| Region Bhutan Language family Sino-Tibetan ’Ole ISO 639-3 ole | Native speakers 500 (2007) Writing system Tibetan script Glottolog olek1239 | |
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'Ole, also called 'Olekha or Black Mountain Monpa, is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1000 people in the Black Mountains of Wangdue Phodrang and Trongsa Districts in western Bhutan. The term 'Ole refers to a clan of speakers.
Contents
Locations
According to the Ethnologue, Olekha is spoken in the following locations of Bhutan.
Dialects are separated by the Black Mountains.
History
'Ole was unknown beyond its immediate area until 1990, and is now highly endangered, and was originally assumed to be East Bodish. George van Driem described 'Ole as a remnant of the primordial population of the Black Mountains before the southward expansion of the ancient East Bodish tribes.
More recently, Gwendolyn Hyslop, with the agreement of van Driem, has suggested that 'Ole is an isolated Sino-Tibetan language heavily influenced by East Bodish. Because of its small amount of cognates with East Bodish languages, Blench and Post provisionally treat 'Ole as an isolate