Comments on: If you can do what Bhutan do…

By: Boudewijn

Boudewijn — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Well… Actually, I did work my way through George van Driem’s (Official Bhutanese Shining God of Languages) grammar of Bhutanese when I studied comparative linguistics with George. Bhutanese is properly called “Dzongkha” and is an interesting Tibetan language. There are also scores of other highly interesting languages spoken in Bhutan, but as far as I know, only Dzongkha is a written language.

By: Thomas Thurman

Thomas Thurman — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

“Bhutanese is properly called “Dzongkha”"

And thereby hangs an interesting tale. The People’s Republic of China believe that calling the language Dzongkha, which is what its speakers actually call it, is a bad thing. (I don’t quite follow why, but it has something to do with Chinese claims to the Tibetan cultural area, which includes Bhutan.) Under pressure from the PRC, Microsoft has removed the name “Dzhongkha” from all its software, so that it’s now called “Tibetan – Bhutan”. (This is about as sensible as calling Italian “Spanish – Italy”). I wonder whether this had any bearing on the Bhutanese government’s plan to scrap Microsoft and go with software which calls the language by its actual name.

( http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002619.html )

By: Boudewijn

Boudewijn — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I shouldn’t wonder… King Jigme is independent-minded enough for that.

By: Ravi Shekhar S.

Ravi Shekhar S. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The king is also abdigating in favour of democracy!

I have seen him speak on television, he is very humble and intelligent.

By: Ravi Shekhar S.

Ravi Shekhar S. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

that should be “abdicating” instead of ‘abdicating’ in the above comment.

By: Ravi Shekhar S.

Ravi Shekhar S. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

ok!