# Bumthang language

The Bumthang language (Dzongkha: བུམ་ཐང་ཁ་, Wylie: bum thang kha; also called Bhumtam, Bumtang(kha), Bumtanp, Bumthapkha, and Kebumtamp) is an East Bodish language spoken by about 20,000 people in Bumthang and surrounding districts of Bhutan. Van Driem (1993) describes Bumthang as the dominant language of central Bhutan.

## Related languages

Historically, Bumthang and its speakers have had close contact with speakers of the Kurtöp, Nupbi and Kheng languages, nearby East Bodish languages of central and eastern Bhutan, to the extent that they may be considered part of a wider collection of "Bumthang languages."
Bumthang language is largely lexically similar with Kheng (98%), Nyen (75%–77%), and Kurtöp (70%–73%); but less so with Dzongkha (47%–52%) and Tshangla (40%–50%, also called "Sharchop"). It is either closely related to or identical with the Tawang language of the Monpa people of Tawang in India and China.

## Orthography

Bumthang is either written with the Tibetan or Romanized Dzongkha scripts.
| Tibetan script | Romanization | Phonetic value |
| ཀ་ | k | [k] |
| ཁ་ | kh | [kʰ] |
| ག་ | g | [g] |
| ང་ | ng | [ŋ] |
| ཅ་ | c | [c] |
| ཆ་ | ch | [cʰ] |
| ཇ་ | j | [ɟ] |
| ཉ་ | ny | [ɲ] |
| པ་ | p | [p] |
| ཕ་ | ph | [pʰ] |
| བ་ | b | [b] |
| མ་ | m | [m] |
| ཏ་ | t | [t̪] |
| ཐ་ | th | [t̪ʰ] |
| ད་ | d | [d̪] |
| ན་ | n | [n̪] |
| ཏྲ་ | tr | [ʈ] |
| ཐྲ་ | thr | [ʈʰ] |
| དྲ་ | dr | [ɖ] |
| ཙ་ | ts | [t͡s] |
| ཚ་ | tsh | [t͡sʰ] |
| ཛ་ | dz | [d͡z] |
| ས་ | s | [s] |
| ཟ་ | z | [z] |
| ཤ་ | sh | [ʃ] |
| ཞ་ | zh | [ʒ] |
| ཤྲ་ | shr | [r̥] |
| ཧྲ་ | hr | [rʰ] |
| ཞྲ་ | zhr | [ɼ] |
| ཝ་ | w | [w] |
| ཡ་ | y | [j] |
| ལ་ | l | [l] |
| ལྷ་ | lh | [l̥] |
| ར་ | r | [r] |
| ཧ་ | h | [h] |
| ཧྱ་ | hy | [hʲ] |
| འ་ | a | à |
| ཨ་ | 'a | á |
| འ་ེ | e | è |
| ཨ་ེ | 'e | é |

## Phonology

Bumthang consonants :
| | | Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
| Plosive | Voiceless | p | t̪ <t> | | ʈ <tr> | c | k | |
| Plosive | Voiced | b | d̪ <d> | | ɖ <dr> | ɟ <j> | g | |
| Plosive | Aspirated | | | | ʈ$^h$ <thr> | c$^h$ <ch> | k$^h$ <kh> | |
| Affricate | Affricate | | | t͡s, t͡s$^h$ <tsh>, d͡z | | | | |
| Fricative | Voiceless | | | s | | ʃ <sh> | | h h$^j$ <hy> |
| Fricative | Voiced | | | z | | ʒ <zh> | | |
| Approximant | Approximant | w | | | | j <y> | | |
| Nasal | Nasal | m | n̪ <n> | | | ɲ <ny> | ŋ <ng> | |
| Lateral | Lateral | | | l, l̥ <lh> | | | | |
| Trill | Trill | | | r$^h$ <hr>, r̥ <shr>, r | ɼ <zhr> | | | |
There are also thirteen vowels:
Bumthang vowels :
| | Front | Back |
| Close | i i: <î> y: <ü> | u u: <û> |
| Close-mid | e e: <ê> | |
| Mid | | o o: <ô> |
| Open-mid | œ: <ö> | |
| Open | æ <ä> | ɑ <a> ɑ: <â> |
There is a high register tone and a low register tone. Syllables with a high register tone are preceded by a ' mark.

## Grammar

Bumthang is an ergative–absolutive language. The ergative case is not used on every transitive subject, but, like in many other languages of the region shows some optionality, discussed in detail by Donohue & Donohue (2016). Using the ergative denotes a high degree of agentivity of the subject.
Personal pronouns in Bumthang :
| | Absolutive | Absolutive | Ergative | Ergative | Genitive | Genitive | Dative | Dative |
| | singular | plural | singular | plural | singular | plural | singular | plural |
| 1st | ngat | nget | ngai (ngaile) | ngei (ngeile) | ngae (ngale) | nge (ngele, ngegi) | ngado | ngedo |
| 2st | wet | yin | wi (wile) | yinle | we (wele) | yinde | wedo | yindu |
| 3rd | khit | bot | khi (khile) | boi (boile) | khi (khile) | böegi (boeli) | khidu | bodo |
The plural suffix in nouns is -tshai. Adjectives follow nouns. The ergative suffix in nouns is -le, while in personal pronouns it is -i. The ergative suffix may follow the collective suffix gampo. The genitive may take on the suffix -rae (e.g. we-rae 'your own'). The telic suffix -QO, where both Q (realized as [k], [g], [ng], [t], or [d]) and O take on a different value based on the final consonant and vowel of a word, denotes the goal of a situation which the word is directed to (e.g. Thimphuk-gu 'to Thimphu', yam-do 'on the way'). Distinct from the telic, the locative suffix -na (e.g. yak-na 'in the hand').
The numeral system of Bumthang is largely base-20. The numeral thek 'one' is also used to denote 'a/an, a certain one'.
Bumthang numerals :
| Numeral | Bumthang | Numeral | Bumthang | Numeral | Bumthang |
| 1 | thek | 11 | chwaret | 21 | khaethek neng thek |
| 2 | zon | 12 | chwa'nyit | 22 | khaethek neng zon |
| 3 | sum | 13 | chusum | 40 | khaezon |
| 4 | ble | 14 | cheble | 60 | khaesum |
| 5 | yanga | 15 | chänga | 400 | nyishuthek |
| 6 | grok | 16 | chöegrok | 420 | nyishuthek neng tsathek |
| 7 | 'nyit | 17 | cher'nyit | 440 | nyishuthek neng tsazon |
| 8 | jat | 18 | charjat | 481 | nyishuthek neng tsable doma thek |
| 9 | dogo | 19 | chöedogo | 800 | nyishuzon |
| 10 | che | 20 | khaethek | 8000 | khaechenthek |
The finite verb is inflected for tense, aspect, and evidentiality. Mood is usually marked by an auxiliary. TAM categories include the present, the experienced past, the inferred past, the experienced imperfective, the periphrastic perfect, the infinitival future, the volitional future, the supine, the gerund, the adhortative, and the optative.