Laya (
Dzongkha
Dzongkha (; ) is a Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script.
The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language ...
: ལ་ཡ་ཁ་, ལ་ཡག་ཁ་;
Wylie: ''la-ya-kha'', ''la-yag-kha'') is a
Tibetic variety spoken by
indigenous Layap
The Layap (Dzongkha: ལ་ཡཔ་) are an indigenous people inhabiting the high mountains of northwest Bhutan in the village of Laya, in the Gasa District, at an altitude of , just below the Tsendagang peak. Their population in 2003 stood at ...
s inhabiting the high mountains of northwest
Bhutan
Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...
in the village of
Laya,
Gasa District
Gasa District (; , also ) is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. The capital of Gasa District is Gasa Dzong near Gasa. It is located in the far north of the county and spans the Middle and High regions of the Tibetan Hima ...
. Speakers also inhabit the northern regions of
Thimphu
Thimphu (; ) is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's '' dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient capital city of Punakha was replac ...
(
Lingzhi Gewog) and
Punakha District
Punakha District (; ) is one of the 20 dzongkhags (districts) comprising Bhutan. It is bordered by Thimphu District, Thimphu, Gasa District, Gasa, and Wangdue Phodrang Districts. The dominant language in the district is Dzongkha, the national lan ...
s. Its speakers are ethnically related to the
Tibetans
Tibetans () are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 7.7 million. In addition to the majority living in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans live in t ...
. Most speakers live at an altitude of , just below the
Tsendagang peak. Laya speakers are also called ''Bjop'' by the Bhutanese, sometimes considered a condescending term. There were 1,100 speakers of Laya in 2003.
Laya is a variety of
Dzongkha
Dzongkha (; ) is a Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman language that is the official and national language of Bhutan. It is written using the Tibetan script.
The word means "the language of the fortress", from ' "fortress" and ' "language ...
, the
national language
'' ''
A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection— de facto or de jure—with a nation. The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languag ...
of Bhutan.
There is a limited mutual intelligibility with Dzongkha, mostly in basic vocabulary and grammar.
See also
*
Layap
The Layap (Dzongkha: ལ་ཡཔ་) are an indigenous people inhabiting the high mountains of northwest Bhutan in the village of Laya, in the Gasa District, at an altitude of , just below the Tsendagang peak. Their population in 2003 stood at ...
*
Laya Gewog
Laya Gewog () is a gewog (village block) of Gasa District, Bhutan. The capital of gewog is the town Laya.
The gewog lies entirely within Jigme Dorji National Park and contains several of Bhutan's glaciers.
As well as the national language, ...
*
Laya village
*
Languages of Bhutan
There are two dozen languages of Bhutan, all members of the Tibeto-Burman language family except for Nepali, which is an Indo-Aryan language, and the Bhutanese Sign Language. Dzongkha, the national language, is the only native language of Bhu ...
References
Languages of Bhutan
Languages written in Tibetan script
{{Bhutan-stub