Dzongkha As Bhutan’s National Language

Ever since the inception of human existence on the planet, language has been the indispensable nature of human life. Language has provided and served numerous wants and desires of incalculable lives not only of humans but also of other ecological inhabitants. One of the distinctive and superior features that language has ever promulgated is the ‘species specification’, giving humans a position far above the realms of animals. The fact of language as omnipotent sovereign has also been share by Shelly Shah (n.d) in her essay ‘Language and its Importance to Society’:

Language is a constituent element of civilization. It raised man from a savage state to the plane which he was capable of reaching. Man could not become man except by language. An essential point in which man differs from animals is that man alone is the sole possessor of language. No doubt animals also exhibit certain degree of power of communication but that is not only inferior in degree to human language, but also radically diverse in kind from it. (Shah, n.d).

According to the recent research carried out by Simon (2019), there are, at present, 7,111 distinct living languages worldwide of which many do not have written forms, and Bhutan, although a tiny nation, also contributes, according to Driem (1998), nineteen different languages into the record. Languages in Bhutan may not be as old as other foreign languages but hold its own uniqueness and significance exclusively associated and well featuring the “Bhutanese’. Out of nineteen languages, only four languages in Bhutan are dominant, namely; Dzongkha, spoken in western Bhutan, Tshanglakha, spoken in eastern Bhutan, Lhotshamkha, spoken in southern Bhutan and Bumthangkha, spoken in central Bhutan. Amongst these four major languages only Dzongkha and Lhotshamkha have written forms. However, of all the languages available in Bhutan, Dzongkha is the national language of Bhutan officially recognized during the reign of the third king Jigme Dorji Wangchuk.

Dzongkha is officially the national language of the kingdom of Bhutan. It is the native language of eight of the twenty districts of Bhutan such as; Thimphu, Punakha, Paro, Wangdi Phodrang, Gasa, Ha, Dagana and Chukha in western Bhutan, but Dzongkha is spoken as a lingua franca across the country. Dzongkha is derived from the local vulgate of Old Tibetan through many centuries of independent linguistic evolution on Bhutanese land. Linguistically, Dzongkha can be qualified as the natural modem descendant in Bhutan of the ancient language of which Classical Tibetan or a Choke is the literary proponent, the language in which sacred Buddhist texts, medical and scientific treatises and, indeed, all learned works have been written. The status of Dzongkha as the language of the royal court, the military elite, educated nobility, government and administration is firmly rooted in Bhutanese history at least as far back as the twelfth century.

The first syllable /dzo/ refers to fortress which is the backformation of the word ‘Dzong’, and the second syllable /kha/ refers to language, and this blended word “Dzongkha’ gives the meaning of ‘Language spoken in Dzong (Fortress)’. These Dzongs perched on the mountainous landscape of Bhutan from east to west and have traditionally used as both centers of military and political power as well as centers of learning. More specifically, Dzongkha is the refined form of the native language of western Bhutan, the inhabitants of which as well as their language have traditionally been known as 'Ngalong’. A widespread folk etymology for the term ‘Ngalong’ is that it means 'the first to wakeup' to the teachings of Buddhism in the land.

Although since the twelfth century, Dzongkha was widely spoken in Bhutan and was considered ‘similarly different’ form Tibetan language, the written form existed as same as that of Tibetan written language. Driem (1998) in his book titled ‘Dzongkha’ has deliberated on how both spoken and written form of Dzongkha have close relation to Tibetan language:

Dzongkha is said to have an old literary tradition in the sense that Classical Tibetan or Choke is to Dzongkha as Latin is to Portuguese, and the process of vernacularisation currently in progress in Bhutan has numerous parallels with the linguistic situation in the mediaeval Romance world. Just as Latin used to exercise and continues to exercise great influence on the vocabulary of the Romance languages and even English, so too Choke, the language of learning and liturgy, continues to strongly influence modern spoken and written Dzongkha. (Driem, 1998, pP-4-5).

