Region Bhutan Language family Sino-Tibetan
Gongduk ISO 639-3 goe | Native speakers 2,000 (2006) Writing system Tibetan script Glottolog gong1251 | |
Gongduk or Gongdu (Tibetan: དགོང་འདུས་, Wylie: Dgong-'dus, it is also known as Gongdubikha) is an endangered Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1,000 people in a few inaccessible villages located near the Kuri Chhu river in the Gongdue Gewog of Mongar District in eastern Bhutan. The names of the villages are Bala, Dagsa, Damkhar, Pam, Pangthang, and Yangbari (Ethnologue).
Gongduk has complex verbal morphology, which Ethnologue considers a retention from Proto-Tibeto-Burman, and is lexically highly divergent. On this basis, it is apparently not part of any major subgroup and will probably have to be assigned to its own branch.
The people are said to have come from hunters that would move from place to place at times.
Currently, George van Driem is working towards the completion of a description of Gongduk based on his work with native speakers in the Gongduk area.