Documenting Black Mountain Mönpa language in Bhutan and the endangered yarn production practices
Being invited for lunch in a farmhouse. Photo of Phurpala by Mareike Wulff 2023. Click on image to access collection.
| Language | North-Eastern Black Mountain Mönkha |
| Depositor | Mareike Wulff, Gwendolyn Hyslop |
| Affiliation | University of Sydney |
| Location | Bhutan |
| Collection ID | 0752 |
| Grant ID | MDP0460 |
| Funding Body | ELDP |
| Collection Status | Collection online |
| Landing Page Handle | http://hdl.handle.net/2196/f6faebd8-c4df-4b9a-926a-05bba3dcd6f8 |
Summary of the collection
This project aims to document the highly endangered North-Eastern Black Mountain Mönpa (approx. 275 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 will have 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 will have photographs primarily focused on the process of natural yarn production.
Group represented
The group represented in this collection are the Mönpa people, inhabitants of an ethnic minority in central Bhutan who speak Black Mountain Mönpa. We will work with the less than three hundred people living under Jangbi Chiwog in the villages of Jangbi, Wamling and Phumzur.
Language information
Black Mountain Mönpa is a Trans-Himalayan isolate that has been the focus of two small publications (van Driem 1995 and Hyslop 2016). There are fewer than 500 speakers across all dialects.
Special characteristics
The project is a interdisciplinary cooperation between a linguist and anthropologist.
References
Driem, George van. 1995. Black Mountain Verbal Agreement Morphology, Proto-Tibeto-Burman Morphosyntax and the Linguistic Position of Chinese. In New Horizons in Tibeto-Burman Morphosyntax, edited by Yoshio Nishi, James A. Matisoff, and Yasuhiko Nagano, 229–59. Senri Ethnological Studies 41. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology.
Hyslop, Gwendolyn. 2016. Worlds of Knowledge in Central Bhutan: Documentation of ’Olekha. Language Documentation & Conservation 10: 77–106.
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]
Acknowledgement and citation
To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
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].
