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
[edit]Vowels
[edit]| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | ɒ |
Consonants
[edit]| 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
[edit]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
[edit]Lhokpu is spoken by the Lhop—a Dzongkha term meaning "Southerners"—, who "represent the aboriginal [gdung] Dung population of western Bhutan.[4]
Geographic distribution
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]- Languages of Bhutan
- Dhimalish comparative vocabulary list (Wiktionary)
References
[edit]- ↑ 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.
 | This Sino-Tibetan languages-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information. |