Gongduk language

The people are said to have come from hunters that would move from place to place at times.{{Cite web|url=http://www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Languages_of_Bhutan.html|title=Languages and Ethnic Groups of Bhutan|website=www.languagesgulper.com|language=en|access-date=2017-02-08}}

The language is notable for only being discovered by linguists in 1991."Why do languages die?", by Christopher Moseley, in The 5-Minute Linguist, {{ISBN|978-1-908049-49-0}} Currently, George van Driem is working towards the completion of a description of Gongduk based on his work with native speakers in the Gongduk area.

Gongduk has complex verbal morphology, which Ethnologue considers a retention from Proto-Tibeto-Burman, and is lexically highly divergent.Blench, R. & Post, M. W. (2013). [https://www.academia.edu/627686/Rethinking_Sino-Tibetan_phylogeny_from_the_perspective_of_North_East_Indian_languages Rethinking Sino-Tibetan phylogeny from the perspective of Northeast Indian languages] On this basis, it is apparently not part of any major subgroup and will probably have to be assigned to its own branch.{{Cite web

|author = Himalayan Languages Project

|author-link = Himalayan Languages Project

|title = Gongduk

|publisher = Himalayan Languages Project

|url = http://www.himalayanlanguages.org/?q=languages/gongduk

|access-date = 2009-11-06

|url-status = usurped

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120303100806/http://www.himalayanlanguages.org/?q=languages/gongduk

|archive-date = 2012-03-03

}}

George van Driem (2001:870)van Driem, George. 2001. Languages of the Himalayas. Leiden: Brill proposes that the Greater Bumthang (East Bodish) languages, including Bumthang, Khengkha, and Kurtöp, may have a Gongduk substratum. Gongduk itself may also have a non-Tibeto-Burman substrate.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

Gerber (2018)Gerber, Pascal. 2018. [https://www.academia.edu/36564118/Areal_features_in_Gongduk_Bjokapakha_and_Black_Mountain_M%C3%B6npa_phonology_Draft_ Areal features in Gongduk, Bjokapakha and Black Mountain Mönpa phonology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324232941/https://www.academia.edu/36564118/Areal_features_in_Gongduk_Bjokapakha_and_Black_Mountain_M%C3%B6npa_phonology_Draft_ |date=2019-03-24 }}. Unpublished draft. notes that Gongduk has had extensive contact with Black Mountain Mönpa before the arrival of East Bodish languages in Bhutan. Gongduk also has many Tshangla loanwords. The following comparative vocabulary table from Gerber (2020) compares Gongduk, Black Mountain Mönpa, and Bjokapakha, which is a divergent Tshangla variety.{{cite journal|url=https://benjamins.com/catalog/ltba.18015.ger|last1=Gerber|first1=Pascal|title=Areal features in Gongduk, Bjokapakha and Black Mountain Mönpa phonology|journal=Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area|volume=43|issue=1|year=2020|pages=55–86|issn=0731-3500|doi=10.1075/ltba.18015.ger|s2cid=225218734 |url-access=subscription}}

• Consonants in parentheses are only found in loanwords.
• The velar stops /kʰ k g/ are in free variation with their uvular counterparts [qʰ q ɢ].
• The stops /p t k/ are glottalised and unreleased [ʔp̚ ʔt̚ ʔk̚] at the end of syllables.
• /ŋ/ can often be heard as a glottal stop [ʔ] in fast speech or following another nasal.
• /n/ and /ŋ/ are palatalized to [ɲ] before /i/ or /j/.

• /y/ and /ø/ most often appear after palatal consonants and in loanwords.
• /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ may be in free variation with /e o/.
• /ə/ can often be heard as [ɐ~ɑ].
• /ɤ/ varies broadly between [ɨ~ɯ~ɤ~ɘ~ə].

Gongduk has productive suffixal morphology (van Driem 2014).

;<-məˀtⁿ> ‘plural suffix in human nouns’

Examples:

• oloˀŋməˀtⁿ ‘children’ < oloˀk ‘child’ + -məˀtⁿ
• ŋidɤməˀtⁿ ‘people’ < ŋidɤ ‘person’ + -məˀtⁿ
• aroˀŋməˀtⁿ ‘friends’ < aroˀk ‘friend’ + -məˀtⁿ

However, non-human plural nouns do not take on any suffixes, and remain the same:

• kurtə ‘horse, horses’
• kəitɤ ‘bird, birds’
• kiŋ ‘house, houses’

;<-e ~ -ðe ~ -θe> ‘ergative and possessive suffix’

Examples:

• bɤʔlɤpə-e ‘the people of Bɤʔlɤ [ergative]’
• choŋnən-ðe me ‘the seed of the maize’
• nor-θe taɦ ‘meat of the cow [beef]’
• rek-θe rukɤŋ ‘head bone [skull]’
• aroʔk-te-θe ‘the friend [ergative]’
• əp drəkpə-e ‘Ap Drakpa [ergative]’
• θok-θe əkəm ‘egg of offering (sacrificial egg)’
• lei-ti-ðe juʔmə ‘after one month’

;<-gi> ‘ablative suffix’

Examples:

• ðiŋ goŋduʔ-gi əna ‘We are from Gongduk’
• nikkələŋ-gi ‘by way of the stairs’
• dəkθə-gi ‘from Daksa’
• kidu-gi ‘as a kidu [government gift]’
• bɤʔlɤ-gi ‘from Bɤʔlɤ’
• deŋkəle wɤŋ-gi ‘from Dengkalé Dale’
• doʔmoŋ-gi ‘from "Black Roof" village’
• phəjoŋ pəm-gi ‘from Phajong Pam’

;<-gu ~ -go ~ -ku ~-ko> ‘dative / locative suffix’

Examples:

• gərəŋ-go ‘to whom’
• ohaŋ duʔ-gu ‘in that village’
• rek-ko ‘to [his] head’
• ðə-go ‘to me’
• jə-go ‘to India’
• gaoŋ-go ‘whereto, where precisely’
• pəkpək-ko ‘at times, sometimes’
• thimphu-gu ‘to Thimphu’

Gongduk demonstratives precede head nouns.

