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Dzongkha:
Bhutan's national language
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Bhutan's
Culture: Dzongkha |
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Bhutan Information |
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Dzongkha:
New Terms
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Logrig
stands for computer, gyangthong for TV, yongdrel for internet and numkhor
for vehicle.
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These are among the hundreds of new Dzongkha terms coined by the Dzongkha expert committee (DEC) for commonly used
English words. But only a handful know of these Dzongkha words and
an even smaller number actually use them.
| Dzongkha
Terms |
English
Terms |
Logrig
gyangthong
yongdrel
numkhor
rewa |
computer
TV
internet
vehicle
hope |
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The
question many people are asking today is whether it is worth the trouble
of coining Dzongkha terms for common English words.
The
Dzongkha expert committee meets twice a year. The Dzongkha expert committee
is convinced that it is a must for the development and survival of Dzongkha
in the future. More importantly, coining Dzongkha words gives people
an option say experts. "Our generation has seen English terms first and
Dzongkha terms at the later stage. But when we have all these terms coined
in Dzongkha our younger generation will have two options at the same time.
They will have TV as well as gyangthong. If these two words are given equal
importance both the words will reflect. So it will be a matter of choice.
At the moment it is not a matter of choice. It is a matter of what we are
used to."
The
expert committee agrees that the usage of the new Dzongkha words is limited
in comparison to the English words that already have widespread usage and
acceptance. But they are optimistic that in another 10-15 years the new
Dzongkha words will have diffused into the mainstream written and spoken
Dzongkha. Lungtaen Gyatso says that it might also depend on how rapidly
Dzongkha becomes popular and user friendly. "At the moment we already know
that the present school system does not allow much of Dzongkha studies.
People are in more contact with English. The pace could be hastened with
more school hours in Dzongkha."
The
experts admit that although Dzongkha as a language in the context of
Bhutanese culture and religion is very rich, it fails when it confronts
a different culture and technology. "Our language is not adequate
there," says Choki Dhendup, a member of the expert committee. "I also strongly
feel that words which did not originate in Bhutan could be left as such."
Coining a particular word is not easy. Especially since Dzongkha has compound
word structure. In Dzongkha two or three independent words put together
becomes a single word. For example, the word "hope" in English is a single
word with complete meaning in itself. But "rewa," the dzongkha equivalent
of hope, is composed of two independent words "re" and "wa" put together.
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The
'minting' process
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The
authority started coining Dzongkha words after the Dzongkha lhengtshog
was formed in 1986. First the representatives of the DDA working committee,
representing various government and private organisations, come up with
their individual list of English words to be coined in Dzongkha. For example,
the education representative will come with educational terms, the judiciary
representative will come with a list of legal terms and so on. The committee
then debates, deliberates, decides and coins the words.
The
list is then passed on to the expert committee which goes through and often
refines them. If the words coined are appropriate we simply accept them.
But if they are not appropriate the expert committee debates on the word
and decide on a word that is most suitable.
The
committee tries to coin words that are closest to the English equivalent
and that can be understood by people in the country. But there are some
words we have to use even though most of our people can't understand. The
committee usually takes a longer time to coin words that are difficult
to understand. The committee normally ask the specialists. If the word
is a medical term we have a medical specialist to direct the committee
at coining the most fitting word. Sometimes various organisations, while
translating their works, coin their own Dzongkha words. Because of this,
a Dzongkha word used for a particular English word at times tend to differ
from organisation to organisation creating discrepancies. Often there is
a clash when there are a couple of words against a single English word.
But now it has been made mandatory to route the coined words through the
DDA before it is passed on for the mass usage.
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DDA has already compiled a draft English-Dzongkha dictionary which,
according to the secretary, will take another four months for editing.
There are about 30,000 words in that dictionary and not all the
words are new. Thus, Dzongkha's segmented pattern makes the job of coining
words difficult. The committee has to look into the consistency of the
word too, because the words were not coined earlier. When the committee
coins a word, it also looks at different aspects of the word. One is the
etymology of the term in English. For example, why is tree called a tree
and not a dog or vice versa? What does this particular word mean? What
sense does it give? Is it acceptable to Bhutan? "If it doesn't, we go into
the meaning translation rather than the literal translation," says
Lungtaen Gyatso. |
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"Also after we coin, we see how it appeals to our people.