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Until 1971, although Dzongkha was recognized as the national language of Bhutan in 1961 upon the royal decree issued by the third king Jigme Dorji Wangchuk, there was no written form, it was in Choekay (Tibetan written language), and even in schools there was no independent written form of Dzongkha. In Driem’s book (1998), how Bhutan, before 1970 used Hindi (Indian language) and Choke as medium of instruction is clearly mentioned;

When the first two secular schools were opened in Bhutan during the reign of the first King Ugyen Wangchuk (1907-1926), Hindi was chosen as the medium of instruction because of the ready availability of inexpensive textbooks in Hindi from neighboring India. Although Hindi is neither an international language nor a language of Bhutan, the language seemed a useful one. Choke of course remained the medium of instruction in the lamasery schools. During the reign of King Jigme Wangchuk (1926-1952), the number of secular school system was expanded to five. In the 1950s, under the reign of King Jimi Doji Wangchu 1952-1972), a nationwide school system was set up with 61 secular schools, at which instruction was also provided in Choke and English in addition to Hindi. (Driem, 1998, p. 7-8).

A consequence of the royal decree of 1961 was that new English-medium textbooks were specially developed for Bhutanese schools, and these new course books replaced the Hindi textbooks in 1964. In 1960s, the term 'Dzongkha' was still primarily used to denote not the spoken language of western Bhutan, but the literary exponent thereof, Choke. Because Choke was considered to be the literary form of Dzongkha, the liturgical language and the spoken tongue were not popularly perceived as being two distinct languages. The first efforts at vernacularisation undertaken in 1961 were therefore described as attempts to modernize the national language. The deeply rooted liturgical tradition naturally made vernacularisation a slow process, and from 1961 to 1971 the Dzongkha which was taught as a written language in the schools was actually Choke. Since 1971, attempts have been made to bring the written language ever closer to the living language.

The written language for Dzongkha started to take shape only after 1971. According to Driem (1993), in the book ‘The Grammar of Dzongkha’, Lopen Pemala and Lopon Sangga Tendzi wrote and published a book titled ‘New Method Dzongkha Hand book’ that was intended to introduce and promote Bhutanese style of writing Dzongkha to replace Choke, the one that belonged to Tibet language. The principal reason for adopting Dzongkha as the national language as stated by Lopen Nado (1982) in his paper presentation at Oxford, England, was that:

Except for a few differences of accent, spelling and grammar, Dzongkha maintains the basic standard set by Choeke and lends itself readily to written standardization. The initial problems of choosing the most convenient written form for Dzongkha were solved about four decades ago by the Dzongkha Division, and now textbooks written in Dzongkha are used by students in schools throughout the country. In each school, Dzongkha is taught from Classes I to XII. (Nado, 1982).

Now having mentioned about the history of Dzongkha and its challenges. It is to be understood that Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan was there since the twelfth century. It has been used as the medium of communication especially in Dzongs (fortresses) amongst monarchs, leaders, monastic body and the citizens. Only towards the late twentieth century, the written language of living Dzongkha came into existence. Although, at present, written Dzongkha language is deemed to be Bhutan specific, it is not totally delinked from Choke, which was used as written language in Bhutan for many years in the past. Without Choke as the basis, introducing written form for Dzongkha language would have been impossible, thus, one cannot deny the fact that Choke still plays the prominent role in what Bhutan calls it as ‘different’ linguistic from of Dzongkha.

Dzongkha to be the national language of Bhutan was neither influenced by any external forces nor compelled by the insiders. It just sprung form the necessity to be recognized in the face of development and modernization. The reasons for the declaration of Dzongkha as the national language was because: first; it was the language used in the Dzongs for administrative and monastic purposes. Second; Dzongkha is one of the Bhutanese languages that had originated within Bhutan. Third; it is the only language that has the written form of communication other than Nepali. Therefore, these components of the language gave its prominence and superiority over other languages, and finally got official identity upon the royal decree of the third king Jigme Dorji Wangchuk. Now, the language has not only provided Bhutanese citizens to communicate and make a livelihood, it has given Bhutan the identity of independent nation.

References

1. Driem, G, V. (1993). The grammar of Dzongkha. (2nd Ed. p. 1). Leiden University, The Netherlands. CNWS publications.
2. Driem, G, V. (1998). Languages of Bhutan. Dzongkha (p. 1). Leiden University, The Netherlands. CNWS publications.
3. Shah, S. (n.d). Language and its Importance to Society. Retrieved on 20/04/2019 form http://www.sociologydiscussion.com/essay/language-and-its-importance-to-society-essay/2176.
4. Simons, G. (2019). Ethonologue, languages of the world (22 ed.). Retrieved on 17/04/2019 from https://www.ethnologue.com/ethnoblog/gary-simons/welcome-22nd-edition.
5. Nado. (1982). Development of language in Bhutan. In A. K. Narain (Eds.). The journal
6. of the international association of Buddhist studies. Retrieved on 18/04/2019 from https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/viewFile/8579/2486.