The elderly in Gondue Gewog in Monggar are worried that the Gongdguep kha, their native dialect is on the verge of dying. Except for a handful of Gongdueps, who speak the language fluently, most of the people in the village speak Tshangla.
The dialect is believed to be one of the oldest native languages in the country. The Gongduep kha is spoken in a few chiwogs like Daagsa, Baagla and Pam.
Lamenting over the disappearing Gongdue kha, 73-year-old Pelden from Daagsa said in the past he remembers people in his village communicating only in the native dialect.
“Many people have migrated to urban areas leading to a loss in Gongdue kha. After moving to town areas, they began to speak in Tshangla and Khengkha.”
“When I was young, Gongduep kha used to dominate other languages in our village. But these days, with many civil servants placed in our village and they speak in Tshangla. So Gongduep kha is disappearing,” Leki Tshomo, also from Daagsa, said.
Some elderly in the villages are hoping for some initiatives to preserve the dying language.
“We will be unhappy if our own language disappears in future. I don’t know whether there are some plans from the government to preserve it. We can are not able to do nothing to preserve our language. So we would be grateful if the government could intervene to preserve the language,” Penden said.
According to the Gongdue Gup Dorji Tshering, he reminds the locals the need to preserve Gongduep during the meetings. BBS could not contact with the Dzongkhag Cultural Officer for comments.
At present, there are no studies carried on the cause and factors contributing to the disappearance of Gongduep language. However, some local survey reveals that of 3,000 people speaking Gongduep kha in the past, only half of the population now communicates in the language.
