineal and matrilocal.[5]
See also
- Languages of Bhutan
- Dhimalish comparative vocabulary list (Wiktionary)
References
- ↑ Lhokpu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ↑ Driem, George van (2001). Languages of the Himalayas : an ethnolinguistic handbook of the greater Himalayan Region : containing an introduction to the symbiotic theory of language. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-9004103900.
- ↑ Grollmann, Selin and Pascal Gerber. 2017. Linguistic evidence for a closer relationship between Lhokpu and Dhimal: Including some remarks on the Dhimalish subgroup. Bern: University of Bern.
- ↑ Driem, George van (1998). Dzongkha = rdoṅ-kha. Leiden: Research School, CNWS. p. 29. ISBN 978-9057890024.
- ↑ Gwendolyn Hyslop. 2016. Worlds of knowledge in Central Bhutan: Documentation of 'Olekha. Language Documentation & Conservation 10. 77–106.