Gongduk language

Gongduk or Gongdu (, it is also known as Gongdubikha ) 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 has complex verbal morphology, which Ethnologue considers a retention from Proto-Tibeto-Burman, and is lexically highly divergent. On this basis, it is apparently not part of any major subgroup and will probably have to be assigned to its own branch.

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

The language is notable for only being discovered by linguists in 1991. 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.

Classification
George van Driem (2001:870) 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) 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 (2020) compares Gongduk, Black Mountain Mönpa, and Bjokapakha, which is a divergent Tshangla variety.

Phonology

 * Consonants in parentheses are only found in loanwords.
 * The velar stops /kʰ k g/ are in free variation with their uvular counterparts [qʰ q ɢ].
 * The stops /p t k/ are glottalised and unreleased [ʔp̚ ʔt̚ ʔk̚] at the end of syllables.
 * /ŋ/ can often be heard as a glottal stop [ʔ] in fast speech or following another nasal.
 * /n/ and /ŋ/ are palatalized to [ɲ] before /i/ or /j/.


 * /y/ and /ø/ most often appear after palatal consonants and in loanwords.
 * /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ may be in free variation with /e o/.
 * /ə/ can often be heard as [ɐ~ɑ].
 * /ɤ/ varies broadly between [ɨ~ɯ~ɤ~ɘ~ə].

Morphology
Gongduk has productive suffixal morphology (van Driem 2014). Examples: However, non-human plural nouns do not take on any suffixes, and remain the same:
 * <-məˀtⁿ> ‘plural suffix in human nouns’
 * oloˀŋməˀtⁿ ‘children’ < oloˀk ‘child’ + -məˀtⁿ
 * ŋidɤməˀtⁿ ‘people’ < ŋidɤ ‘person’ + -məˀtⁿ
 * aroˀŋməˀtⁿ ‘friends’ < aroˀk ‘friend’ + -məˀtⁿ
 * kurtə ‘horse, horses’
 * kəitɤ ‘bird, birds’
 * kiŋ ‘house, houses’

Examples:
 * <-e ~ -ðe ~ -θe> ‘ergative and possessive suffix’
 * 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’

Examples:
 * <-gi> ‘ablative suffix’
 * 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’

Examples:
 * <-gu ~ -go ~ -ku ~-ko> ‘dative / locative suffix’
 * 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. Examples:
 * ohaŋ ‘that (demonstrative)’
 * ohaŋ ŋidɤ ‘that person’
 * ohaŋ koŋ ‘that tree’
 * ohaŋ duʔgu ‘in that village’

Personal pronouns
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).

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)’