East Bodish languages


The East Bodish languages are a small group of non-Tibetic Bodish languages spoken in eastern Bhutan and adjacent areas of Tibet and India. They include:
"Bod" is the endonym for Tibet.
The term "East Bodish" first appeared in Shafer. He classified "Dwags" into the "East Bodish Unit" within the Bodish Branch of Sino-Tibetan.
  • Bodic Section
  • *Bodish Branch
  • **West Bodish Unit
  • **Central Bodish Unit
  • **South Bodish Unit
  • **East Bodish Unit
  • *Gurung Branch
  • *Tshangla Branch
  • *Rgyalrong Branch
Michael Aris mentioned the "Bum-thang" language spoken in areas such as "Tongsa", "Mangdelung", Kheng, and "Kurtö", which retains "the most archaic features of all the Bhutanese languages" George van Driem states that Bumthang, Kheng and Kurtöp could be considered dialects of a single language.
Bhutanese anthropologist Kelzang Tashi treats Bumthang, Kheng, and Kurtöp as dialects of the language spoken by Üchogpa, which translates to the people of Central Bhutan
The East Bodish languages do not share certain lexical innovations with Old Tibetan. The branch is not a subgroup of Tibetic as defined by Nicolas Tournadre.
George van Driem initially proposed that 'Ole belonged to the group, but later decided that it belonged to a group of its own.
Although the East Bodish languages are closely related, Tshangla and related languages of eastern Bhutan, also called "Monpa" and predating Dzongkha, form a sister branch not to the East Bodish group, but to its parent Bodish branch. Thus the ambiguous term "Monpa" risks separating languages that should be grouped together, whereas grouping languages together that are quite distinct. Zakhring is apparently also related, though strongly influenced by Miju or a similar language.
Timotheus Bodt excludes Dakpa and Dzala, which he considers to be a single language, from the East Bodish languages. He finds Dakpa–Dzala to be closer to Tibetan than to other East Bodish languages. His resulting taxonomy is as follows:

Common characteristics in Bumthang, Kheng and Kurtöp

Bodt lists the following phonetic innovations undergone in Bumthang, Kheng, and Kurtöp in contrast to Dakpa–Dzala and Tibetan. Exceptions to these sound laws may be attributed to Tibetic contact.

Vowel height swaps

  • Proto-Bodic *u became o in open syllables, but also conversely Proto-Bodic *o became u in most syllables.
  • Proto-Bodic *i became e in open syllables.
  • Any Proto-Bodic vowel following a palatalized consonant became.

    Changes to lateral consonants and clusters

  • *l̥, which Bodt believes to be an outright, assibilated to.
  • *l became before *a, *o and *u.
  • *bl- became, possibly through an intermediate.
  • *kl- simplifies to *l-.
  • *gl- becomes and kʰl- becomes.
  • *pl- does not have a consistent outcome; it can in one word develop an affricate or fricative but in another word remain unchanged.

    Other changes

  • *sw- > *kw-.

    Shared retentions

  • Bumthang, Kheng and Kurtöp preserve onset *w, instead of changing it to like in Tibetan.
  • They also do not palatalize *s before *i.

    Internal classification

Hyslop classifies the East Bodish languages as follows.
She regards the Dakpa–Dzala and Bumthangic subgroups as secure, and the placement of Phobjip and Chali as more tentative.
Lu divides the "Menba language" into the following subdivisions:
Hyslop reconstructs the following Proto-East Bodish forms.
  • *kwa 'tooth'
  • *kra 'hair'
  • *kak 'blood'
  • *kʰrat 'waist'
  • *lak 'hand'
  • *ná 'nose'
  • *pOskOm 'knee'
  • *rOs 'bone'
  • *gO- 'head'
  • *mE- 'eye'
  • *kram 'otter'
  • *ta 'horse'
  • *kʰa- 'hen'
  • *wam 'bear'
  • *kʰwi 'dog'
  • *kʰaça 'deer'
  • *zV 'eat'
  • *ra 'come'
  • *gal 'go'
  • *lok 'pour'
  • *dot 'sleep'
  • *bi 'give'
  • *kʰar 'white'
  • *mla 'arrow'
  • *gor 'stone'
  • *kʰwe/*tsʰi 'water'
  • *rO 'wind'
  • *On 'baby'
  • *daŋ 'yesterday'
  • *néŋ 'year'
  • *da- 'today'
  • *tʰek 'one'
  • *sum 'three'
  • *ble 'four'
  • *laŋa 'five'
  • *grok 'six'
  • *nís 'seven'
  • *gʲat 'eight'
  • *dOgO 'nine'
  • *kʰal 'twenty'
  • *ŋa '1.SG'
  • *i/*nVn '2.SG'
  • *kʰi/*ba '3.SG'
  • *-ma 'FUT'
  • *lo 'Q.COP'
Additional reconstructions can be found in Hyslop.