The Bumthang language is spoken by roughly 30,000 people (van Driem 2015) at the central Bhutan in the the Southern Asia, primarily in Bumthang District (Dzongkhag). The researcher that works for this language at the University of Freiburg (Naomi Peck) collected data primarily in Canberra, the capital city of Australia, together with Mark Donohue, who also collected data in Ura, a town in Bumthang District.

The Bumthang language has four main dialects, each one spoken in a different valley. While the Ura dialect, spoken on in the highest permanent village in Bhutan in Ura Valley, is the most conservative, the most prestigious variety of Bumthang, spoken in Chamkhar Valley, is the most different from the other dialects.

Language family

Bumthang is a Sino-Tibetan language. In the following website you can find its detailed phylogenetic tree.

Some examples of the language

There is a YouTube channel dedicated to the Bumthang language. One of its videos narrates the story of a scary dog. You can find the video below with English and Bumthang subtitles.