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17-516: Zhemgang District ( Dzongkha : གཞམས་སྒང་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie transliteration : Gzhams-sgang rdzong-khag ; previously "Shemgang"), is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan . It is bordered by Sarpang , Trongsa , Bumthang , Mongar and Pemagatshel Districts , and borders Assam in India to the south. The administrative center of the district is Zhemgang . The dominant language in Zhemgang

34-544: A close linguistic relationship to J'umowa, which is spoken in the Chumbi Valley of Southern Tibet . It has a much more distant relationship to Standard Tibetan . Spoken Dzongkha and Tibetan are around 50% to 80% mutually intelligible, with the literary forms of both highly influenced by the liturgical (clerical) Classical Tibetan language, known in Bhutan as Chöke, which has been used for centuries by Buddhist monks . Chöke

51-630: A distinct set of rules." The following is a sample vocabulary: The following is a sample text in Dzongkha of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights : འགྲོ་ ’Gro- བ་ ba- མི་ mi- རིགས་ rigs- ག་ ga- ར་ ra- དབང་ dbaṅ- ཆ་ cha- འདྲ་ ’dra- མཏམ་ mtam- འབད་ ’bad- སྒྱེཝ་ sgyew- ལས་ las- ག་ ga- ར་ ra- གིས་ gis- གཅིག་ Lakha language Lakha ( Tibetan : ལ་ཁ་ , Wylie : la kha "language of

68-479: Is Khengkha . Historically, Khengkha and its speakers have had close contact with speakers of Kurtöpkha , Nupbikha , and Bumthangkha to the north, to the extent that they may be considered part of a wider collection of "Bumthang languages." The term Ngalop may subsume several related linguistic and cultural groups, such as the Kheng people and speakers of Bumthang language. S.R. Chakravarty asserts that Kheng are one of

85-409: Is a tonal language and has two register tones: high and low. The tone of a syllable determines the allophone of the onset and the phonation type of the nuclear vowel. All consonants may begin a syllable. In the onsets of low-tone syllables, consonants are voiced . Aspirated consonants (indicated by the superscript h ), /ɬ/ , and /h/ are not found in low-tone syllables. The rhotic /r/

102-471: Is often elided and results in the preceding vowel nasalized and prolonged, especially word-finally. Syllable-final /k/ is most often omitted when word-final as well, unless in formal speech. In literary pronunciation, liquids /r/ and /l/ may also end a syllable. Though rare, /ɕ/ is also found in syllable-final positions. No other consonants are found in syllable-final positions. Many words in Dzongkha are monosyllabic . Syllables usually take

119-400: Is usually a trill [ r ] or a fricative trill [ r̝ ] , and is voiceless in the onsets of high-tone syllables. /t, tʰ, ts, tsʰ, s/ are dental . Descriptions of the palatal affricates and fricatives vary from alveolo-palatal to plain palatal. Only a few consonants are found in syllable-final positions. Most common among them are /m, n, p/ . Syllable-final /ŋ/

136-550: The Uchen script , forms of the Tibetan script known as Jôyi "cursive longhand" and Jôtshum "formal longhand". The print form is known simply as Tshûm . There are various systems of romanization and transliteration for Dzongkha, but none accurately represents its phonetic sound. The Bhutanese government adopted a transcription system known as Roman Dzongkha , devised by the linguist George van Driem , as its standard in 1991. Dzongkha

153-592: The 1990s, the United Liberation Front of Assam maintained guerrilla bases in the forests of southern Zhemgang from which they would launch attacks on targets in India and then return across the border. In late 2003 the King of Bhutan , Jigme Singye Wangchuck led a military operation which largely swept the guerrillas out of the region. Because of the risk of attack, foreign tourists were not allowed to visit Zhemgang in

170-507: The earliest inhabitants that language spread upwards from Kheng into Bumthang and Kurtöp. By all accounts the Kheng are more closely related to the people of central Bhutan than they are to their neighbors in eastern Bhutan, who are primarily Sharchops. The Kheng still retain special trade relations with the Bumthang, including providing winter pasture rights for Bumthang yaks. SIL International estimates there are 50,000 Kheng speakers. Starting in

187-486: The form of CVC, CV, or VC. Syllables with complex onsets are also found, but such an onset must be a combination of an unaspirated bilabial stop and a palatal affricate. The bilabial stops in complex onsets are often omitted in colloquial speech. Dzongkha is considered a South Tibetic language . It is closely related to and partially intelligible with Sikkimese , and to some other Bhutanese languages such as Chocha Ngacha , Brokpa , Brokkat and Lakha . Dzongkha bears

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204-556: The fortress", from dzong "fortress" and kha "language". As of 2013 , Dzongkha had 171,080 native speakers and about 640,000 total speakers. Dzongkha is a South Tibetic language . It is closely related to Laya and Lunana and partially intelligible with Sikkimese , and to some other Bhutanese languages such as Chocha Ngacha , Brokpa , Brokkat and Lakha . It has a more distant relationship to Standard Tibetan . Spoken Dzongkha and Tibetan are around 50 to 80 percent mutually intelligible . Dzongkha and its dialects are

221-507: The language is the lingua franca in the districts to the south and east where it is not the mother tongue. The Bhutanese films Travellers and Magicians (2003) and Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019) are in Dzongkha. The Tibetan script used to write Dzongkha has thirty basic letters , sometimes known as "radicals", for consonants . Dzongkha is usually written in Bhutanese forms of

238-558: The native tongue of eight western districts of Bhutan ( viz. Wangdue Phodrang , Punakha , Thimphu , Gasa , Paro , Ha , Dagana and Chukha ). There are also some native speakers near the Indian town of Kalimpong , once part of Bhutan but now in North Bengal , and in Sikkim . Dzongkha was declared the national language of Bhutan in 1971. Dzongkha study is mandatory in all schools, and

255-495: The north (the gewogs of Nangkor and Shingkhar ) via a biological corridor that bisects Zhemgang. This Bhutan location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Dzongkha Dzongkha ( རྫོང་ཁ་ ; [d͡zòŋkʰɑ́] ) is a Tibeto-Burman language that is the official and national language of Bhutan . It is written using the Tibetan script . The word dzongkha means "the language of

272-435: The past. Zhemgang Districts comprises eight village blocks (or gewogs ): Most of Zhemgang District is part of the protected areas of Bhutan . Zhemgang's environmentally protected areas include Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park (the gewog of Trong ) and Royal Manas National Park (the gewogs of Ngangla , Pangkhar and Trong ), which occupy much of the west. These parks connect to Phrumsengla National Park in

289-439: Was used as the language of education in Bhutan until the early 1960s when it was replaced by Dzongkha in public schools. Although descended from Classical Tibetan, Dzongkha shows a great many irregularities in sound changes that make the official spelling and standard pronunciation more distant from each other than is the case with Standard Tibetan. "Traditional orthography and modern phonology are two distinct systems operating by

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