Lhokpu, also Lhobikha or Taba-Damtoe-Bikha, is one of the autochthonous languages of Bhutan spoken by the Lhop people. It is spoken in southwestern Bhutan along the border of Samtse and Chukha Districts. Van Driem (2003) leaves it unclassified as a separate branch within the Sino-Tibetan language family.[2]
Classification
George van Driem (2001:804)[3] notes that Lhokpu, although unclassified, may be more closely related to the Kiranti languages than to Lepcha. Gerber, et al. (2016)[4] also notes a particularly close relationship between Lhokpu and Kiranti. Furthermore, van Driem (2001:804–805) notes that Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan, may in fact have a Lhokpu substratum.
Grollmann & Gerber (2017)[5] consider Lhokpu to have a particularly close relationship with Dhimal and Toto.
Name
Lhokpu is spoken by the Lhop—a Dzongkha term meaning "Southerners"—, who "represent the aboriginal [gdung] Dung population of western Bhutan.[6]
Geographic distribution
According to the Ethnologue, Lhokpu is spoken in Damtey, Loto Kuchu, Lotu, Sanglong, Sataka, and Taba villages, located between Samtsi and Phuntsoling, in Samtse District, Bhutan.
The Lhop people are animists rather than Buddhists, burying their dead rather than cremating them as Buddhists do. Their society is matrilineal and matrilocal.[7]
^Driem, George van (2001). Languages of the Himalayas : an ethnolinguistic handbook of the greater Himalayan Region : containing an introduction to the symbiotic theory of language. Leiden: Brill. ISBN978-9004103900.
^van Driem, George. 2001. Languages of the Himalayas. Leiden: Brill
