Documenting Lhokpu language in Bhutan and the endangered yarn production practices
Jigme village seen from above shortly before the rainy season starts. Photo by Mareike Wulff, 2024. Click on image to access the collection.
| Language | Lhokpu |
| Depositor | Mareike Wulff, Gwendolyn Hyslop |
| Affiliation | University of Sydney |
| Location | Bhutan |
| Collection ID | 0751 |
| Grant ID | MDP0460 |
| Funding Body | ELDP |
| Collection Status | Collection online |
| Landing Page Handle | http://hdl.handle.net/2196/60b6a211-505a-4c86-bfd4-d5938c8fd313 |
Summary of the collection
This innovative project aims to document the highly endangered Lhokpu (approx. 800 speakers) language of Bhutan, coupling the linguistic documentation with that of the equally endangered practices of natural fibre yarn production. We will document the process of making yarn from locally grown cotton and nettle fibres – from managing the plants to production of the final product. All the language associated with these processes will be collected along the way, together with language in other contexts (e.g. conversation, narrations, procedural texts, elicitation, but not only as these pertain to the yarn production). This collection has audio and video files with linguistic data in a wide range of contexts and styles. This is mostly naturalistic data (e.g. conversations, narrations, procedural texts, etc.) but also includes some elicitation. In addition, we have photographs primarily focused on the process of natural yarn production.
Group represented
The group represented in this collection are the Lhop people, inhabitants of an ethnic minority in South-Wester Bhutan who speak Lhokpu. We will work with around eight hundred people living under Jigme and Sanglung Chiwogs in the villages of Jigme, Singye, Wangchuck and Satakha.
Language information
Lhokpu is an endangered Trans-Himalayan isolate, spoken by approximately 800 speakers across a handful of villages in Southwestern Bhutan. There is currently no publication devoted to the language and no data archived to date (although the primary researcher has Lhokpu data located on several hard drives and online storage, currently being prepared for archive). Data on the language have appeared in a few publications, the most notable of which is Grollmann and Gerber (2018).
Special characteristics
The project is a interdisciplinary cooperation between a linguist and anthropologist.
References
Grollmann, Selin & Pascal Gerber. 2018. Linguistic evidence for a closer relationship between Lhokpu and Dhimal. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale, 47(1), 1-96. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/19606028-04701004
Hyslop, Gwendolyn & Mareike Wulff. 2023. Documenting Black Mountain Mönpa language in Bhutan and the endangered yarn production practices. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/87b0fbe0-eb2d-4449-8591-c75261f8f848. Accessed on [insert date here].
Acknowledgement and citation
To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
Hyslop, Gwendolyn & Mareike Wulff. 2023. Documenting Lhokpu language in Bhutan and the endangered yarn production practices. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/f65ac9a9-f1ba-44bd-a310-6df3daaeaf04. Accessed on [insert date here].
