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.
Geographic distribution According to the Ethnologue, ʼOlekha is spoken in the following locations of Bhutan. Trongsa District: 3 enclaves west of Mangde river Wangdue Phodrang District: Adha, Jangji, Rukha, Thrumzur, and Wangling villages
Dialects are separated by the Black Mountains.
Classification 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.
The following comparative vocabulary table from Gerber (2020) compares Gongduk, Black Mountain Mönpa, and Bjokapakha, which is a divergent Tshangla variety.
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:
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:
Pronoun Gongduk Black Mountain Mönpa Bjokapakha ðə kö jaŋ gi iŋ nan gon hoʔma (); hoʔmet () dan ðiŋ ɔŋdat (); anak () ai giŋ iŋnak nai gonmət hoʔoŋ dai
Dialects Black Mountain Monpa is spoken in at least 6 villages. The variety spoken in Rukha village, south-central Wangdi is known as ʼOlekha.Gwendolyn Hyslop. 2016. Worlds of knowledge in Central Bhutan: Documentation of ʼOlekha. Language Documentation & Conservation 10. 77-106. 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.
George van Driem (1992)van Driem, George. 1992. The Monpa language of the Black Mountains. Presented at ICSTLL 25. reports a Western dialect (spoken in Rukha and Reti villages) and Eastern dialect (spoken in Cungseng village).
According to Tournadre & Suzuki (2023), 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 ʼOle was unknown beyond its immediate area until 1990, and is now highly endangered, and was originally assumed to be East Bodish.Blench, R. & Post, M. W. (2013). Rethinking Sino-Tibetan phylogeny from the perspective of Northeast Indian languages George van Driem described ʼOle as a remnant of the primordial population of the Black Mountains.
More recently, Gwendolyn Hyslop (2016), 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. 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.
Phonology +ConsonantsLabialAlveolarRetroflexPalatalVelarUvularGlottalPlosiveoral () () aspirated()Affricateoral ()aspirated()Fricative , , NasalApproximant, 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.
+VowelsFrontCentralBackUnroundedRoundedHighMidLow /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; high and low.
Vocabulary Hyslop (2016) 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: head: face: rain: earth: ash: stone: fire: grandfather: grandmother: chicken: mustard: cotton: eggplant: foxtail millet:
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.
Words whose origin is not certain (i.e., may or may not be borrowed) are:
nose: (perhaps borrowed from East Bodish?) arm: (perhaps borrowed from Tibetic?) wind: water: mother: father: dog: sheep: barley: bitter buckwheat:
The cardinal numerals are: tɛk nhü sam blö lɔŋ o̤ːk nyí jit [ʤit] doːga chö
See also
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