Dzongkha is the national language of Bhutan. It has about 160.000 native speakers and about 470.000 second language speakers. It's mainly spoken in the districts Thimpu, Paro, Haa, Chukha, Wangdue Phodrang, Punakha and Gasa. Dzongkha is the most common language in the west of Bhutan, Tshangla in the east.
Pronunciation guide
Dzongkha uses the Tibetan writing system. There are 5 vowels (a, e, i, o and u) and 30 consonants.
Vowels
Vowels are shown with vowel symbols.
There are 4 vowel symbols:
a - ཨ (without a symbol it is "a")
e - ཨེ
i - ཨི
o - ཨོ
u - ཨུ
There is only 1 vowel per syllable. Syllables are seperated with a "Tsheg", which looks like this: ་
The syllables follow an easy pattern:
ཀ་ = Ka
ཀི་ = Ki
ཀིད་ = Kid
ཀི་ད་ = Kida
ཀི་དེ་ = Kide
ཀི་དེབ་ = Kideb
* = These letters are pronounced like the one before, but with a harder breath.
'a = A short break.
a = Silent consonant. Used, when there is no consonant needed, like in the word ཨ་པ (apa), which is "father".
Phrase list
Basics
Hello. (formal)
Kuzu zangpo la.
Hello. (informal)
Kuzu zangpo.
Nice to meet you.
Nga choe da choebay sem gai.
How are you?
Gaday bay Zhu Ga?
I'm fine.
Legshom. (Layshom)
What is your name?
Chhoe gi ming ga chi mo?
My name is _____.
Nge gi ming _____ in.
I am from ____.
Nga ____ lay in.
Thank you.
Kadrin chhe.
See you later! (informal)
Shu lay log jay ge!
Where?
Gathey?
How much?
Gademchi?
Problems
What is the Problem?
Choe gi Ka Ngyel ga chi mo?
Where is the Bank?
Ngyul Khang Ga teey mo?
Numbers
Dzongkha has its own digits.
The system works like the English digit system, so 2012 = ༢༠༡༢
1 (༡)
chi
2 (༢)
nyi
3 (༣)
sum
4 (༤)
zhi
5 (༥)
nga
6 (༦)
dru
7 (༧)
duen
8 (༨)
gay
9 (༩)
gu
10 (༡༠)
chu tham
11 (༡༡)
chu chi
12 (༡༢)
chu nyi
Time
Clock time
time
(...)
o'clock
bazaar
8 o'clock
bazaar gyed
Duration
_____ minute(s)
karma _____
_____ hour(s)
ganta _____
_____ day(s)
zha _____
_____ week(s)
duenthrak _____
_____ month(s)
daw _____
_____ year(s)
lho _____
Days
Monday
Migmar
Tuesday
Lhakpa
Wednesday
Phurbu
Thursday
Pasang
Friday
Pemba
Saturday
Nima
Sunday
Dawa
Months
January
indha dangpa
February
indha nyipa
March
indha sumpa
April
indha zhipa
May
indha ngapa
June
indha drupa
July
indha duenpa
August
indha gaypa
September
indha gupa
October
indha chuthampa
November
indha chuchimpa
December
indha chunyepa
(Note: For the months of lunar claender the prefix is '''rangda''', '''indha''' is used for the months of the international calender.)
Writing time and date
Thursday, 2nd february, 2012
Pasang, indha nyipa 2, 2012
Colors
Green
Changkha
Red
Marp
White
Karp
Blue
Hoem
Black
Naap
Yellow
Serp
Orange
Leewang
Animals
bird
Ji chu
cat
Ji ley
chicken
Jum
cow
No
dog
Ro che
fish
Na
frog
Bab
horse
Ta
pig
Phab
turtle
Ru bel
Transportation
Bus and train
Directions
Taxi
Identified by the yellow top(hood) and BT registration affixed before the number.
