Gongduk language

Gongduk or Gongdu (Tibetan: དགོང་འདུས་, Wylie: Dgong-'dus , it is also known as Gongdubikha[3]) is an endangered Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1,000 people in a few inaccessible villages located near the Kuri Chhu river in the Gongdue Gewog of Mongar District in eastern Bhutan. The names of the villages are Bala, Dagsa, Damkhar, Pam, Pangthang, and Yangbari (Ethnologue).

Gongduk
Gongdukpa Ang དགོང་འདུས་
Region	Bhutan
Native speakers	2,000 (2006)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Gongduk
Writing system	Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	goe
Glottolog	gong1251
ELP	Gongduk[2]

Gongduk has complex verbal morphology, which Ethnologue considers a retention from Proto-Tibeto-Burman,[1] and is lexically highly divergent.[4] On this basis, it is apparently not part of any major subgroup and will probably have to be assigned to its own branch.[4][5]

The people are said to have come from hunters that would move from place to place at times.[6]

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.[5]

Classification

George van Driem (2001:870)[7] 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.

Gerber (2018)[8] 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 (2018: 13-16) compares Gongduk, Black Mountain Mönpa, and Bjokapakha, which is a divergent Tshangla variety.

Gloss	Gongduk	Black Mountain Mönpa	Bjokapakha
hair (on head)	θɤm	guluŋ	tsham
tongue	dəli	’liː	lɪ
eye	mik	mek ~ mik	miŋ
ear	nərəŋ	naktaŋ	nabali
tooth	ɤn	’aː ~ waː	sha
bone	rukɤŋ	ɦɤtphok ~ yöphok	khaŋ-
blood	winiʔ	kɔk	yi
hand/arm	gur	lɤk ~ lok	gadaŋ
leg/foot	bidɤʔ	dɤkpɛŋ ~ tɛ̤kɛŋ	bitiŋ
faeces	ki	cok	khɨ
water	dɤŋli	cö, khe	ri
rain	wɤ	ghö	ŋamtsu
dog	oki	cüla ~ khula	khu
pig	don	pɔk	phakpa
fish	kuŋwə	nye̤	ŋa
louse	dɤr	θæːk	shiŋ
bear	bekpələ	wɤm ~ wom	omsha
son	ledə	bæθaː	za
house	kiŋ	mhiː̤ ~ mhe̤ː	phai
fire	mi	’aːmik ~ ’aːmit	mɨ
to hear	lə yu-	goː-	nai tha
to see	tɤŋ-	tuŋ-	thoŋ-
to look	məl- ~ mɤt-	mak-	gotto
to sit	mi- ~ mu-	buŋ- ~ bæŋ-	laŋ-
to die	komθ-	θɛː- ~ θɛʔ-	shi-
to kill	tɤt-	θüt- ~ θut- ~ θit-	she-
1sg pronoun	ðə	kö	jaŋ
2sg pronoun	gi	iŋ	nan
3sg pronoun	gon	hoʔma (mas.); hoʔmet (fem.)	dan
1pl pronoun	ðiŋ	ɔŋdat (incl.); anak (excl.)	ai
2pl pronoun	giŋ	iŋnak	nai
3pl pronoun	gonmə	hoʔoŋ	dai

Grammar

Morphology

Gongduk has productive suffixal morphology (van Driem 2014).[9]

<-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’

Demonstratives

Gongduk demonstratives precede head nouns.[9]

ohaŋ ‘that (demonstrative)’

Examples:

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

Personal pronouns

Gongduk has the following personal pronoun paradigm.[9]

	singular (absolutive)	singular (ergative & genitive)	plural (absolutive)	plural (ergative & genitive)	dual (absolutive)	dual (ergative & genitive)
first person	ðə	ðe	ðiŋ	ðiŋ, ðiŋ ŋəŋpoe
second person	gi	gi	giŋ	giŋ, giŋ ŋəŋpoe
third person	gon	gonðe	gonmə	gonməe, gonma ŋəŋpoe
inclusive					iθi, iθirəŋ gəŋpo	dei, dei gəŋpoe

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'.

Vocabulary

The Gongduk words and phrases below are from van Driem (2014).[9]

Basic vocabulary

• 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’

Numerals

• 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’

Interrogative pronouns

• 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)’

References

1. Gongduk at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Endangered Languages Project data for Gongduk.
3. "Gongduk". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
4. Blench, R. & Post, M. W. (2013). Rethinking Sino-Tibetan phylogeny from the perspective of Northeast Indian languages
5. Himalayan Languages Project. "Gongduk". Himalayan Languages Project. Archived from the original on 2012-07-07. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
6. "Languages and Ethnic Groups of Bhutan". www.languagesgulper.com. Retrieved 2017-02-08.
7. van Driem, George. 2001. Languages of the Himalayas. Leiden: Brill
8. Gerber, Pascal. 2018. Areal features in Gongduk, Bjokapakha and Black Mountain Mönpa phonology. Unpublished draft.
9. 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.

Bibliography

• Dzongkha Development Authority; Dasho Sangay Dorji; Col. Wangdi Tshering; Namgay Thinley; Gyembo Dorji; Phuntsho Wangdi; Lekyi Tshering; Sangay Phuntsho (2005). དགོང་འདུས་རྫོང་ཁ་ཨིན་སྐད་ཤན་སྦྱར་ཚིག་མཛོད། (Gongduk-Dzongkha-English Dictionary). Thimphu: Dzongkha Development Authority. p. 115. ISBN 99936-663-1-9.
• Gerber, Pascal. 2019. Gongduk agreement morphology in functional and diachronic perspective. Paper presented at the ISBS Inaugural Conference, Magdalen College, University of Oxford.
• van Driem, George L; et al. (Karma Tshering of Gaselô) (1998). Dzongkha. Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region. Leiden: Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies. pp. 32–33. ISBN 90-5789-002-X.
• van Driem, George L (2007). "Endangered languages of Bhutan and Sikkim". In Brenzinger, Matthias (ed.). Language diversity endangered. Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 314–15. ISBN 3-11-017050-7.
• 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.

External links

• ELAR archive of Documentation of the flora and fauna of Gongduk