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The Khengkha language (Dzongkha ྨཕགལཔམཕ), or Kheng,[1] is an East Bodish language spoken by ~40,000 native speakers worldwide,[2] in the Zhemgang, Trongsa, and Mongar districts of south–central Bhutan.[3]

Kheng
ྨཕགལཔམཕ
Native to	Bhutan
Ethnicity	Kheng
Native speakers	50,000 (2013) Total speakers: 65,000
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Kanauri ? Bodish East Bodish Kheng
Writing system	Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xkf
Glottolog	khen1241
ELP	Khengkha

Classification

Khengkha is a dialect found in the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Khengkha is part of the larger branch of Sino-Tibetan language family but falls into the subcategories of: Tibetio-Burman, Western Tubeto-Burman, Bodish, East Bodish, Bumthang, and Khengkha.

Language codes

ISO 639-3 xkf

Glotolog khen1241[4]

Geographical distribution

Khengkha is an East Bodish language spoken in the south-central districts of Bhutan. Khengkha is mainly found in the Sarpang district but can also be found in southwest Mongar district, rural areas in southeast Trongsa district and in Zhemgang district.[1]

Dialects

The three main dialects in Bumthang district are Bumthap (Lower Kheng), Khempa (Middle Kheng), and Kurtop (Upper Kheng). Comprehension between the three dialects differs as Bumthap is the most similarly related language, however conversation with Kurthop is difficult.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	(ȵ)	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Affricate	voiceless		ts	tɕ ~ tʃ
	aspirated		tsʰ	tɕʰ ~ tʃʰ
	voiced		dz	dʑ ~ dʒ
Fricative	voiceless		s	ɕ ~ ʃ		h
	voiced		z	ʑ ~ ʒ
Rhotic			r ~ ɹ
Approximant	central	w		j
	lateral		l

• /r/ can be heard as either a trill [r] or an approximant [ɹ] in free variation.
• Alveolo-palatal sounds /tɕ, tɕʰ, dʑ, ɕ, ʑ/ can also range to palato-alveolar sounds [tʃ, tʃʰ, dʒ, ʃ, ʒ] in free variation.

Final consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p	t	k	ʔ
Nasal	m	n	ŋ
Fricative		(s)
Rhotic		r
Approximant		(l)

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	(ø̈)	o
Open		a
Diphthong		ai

• A centralized rounded [ø̈] does appear, but is mostly borrowed from words in Dzongkha.
• /a/ can appear slightly back as [ʌ] or [ɑ] within diphthongs or codas.
• /i, e/ can be heard as [ɪ, ɛ] when in short form.[5]

Grammar

In most Khengkha sentences, it only marks grammatical relations through word order. The subject constituent precedes the object and the verb constituents follow it. Khengkha follows the same typology as Dzongkha. The example below demonstrates how the grammatical roles of each constituent are marked only by the position relative to the verb:[1]

When nouns are addressed in Khengkha there are two ways it can be written, depending on the other.

1. Relatives before noun heads or articles.
2. Adjectives after noun heads.

Khengkha is an oral language without a writing system, making tones and nuances important during communication.[1]

Language Use

Khengkha is a vigorous language in limited areas. Khengkha is not allowed to be taught in schools around Bhutan, making it only spoken at home, for commerce, local politics, and traditional religion. Due to the increasing modernization of Bhutan, there are negative attitudes towards those who speak Kheng instead of Dzongkha or the English. Lower Kheng is considered to be spoken backward, while Middle Kheng is seen as more prestigious. Middle Kheng region is the strongest and most developed economically, while lower Kheng is least developed.[1]

Language Development

Since Khengkha is an oral language there is a low literacy rate for native Khengkha speakers in Dzongkha. There is literacy rate of 20% in Dzongkha.[1]

Common phrases

As there is no official English romanization of Dzongkha script, many words are spelled out phonetically. Therefore, there may be multiple spellings of the same word.

English	Khengkha	Dzongkha
Hello	Kuzu zangpo	Kuzu zangpo
How are you?	Wed ato nag yo?	Choe gadey be yoe?
My name is Dorji.	Ngai meng Dorji wenn	Ngegi ming Dorji 'ing.
It was nice meeting you.	Nga wed domsay nyeng gas a.	Chö dang je di sem ga-i.
Okay, I will see you again.	Kai nyeng dom.	Yaya, lok shu ley jel gey.
Sorry	Nyeng ma ja yai	Gom ma thay
Who	Aii yo	Ga
What	Ja yo	Gaci
When	Arba	Nam
Where	Aucu ta say/ Aun	Gate
Why	Jai bu say/ Ato bu say	Gaci bey
How	Ato	Gade
Where are you from?	Yoe ah nga yo?	Chö 'ü: gate le mo?
I am from Bumthang.	Nga Bumthang do when.	Nga Bumthang le 'ing.
I am thirsty.	Nga ka kampa	Kha khom chi.
I am hungry.	Nga tog pai say sa.	Toh ke chi.
Morning	Nga si	Droba
Afternoon	Nyen cha	Nyin-che
Evening	So suitlas	Chiru
Night	San	Numo

English translation of the conversation:

Dorji: Hi, my name is Dorji.

