The Lunana language, ''Lunanakha'' (
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 ...
: ལུང་ནག་ན་ཁ་;
Wylie: ''lung-nag-na-kha'') is a
Tibetic
The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descending from Old Tibetan.Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptive linguistics of the H ...
language spoken in
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 , ...
(
Lunana Gewog
Lunana Gewog () is a gewog (village block) of Gasa District, Bhutan. The village Lunana is the administrative center of Lunana Gewog.
The gewog lies almost entirely within protected areas, mostly in Jigme Dorji National Park, though eastern sec ...
,
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 ...
) by some 700 people in 1998. Most are
yak
The yak (''Bos grunniens''), also known as the Tartary ox, grunting ox, hairy cattle, or domestic yak, is a species of long-haired domesticated cattle found throughout the Himalayan region, the Tibetan Plateau, Tajikistan, the Pamir Mountains ...
-herding pastoralists.
Lunana 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.
See also
*
Lunana Gewog
Lunana Gewog () is a gewog (village block) of Gasa District, Bhutan. The village Lunana is the administrative center of Lunana Gewog.
The gewog lies almost entirely within protected areas, mostly in Jigme Dorji National Park, though eastern sec ...
*
Lunana
Lunana () is a remote village in Gasa District in northwestern 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 sou ...
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
South Bodish languages
{{Bhutan-stub