We also try to simplify it to the extent possible at the same time give
full meaning of it."
The
committee also tries to look into other regional languages, especially
the tibeto-burman languages where there could exist similar words pointing
towards the meaning. The other trick is pulling certain words spoken in
the villages which have not been adopted in written Dzongkha. But the bigger
challenge to the committee is the new technological English terms that
have a particular meaning, like computer and Microsoft. For example, computer
in English means a machine thA computes. But that could not be translated
literally like TV. So the committee thought differently. "Given that certain
formula are programmed into it, it works like an intelligent being. At
the same time it operates by electricity," says the chairman. "So we decided
to call it logrig, literally meaning an intelligent machine run by electricity."
But
there are others who feel that the DDA should leave the names of inventions
as they are. "There is no need for the experts to coin a word for computer
or football or television," says a senior translator. "Every Bhutanese
understands computer better than logrig. Our so-called experts should understand
that certain things are best accepted as they are while others are irrelevant
to our context."
Others
complain that when the experts themselves fail to make use of the words
they coin they should not expect common people to use them. Some complain
while Dzongkha is already a difficult language creating new terminologies
is making it worse. The committee, however, leaves the international unit
like kilogramme, kilometres, as it is. It also does not coin an equivalent
for words named after people like Celsius and Fahrenheit.
While
most older Bhutanese share the common concern that Dzongkha faces an imminent
threat of being neglected by the younger generation and that one's language
is a critical part of one's identity, the younger group, it seems, will
continue calling their apa dad and ama mum. Dzongkha, though still a
mixture of Dzongkha and Choeked (classical Tibetan text), today has
about 30,000 words, thirty percent of which is unique to Dzongkha and the
rest common to both Dzongkha and Choeked.
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Dzongkha Development Commission
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The 9th Dzongkha Development Commission (DDC) Conference, that ended yesterday, has made a series of recommendations to promote and simplify the national language so that people not only speak it but also find it easier to read and write it.
In total, the 75 experts and members attending the conference made 62 recommendations ranging for simplifying the language, making the curriculum uniform and interesting to future policies and plans.
The conference recommended simplifying Dzongkha by making the words easier to understand and use. How this will be done is to be decided at the Dzongkha Development Committee meeting some time later this year. The pronunciations should also be based on spellings.
The Dzongkha textbooks and dictionaries should be also standardized according to the level of the students so that it builds interest in reading and writing.
"The problem with most of the Dzongkha curriculum today is that it is of a very high level and most students do not understand and therefore do not like studying it," said a Dzongkha expert. "For example a commonly used Dzongkha word ngeo thong (live) would be difficult for a pre-primary student to understand but if the word is changed to migthong (seen with the eyes) it’ll become easier for them to grasp."
To make the curriculum more interesting it was also recommended that school textbooks should contain more words of daily use and also have a lot of pictures with interesting short stories.
To understand and use Dzongkha more effectively the experts recommended continuing the memorizing methodology in teaching Dzongkha subjects.
It was also recommended that except for commonly used English words it was not necessary to translate and develop new Dzongkha words for every English terminology.
However, one recommendation is that each and every goods and service imported by Bhutan should have an equivalent Dzongkha word to promote the language.
To promote the national language as many Dzongkha, English and Buddhist language dictionaries will be produced as possible. All official forms and official correspondence should be in both languages and emails should also be made possible in Dzongkha.
To bring about standardization all ministries, departments, private and corporate offices should seek the permission from the DDC to create a new word. It was also recommended that newspapers and broadcast stations meet from time to time to bring about standardization in Dzongkha spellings and pronunciations.
"The recommendations will be reviewed and decided by the DDC committee," said the prime minister, Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley who is the chairman of the DDC and attended the closing of the conference. "Although many of the recommendations were repeated it will be a reminder to the experts to discuss the issues again."
The prime minister said that although Dzongkha is being promoted yet with changing times much more effort was needed to promote the national language.
Dzongkha experts said that every year the same points are recommended but implementation is hard to come by.
| By
Tenzin Namgyel , KUENSEL, Bhutan's National Newspaper, 2009 |
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