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ʼOle language

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ʼOle
Black Mountain Monpa
Native toBhutan
RegionBlack Mountains
Ethnicity100-150 ʼOle
Native speakers
1 (2016)[1]
L2: 2 (2016)
Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3ole
Glottologolek1239
ELPOlekha
Rindzi Phup, one of the last speakers of the ʼOle Mönpa language
Rindzi Phup, one of the last speakers of the ʼOle Mönpa language. Photo by George van Driem

ʼOle, also called ʼOlekha or Black Mountain Monpa, is a moribund, possibly Sino-Tibetan language spoken natively by 1 person in the Black Mountains of Wangdue Phodrang and Trongsa Districts in western Bhutan. The term ʼOle refers to a clan of speakers.[2]

Geographic distribution

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According to the Ethnologue, ʼOlekha is spoken in the following locations of Bhutan.

Dialects are separated by the Black Mountains.

Classification

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ʼOle forms a distinct branch of Sino-Tibetan/Tibeto-Burman. it is not closely related to Tshangla language of eastern Bhutan, also called "Monpa" and predating Dzongkha in the region, which belongs to a different branch of the family.[3]

Gerber (2018)[4] notes that Black Mountain Mönpa has had extensive contact with Gongduk before the arrival of East Bodish languages in Bhutan. The following comparative vocabulary table from Gerber (2020) compares Gongduk, Black Mountain Mönpa, and Bjokapakha, which is a divergent Tshangla variety.[5]

Gloss Gongduk Black Mountain Mönpa Bjokapakha
hair (on head) θɤm guluŋ tsham
tongue dəli líː lɪ
eye mik mek ~ mik miŋ
ear nərəŋ naktaŋ nabali
tooth ɤn áː ~ waː sha
bone rukɤŋ ɦɤtphok ~ yöphok khaŋ
blood winiʔ kɔk yi
hand/arm gur lɤk ~ lok gadaŋ
leg/foot bidɤʔ dɤkpɛŋ ~ tɛ̤kɛŋ bitiŋ
faeces ki cok khɨ
water dɤŋli cö, khe ri
rain wɤ ghö ŋamtsu
dog oki cüla ~ khula khu
pig don pɔk phakpa
fish kuŋwə nye̤ ŋa
louse dɤr θæːk shiŋ
bear bekpələ wɤm ~ wom omsha
son ledə bæθaː za
daughter medə bæmɛt zamin
name kət mön ~ min mɨŋ
house kiŋ mhiː̤ ~ mhe̤ː phai
fire mi áːmik ~ áːmit mɨ
to hear lə yu- goː- nai tha-
to see tɤŋ- tuŋ- thoŋ-
to look məl- ~ mɤt- mak- got-
to sit mi- ~ mu- buŋ- ~ bæŋ- laŋ-
to die komθ- θɛː- ~ θɛʔ- shi-
to kill tɤt- θüt- ~ θut- ~ θit she-

Comparison of numerals:[5]

Gloss Gongduk Black Mountain Mönpa Bjokapakha
one ti tɛk thur
two niktsə nhü ɲiktsiŋ
three towə sam sam
four piyə blö pshi
five ŋəwə lɔŋ ŋa
six kukpə o̤ːk khuŋ
seven ðukpə nyí zum
eight yitpə jit [ʤit] yɪn
nine guwə doːga gu
ten deyə chö se

Comparison of pronouns:[5]

Pronoun Gongduk Black Mountain Mönpa Bjokapakha
1SG ðə kö jaŋ
2SG gi iŋ nan
3SG gon hoʔma (MASC); hoʔmet (FEM) dan
1PL ðiŋ ɔŋdat (INCL); anak (EXCL) ai
2PL giŋ iŋnak nai
3PL gonmət hoʔoŋ dai

Dialects

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Black Mountain Monpa is spoken in at least 6 villages. The variety spoken in Rukha village, south-central Wangdi is known as ʼOlekha.[6] Out of a population of 100-150 people (about 15 households) in Rukha village, there is only one elderly female fluent speaker and two semi-fluent speakers of ʼOlekha.[6]

George van Driem (1992)[7] reports a Western dialect (spoken in Rukha and Reti villages) and Eastern dialect (spoken in Cungseng village).

According to Tournadre & Suzuki (2023),[8] there are three dialects, spoken by 500 speakers in Tronsa ཀྲོང་སར་ and Wangdi Phodr’a དབང་འདུས་ཕོ་བྲང་ districts..

