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| Gongduk | |
|---|---|
| Gongdukpa Ang དགོང་འདུས་ | |
| Region | Bhutan |
Native speakers | 2,000 (2006)[1] |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
| Tibetan script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | goe |
| Glottolog | gong1251 |
| ELP | Gongduk |
Gongduk or Gongdu (Tibetan: དགོང་འདུས་, Wylie: Dgong-'dus, it is also known as Gongdubikha[2]) is an endangered Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1,000 people in a few inaccessible villages located near the Kuri Chhu river in the Gongdue Gewog of Mongar District in eastern Bhutan. The names of the villages are Bala, Dagsa, Damkhar, Pam, Pangthang, and Yangbari (Ethnologue).
Gongduk has complex verbal morphology, which Ethnologue considers a retention from Proto-Tibeto-Burman,[1] and is lexically highly divergent.[3] On this basis, it is apparently not part of any major subgroup and will probably have to be assigned to its own branch.[3][4]
The people are said to have come from hunters that would move from place to place at times.[5]
The language is notable for only being discovered by linguists in 1991.[6] Currently, George van Driem is working towards the completion of a description of Gongduk based on his work with native speakers in the Gongduk area.[4]
- ^ a b Gongduk at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ "Gongduk". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
- ^ a b Blench, R. & Post, M. W. (2013). Rethinking Sino-Tibetan phylogeny from the perspective of Northeast Indian languages
- ^ a b Himalayan Languages Project. "Gongduk". Himalayan Languages Project. Archived from the original on 2012-03-03. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
- ^ "Languages and Ethnic Groups of Bhutan". www.languagesgulper.com. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
- ^ "Why do languages die?", by Christopher Moseley, in The 5-Minute Linguist, ISBN 978-1-908049-49-0