Sikkimese Bhutia language
| Sikkimese | |
|---|---|
| Drenjongké, Lhoke, Sikkimese Bhutia, Bhutia | |
| འབྲས་ལྗོངས་སྐད་ bras ljongs skad | |
| Region | India Sikkim , Nepal (Koshi Province), and Bhutan |
| Ethnicity | Bhutia |
Native speakers | 25,000 (2019) |
| Tibetan script | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | India |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | sip |
| Glottolog | sikk1242 |
The Sikkimese Bhutia language (Tibetan: འབྲས་ལྗོངས་སྐད་, Wylie: 'bras ljongs skad, THL: dren jong ké, Tibetan pronunciation: [ɖɛ̀n dʑòŋ ké]; 'rice valley language') is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Bhutia people of the Indian state of Sikkim and parts of Koshi province in eastern Nepal, and Bhutan. It is one of the official languages of Sikkim.
The Bhutia refer to their own language as Drendzongké (also spelled Drenjongké, Dranjoke, Denjongka, Denzongpeke or Denzongke) and their homeland as Drendzong (Tibetan: འབྲས་ལྗོངས་, Wylie: 'bras-ljongs, 'Rice Valley'). Up until 1975, Sikkimese was not a written language. After gaining Indian statehood, the language was introduced as a school subject in Sikkim and the written language was developed.