Lhokpu, also Lhobikha or Taba-Damtoe-Bikha, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Lhop people. It is spoken in southwestern Bhutan along the border of Samtse and Chukha Districts. Van Driem (2003) leaves it unclassified as a separate branch within the Sino-Tibetan language family.
Phonology Vowels FrontBackClose Mid Open
Consonants BilabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottalplainaspiratedplainaspiratedStopvoicelessppʰttʰckvoicedbbʱddʱɟɡFricativeshNasalmnŋApproximantljwTrillr
Classification Lhokpu is a Sino-Tibetan languages spoken by the Lhop people in Bhutan.
Grollmann & Gerber (2017)Grollmann, Selin and Pascal Gerber. 2017. Linguistic evidence for a closer relationship between Lhokpu and Dhimal: Including some remarks on the Dhimalish subgroup. Bern: University of Bern. consider Lhokpu to have a particularly close relationship with Dhimal and Toto.
Name Lhokpu is spoken by the Lhop—a Dzongkha term meaning "Southerners"—, who "represent the aboriginal [gdung] Dung population of western Bhutan.
Geographic distribution According to the Ethnologue, Lhokpu is spoken in Damtey, Loto Kuchu, Lotu, Sanglong, Sataka, and Taba villages, located between Samtsi and Phuntsoling, in Samtse District, Bhutan.
Culture
The Lhop people are animists rather than Buddhists, burying their dead rather than cremating them as Buddhists do. Their society is matrilineal and matrilocal.Gwendolyn Hyslop. 2016. Worlds of knowledge in Central Bhutan: Documentation of 'Olekha. Language Documentation & Conservation 10. 77–106.
See also Languages of Bhutan Dhimalish comparative vocabulary list (Wiktionary)
References