Sonam: Hi, my name is Sonam. Where are you from?

Dorji: I’m from Zhemgang.

Sonam: What are you doing nowadays?

Dorji: I’m studying.

Sonam: I’m happy to meet you.

Dorji: I’m also happy to meet you. Let’s meet again.

Sonam: Okay.

Numerical

Khengkha counting system is written in Dzongkha script but pronounced differently. Below is a comparison of Khengkha and Dzongkha numbers.

#		Khengkha		Dzongkha
1		༡	Thak	༡	Ci:
2		༢	Zoom	༢	Nyi:
3		༣	Sum	༣	Sum
4		༤	Blay	༤	Zhi
5		༥	Ya-Nga	༥	Nga
6		༦	Grog	༦	Dru
7		༧	Ngee	༧	Dün
8		༨	Jat	༨	Gä
9		༩	Dogo	༩	Gu
10		༡༠	Choe	༡༠	Cutham
11		༡༡	Chowouray	༡༡	Cuci:
12		༡༢	Chowazone	༡༢	Cu-'nyi
13		༡༣	Chowasum	༡༣	Cusum
14		༡༤	Choebloy	༡༤	Cuzhi
15		༡༥	Choenga	༡༥	Ce-'nga
16		༡༦	Choegrok	༡༦	Cudru
17		༡༧	Choerngyee	༡༧	Cupdün
18		༡༨	Cheorjat	༡༨	Copgä
19		༡༩	Choedogo	༡༩	Cugu
20		༢༠	Nyeesho	༢༠	Khe Ci:/ Nyishu
30		༣༠	Khaidehichoe	༣༠	Sumchu
40		༤༠	Khaizone	༤༠	Zhipcu
50		༥༠	Khaizone Choe	༥༠	Ngapcu
60		༦༠	Khaisum	༦༠	Drupcu
70		༧༠	Khaisum ni Choe	༧༠	Düncu
80		༨༠	Khaiblay	༨༠	Gäpcu
90		༩༠	Khaiblay ni Choe	༩༠	Gupcu
100		༡༠༠	Khai Nga	༡༠༠	Cikja
200		༢༠༠	Kai Choe	༢༠༠	Nyija
300		༣༠༠	Khai Choe Nga	༣༠༠	Sumja
400		༤༠༠	Nyeeshy Theg/Shipja	༤༠༠	Zhipja
500		༥༠༠	Ngabja	༥༠༠	Ngapja
600		༦༠༠	Drukja	༦༠༠	Drupja
700		༧༠༠	Dinja	༧༠༠	Dünja
800		༨༠༠	Nyeesho Zone/Gopja	༨༠༠	Gäpja
900		༩༠༠	Gupja	༩༠༠	Gupja
1000		༡༠༠༠	Thonthra Theg/Chigtong	༡༠༠༠	Cikthong

Below are audio records of Khengkha and Dzongkha numbers being spoken.

Khengkha numbers: #REDIRECT 
Dzongkha numbers: #REDIRECT 

Writing system

Khengkha is an oral language without its own written system. But it unofficially borrows from the Tibetan script and Uchen style of writing. Khengkha and Dzongkha numerical script are written the same.

Related languages

Historically, Kheng and its speakers have had close contact with speakers of the Kurtöp, Nupbi and Bumthang languages, nearby languages of central and eastern Bhutan, to the extent that they may be considered part of a wider collection of "Bumthang languages".[6][7][8]

See also

• Languages of Bhutan
• Kheng people

References

Bibliography

• Yangdzom, Deki; Arkesteijn, Marten (n.d.). Khengkha Lessonbook: Khengkha-English / English-Khengkha Wordlist. Thimphu: SNV, Bhutan.
• van Driem, George (2001). Languages of the Himalayas: An Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Region: Containing an Introduction to the Symbiotic Theory of Language. Brill. p. 1412. ISBN 90-04-12062-9.
• van Driem, George (2007). "Endangerd Languages of Bhutan and Sikkim: East Bodish Languages". In Moseley, Christopher (ed.). Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages. Routledge. pp. 295, 331. ISBN 0-7007-1197-X.

• Namgyel, Singye. The Language Web of Bhutan. Thimphu: KMT.
• van Driem, George L; Karma Tshering (1998). Dzongkha. Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region. Leiden: Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies. ISBN 90-5789-002-X.

External links

• Himalayan Languages Project

На других языках

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- [en] Kheng language

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[ru] Кхенг-кха

Язык Кхенг-ха ( ྨཕགལ པམཕ), или Кхенг[2] — восточно-бодский язык, на котором говорят около 40 000 человек по всему миру[3]. Язык распространён в городах Жемганг, Тронгса и Монгар на юге и в центре Бутана[4].

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