Lhokpu language

Lhokpu
Lhobikha, Taba-Damtoe-Bikha
Native toBhutan
Regionsouthwest Bhutan (Samtse, Chukha)
EthnicityLhop people
Native speakers
(2,500 cited 1993)
Language codes
ISO 639-3lhp
Glottologlhok1238
ELPLhokpu
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.

Phonology

Vowels

Front Back
Close iu
Mid eo
Open aɒ

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) 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.

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.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lhokpu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Driem, George van (1998). Dzongkha = rdoṅ-kha. Leiden: Research School, CNWS. p. 29. ISBN 978-9057890024.
  5. ↑ Gwendolyn Hyslop. 2016. Worlds of knowledge in Central Bhutan: Documentation of 'Olekha. Language Documentation & Conservation 10. 77–106.