Roman Dzongkha

Roman Dzongkha is the official romanization of Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan. It was developed by the Dzongkha Development Commission in 1991 and represents modern Dzongkha pronunciation as spoken in Thimphu and Punakha.

Consonants
Roman Dzongkha uses the following consonant symbols:


 * Consonants in green are always followed by a high tone vowel.
 * Consonants in purple are always followed by a low tone vowel.
 * Consonants in pink follow a low tone vowel by default, but can also be followed by a high tone vowel (see ).

Vowels
Roman Dzongkha uses the following vowel symbols:

Note: vowels are always long before ng, so â, ê, î and û do not occur in that position.

Tones
Standard Dzongkha is a tonal language with two tones. As mentioned in, certain consonants are always followed by either a high or low tone, making the tone predictable for words starting with those consonants. In Roman Dzongkha, tone is only indicated when it is unpredictable, that is, when a word starts with a vowel, voiced nasal or a glide.
 * The low tone is always unmarked.
 * The high tone is indicated by an apostrophe immediately preceding the word:  'a,  'n,  'y, etc.
 * The rising and falling tones of the central Dzongkha dialects are not indicated in Roman Dzongkha.

Examples
The lyrics to the national anthem of Bhutan (Druk Tsenden):