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Kingdom of Bhutan

Bhutan

Summary:

Bhutan is a country in Asia that is home to 782,500 people. It is also home to 21 living indigenous languages. One of these, Dzongkha, is the official language of the country. In addition, 2 living non-indigenous languages are established within the country. In formal education, 1 indigenous language is used as a language of instruction.

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  • Country Location

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  • Demographics

    782,500

    people

    21

    living indigenous languages

    67%
    literate

  • Indigenous Language Vitality Count

    1. 2
    2. 5
    3. 14
    4. 0
    Details

    This graph shows a profile of languages indigenous to Bhutan with respect to their level of language vitality.

    • Institutional — The language has been developed to the point that it is used and sustained by institutions beyond the home and community.
    • Stable — The language is not being sustained by formal institutions, but it is still the norm in the home and community that all children learn and use the language.
    • Endangered — It is no longer the norm that children learn and use this language.
    • Extinct - The language is no longer used and no one retains a sense of ethnic identity associated with the language.

    These four summary levels have been derived by grouping levels in the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS), which is the more fine-grained scale that Ethnologue uses to assess the status of every language in terms of development versus endangerment; see Language Status for a description of the levels of that scale. See also the pages on Development and Endangerment for more discussion.

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Ethnologue Country Digests

Country Digest

Browse Country Digests

Explore all 23 languages used in Bhutan with Ethnologue: Languages of Bhutan—a downloadable PDF document that provides detailed analysis presented in formats not available in the online version of Ethnologue. It includes:

  • Comprehensive country overview.
  • Statistical summaries by language status, size, and family.
  • Alphabetical listing of languages in the country, with in-depth descriptions.
  • Full-color language map(s) for visual reference.
  • Listings by population, status, family, and region.
  • Indexes of ISO 639 codes and alternate language names.

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Indigenous Languages

Families

The indigenous languages of Bhutan belong to the following families.

Language Policy Conventions

Bhutanhas adopted the following international convention which speaks to indigenous language rights.

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