  • western (in Riti and Rukha)
  • northern (in Wangling, Jangbi, and Phumz’ur)
  • southern (in Cungseng and Berti)

History

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ʼOle was unknown beyond its immediate area until 1990,[citation needed] and is now highly endangered, and was originally assumed to be East Bodish.[9] George van Driem described ʼOle as a remnant of the primordial population of the Black Mountains before the southward expansion of the ancient East Bodish tribes.[10]

More recently, Gwendolyn Hyslop (2016),[6] agreeing with van Driem, has suggested that ʼOle is an isolate branch of the Sino-Tibetan family that has been heavily influenced by East Bodish languages.[3] Because of the small number of cognates with East Bodish languages once loans are identified, Blench and Post provisionally treat ʼOle as a language isolate, not just an isolate within Sino-Tibetan.[9]

Phonology

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Consonants[5]
Labial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Plosive oral p b t d (ʈ) (ɖ) c ɟ k ɡ ʔ
aspirated pʰ tʰ (ʈʰ) cʰ kʰ
Affricate oral (ts) (dz)
aspirated (tsʰ)
Fricative s z, ɬ ʃ ʒ, ç ʁ h
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Approximant w l j
Tap ɽ
  • Consonants in parentheses are only found in loanwords.
  • /s z/ are realized as dental fricatives [θ ð] in eastern dialects.
  • The stops /t k/ are glottalised and unreleased [ʔt̚ ʔk̚] at the end of syllables.
Vowels[5]
Front Central Back
Unrounded Rounded
High i y u
Mid e ø ɤ o
Low ɛ a ɔ
  • /a/ can often be heard as [ɑ~ə].
  • A distinction in vowel length can be attested, but it is not known whether it is phonemic.

Additionally, ʼOle has two tones;[5] high and low.

Vocabulary

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Hyslop (2016)[6] notes that ʼOlekha has borrowed heavily from East Bodish and Tibetic languages, but also has a layer of native vocabulary items. Numerals are mostly borrowed from East Bodish languages, while body parts and nature words are borrowed from both Tibetic and East Bodish languages. Hyslop (2016) lists the following ʼOlekha words of clearly indigenous (non-borrowed) origin.

  • six: wok
  • head: peː
  • face: ék
  • rain: gø
  • earth: tʰabak
  • ash: tʰækʰu
  • stone: loŋ
  • fire: ámik
  • grandfather: tana
  • grandmother: ʔɐˈpeŋ
  • chicken: ˈkɤgɤ
  • mustard: pekoŋ
  • cotton: ʔɐˈpʰɪt
  • eggplant: ˈpandala
  • foxtail millet: ʔamet

The pronouns and lexical items for all foraged plants are also of indigenous origin. Additionally, the central vowel /ɤ/ and voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/ are only found in non-borrowed words.[6]

Words whose origin is not certain (i.e., may or may not be borrowed) are:[6]

  • nose: ná (perhaps borrowed from East Bodish?)
  • arm: lok (perhaps borrowed from Tibetic?)
  • wind: lǿ
  • water: cø
  • mother: ʔɔmɔ
  • father: ʔɔpɔ
  • dog: tʃylɔ
  • sheep: lu
  • barley: nápʰa
  • bitter buckwheat: máma

The cardinal numerals are:[5]

  1. tɛk
  2. nhü
  3. sam
  4. blö
  5. lɔŋ
  6. o̤ːk
  7. nyí
  8. jit [ʤit]
  9. doːga
  10. chö

References

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  1. ^ "Olekha".
  2. ^ van Driem, George (July 1992). "In Quest of Mahākirānti" (PDF). Center of Nepal and Asian Studies Journal. 19 (2): 241–247. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  3. ^ a b van Driem, George L. (2011). "Tibeto-Burman subgroups and historical grammar". Himalayan Linguistics Journal. 10 (1): 31–39. Archived from the original on 12 January 2012.
  4. ^ Gerber, Pascal. 2018. Areal features in Gongduk, Bjokapakha and Black Mountain Mönpa phonology. Unpublished draft.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Gerber, Pascal (2020). "Areal features in Gongduk, Bjokapakha and Black Mountain Mönpa phonology". Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 43 (1): 55–86. doi:10.1075/ltba.18015.ger. ISSN 0731-3500.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Gwendolyn Hyslop. 2016. Worlds of knowledge in Central Bhutan: Documentation of ʼOlekha. Language Documentation & Conservation 10. 77-106.
  7. ^ van Driem, George. 1992. The Monpa language of the Black Mountains. Presented at ICSTLL 25.
  8. ^ Tournadre, Nicolas; Suzuki, Hiroyuki (2023). The Tibetic Languages: an introduction to the family of languages derived from Old Tibetan. Paris: LACITO. ISBN 978-2-490768-08-0.
  9. ^ a b Blench, R. & Post, M. W. (2013). Rethinking Sino-Tibetan phylogeny from the perspective of Northeast Indian languages
  10. ^ van Driem, George L. (1993). "Language Policy in Bhutan". London: SOAS, University of London. Archived from the original on 1 November 2010. Retrieved 18 January 2011.

Further reading

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