Tshangla

Tshangla, called Sharchopkha ('eastern speech') in Dzongkha, is the majority language of eastern Bhutan and the most widely spoken of the country's indigenous Tibeto-Burman languages. It is Bodish and closely related to Tibetan but is not descended from Classical Tibetan, and the Bhutanese dialects have no lexical tone — although the varieties spoken over the border in Pemako, Tibet, are reported to be developing tone as the old initial voicing contrast collapses. Andvik describes it as an unwritten language: it is not standardised, not taught in schools, and not recognised as a minority language anywhere, and speakers who do write it use the Tibetan Uchen script. Despite this it is vigorous and serves as a lingua franca across Trashigang, Mongar and neighbouring districts, with children still acquiring it as a first language. The reference description is Erik Andvik's A Grammar of Tshangla (Brill, 2010), whose practical orthography is used for the forms here.