East Bodish | |
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Ethnicity | Monpa people etc. |
Geographic distribution | Bhutan |
Linguistic classification | Sino-Tibetan
|
Glottolog | main1269 |
The East Bodish languages are a small group of non-Tibetic Bodish languages spoken in eastern Bhutan and adjacent areas of Tibet and India. They include:
"Bod" (བོད) is the endonym for Tibet.
The term "East Bodish" first appeared in Shafer (1955).[1] He classified "Dwags" (Takpa) into the "East Bodish Unit" within the Bodish Branch of Sino-Tibetan.[2]
Michael Aris mentioned the "Bum-thang" language spoken in areas such as "Tongsa", "Mangdelung", Kheng, and "Kurtö", which retains "the most archaic features of all the Bhutanese languages"[3] George van Driem states that Bumthang, Kheng and Kurtöp could be considered dialects of a single language.[4] Bhutanese anthropologist Kelzang Tashi treats Bumthang, Kheng, and Kurtöp as dialects of the language spoken by Üchogpa, which translates to the people of Central Bhutan[5]
The East Bodish languages do not share certain lexical innovations with Old Tibetan (e.g. Tibetan bdun; Takpa nis for 'seven').[6] The branch is not a subgroup of Tibetic as defined by Nicolas Tournadre.[7]
George van Driem initially proposed that 'Ole belonged to the group, but later decided that it belonged to a group of its own.[8]
Although the East Bodish languages are closely related, Tshangla and related languages of eastern Bhutan, also called "Monpa" and predating Dzongkha, form a sister branch not to the East Bodish group, but to its parent Bodish branch.[9][10] Thus the ambiguous term "Monpa" risks separating languages that should be grouped together, whereas grouping languages together that are quite distinct.[11] Zakhring is apparently also related, though strongly influenced by Miju or a similar language.[12]
Hyslop (2010)[13] classifies the East Bodish languages as follows.
She regards the Dakpa–Dzala and Bumthangic subgroups as secure, and the placement of Phobjip and Chali as more tentative.[14]
Lu (2002) divides the "Menba language" (门巴语) into the following subdivisions:[15]
Hyslop (2014)[16] reconstructs the following Proto-East Bodish forms.
Additional reconstructions can be found in Hyslop (2016).[17]