;ohaŋ ‘that (demonstrative)’

Examples:

• ohaŋ ŋidɤ ‘that person’
• ohaŋ koŋ ‘that tree’
• ohaŋ duʔgu ‘in that village’

van Driem (2014) compares the Gongduk first person singular personal pronoun ðə 'I, me' to Kathmandu Newar dʑiː ~ dʑĩ- 'I, me' and Tshangla dʑaŋ ~ dʑi- ~ dʑiŋ- 'I, me'. He also compares the Gongduk first person plural personal pronoun ðiŋ 'we, us' to Kathmandu Newar dʑʰai ~ dʑʰĩ- 'we, us'.

The Gongduk words and phrases below are from van Driem (2014).van Driem, George. 2014. Gongduk Nominal Morphology and the phylogenetic position of Gongduk. Paper presented at the 20th Himalayan Languages Symposium, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 16 July 2014.

{{refbegin|20em}}

• rek ‘head’
• rukɤŋ ‘bone’
• əŋ ‘language, mouth’
• dɤŋli ‘water’
• wɤ ‘rain’
• yər ‘cliff’
• dɤ ‘salt’
• ɤn ‘tooth’
• koŋ ‘tree’
• diŋ ‘wood’
• me ‘seed’
• dola ‘cooked Setaria or rice’
• choŋnən ‘maize’
• ɤwɤ ‘banana’
• taɦ ‘meat’
• wərə ‘highland paddy, ghaiyā’
• khərəŋ ‘cooked Panicum or maize’
• don ‘pig’
• nor ‘cow’
• kurtə ‘horse’
• kəitɤ ‘bird’
• əkəm ‘egg’
• jə ‘day (24-hour period)’
• lei ‘month’
• oloʔk ‘child’
• ŋidɤ ‘person’
• aroʔk ‘friend’
• duʔ ‘village’
• kiŋ ‘house’
• nikkələŋ ‘stairs’
• θok ‘offering’
• goŋduʔ ‘Gongduk’

{{refend}}

{{refbegin|2}}

• ti ‘1’
• niktsə ‘2’
• towə ‘3’
• diyə, piyə ‘4’
• ŋəwə ‘5’
• qukpə ‘6’
• ðukpə ‘7’
• yitpə, hetpə ‘8’
• ɢuwə ‘9’
• deyə ‘10’
• deθəti ‘11’
• deθəniktsə ‘12’
• deθətowə ‘13’
• khəe ‘score (20)’
• khəe ŋəwə ‘five score, i.e. one hundred’

{{refend}}

{{refbegin|2}}

• gərəŋ ‘who’
• gərəe ‘whose’
• θəpo ‘what’
• ko ‘when’
• gaoŋ ‘where, whither’
• qəti ‘how much, how many’
• gainəŋ ‘which, whence’
• qətigu ‘at what time’
• θəu, θəudi ‘why, how come’
• gora, gorapəm ‘how, in which way’
• ohaŋ ‘that (demonstrative)’

{{refend}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book

| author = Dzongkha Development Authority

|author2=Dasho Sangay Dorji |author3=Col. Wangdi Tshering |author4=Namgay Thinley |author5=Gyembo Dorji |author6=Phuntsho Wangdi |author7=Lekyi Tshering |author8=Sangay Phuntsho

| title = དགོང་འདུས་རྫོང་ཁ་ཨིན་སྐད་ཤན་སྦྱར་ཚིག་མཛོད། (Gongduk-Dzongkha-English Dictionary)

| publisher = Dzongkha Development Authority

| year = 2005

| location = Thimphu

| pages = 115

| isbn = 99936-663-1-9}}

• Gerber, Pascal. 2019. [https://www.academia.edu/38142901/Gongduk_agreement_morphology_in_functional_and_diachronic_perspective Gongduk agreement morphology in functional and diachronic perspective]. Paper presented at the ISBS Inaugural Conference, Magdalen College, University of Oxford.
• {{cite book | last=van Driem| first= George L| author-link=George van Driem |collaboration=Karma Tshering of Gaselô | title=Dzongkha |series= Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region| pages=32–33| publisher=Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies| location=Leiden | year=1998 | isbn=90-5789-002-X}}
• {{cite conference

| first =George L

| last = van Driem

| author-link = George van Driem

| editor-last = Brenzinger

| editor-first = Matthias

|title = Endangered languages of Bhutan and Sikkim

|book-title = Language diversity endangered

| series = Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs

| year = 2007

| pages = 314–15

| publisher = Walter de Gruyter

| isbn = 978-3-11-017050-4}}

• van Driem, George. 2014. Gongduk Nominal Morphology and the phylogenetic position of Gongduk. Paper presented at the 20th Himalayan Languages Symposium, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 16 July 2014.

• ELAR archive of [http://elar.soas.ac.uk/deposit/0353 Documentation of the flora and fauna of Gongduk]

{{Sino-Tibetan languages}}

{{Languages of Bhutan}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gongduk Language}}

Category:Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages

Category:Unclassified Sino-Tibetan languages

Category:Languages of Bhutan

Category:Bodic languages

Category:Languages written in Tibetan script