Reviewing Ngar Soel Dzongkha Ngag Jun to include ancient words
Thinley Namgay
The Dzongkha Expert Committee from the Department of Culture and Dzongkha Development (DCDD) is reviewing the 350-page book Ngar Soel Dzongkha Ngag Jun, which contains more than 2,000 ancient Dzongkha words and terminologies that are on the verge of extinction or are no longer in use today.
Published in 2022 by Dzongkha Lapthang Detshen, a group comprising around 1,000 members from various backgrounds, the book is the result of five years of research.
The group intends to revive ancient Dzongkha words, safeguard Bhutan’s oral and linguistic heritage, and make these words familiar to all citizens.
One of the group’s objectives is to incorporate words and terminologies from their book into DCDD’s Dzongkha Advanced Dictionary. However, this will depend on the decision of the Dzongkha Expert Committee.
Ugyen Dorji, chief language development officer at the Dzongkha Development Division under DCDD, said that the expert group will review the entire book and only include appropriate words and terminologies that are not present in the existing Dzongkha dictionary.
Ugyen Dorji said that the first Expert Committee’s meeting was held in Paro on February 13 and 14, during which the group reviewed words and terminologies from the alphabet Ka to Cha.
DCDD organised the meeting.
“DCDD will have to conduct another expert group meeting or invite Dzongkha experts to review the remaining part of the book,” Ugyen Dorji said.
The expert meeting was initially supposed to be held earlier but was deferred due to Covid-19 and budget constraints.
“The authors primarily collected ancient words from the western dzongkhags. This initiative will help promote Dzongkha. However, a major challenge is that the words gathered by Dzongkha Lapthang Detshen are still not widely recognised by the public,” Ugyen Dorji said.
He added, “If DCDD includes these words in the dictionary, it will help familiarise people with them, as they trust the Dzongkha dictionary published by DCDD.”
DCDD plans to publish the new words and terminologies next year as part of its efforts to revise the Dzongkha dictionary.
Expert group members commended the efforts of Dzongkha Lapthang Detshen for compiling a book containing many ancient words. However, they are not convinced by some words and terminologies, which they found repetitive or unnecessary.
The expert group’s Chairperson, Lungtaen Gyatso, said that a thorough review is crucial before including words in the dictionary.
Some of the ancient words identified include kako chi (about or around), kadra jadra (honest), kuriri (strong), gamzey (greedy), and ngo ker ker (real), among others.
Since 2022, Dzongkha Lapthang Detshen has printed 2,000 copies of the book and distributed them free of cost to schools nationwide to encourage the use of traditional Dzongkha in daily conversations.
Sangay Tenzin, Chairperson of Dzongkha Lapthang Detshen, said the book would help revive ancient Dzongkha words. “Today, it has become difficult to understand the national language due to the direct translation of words from English and the creation of new words.”
“For instance, the word tuendrey (discussion) is now commonly used as daytuen, making its usage complicated. There are many similar examples,” he said.
Sangay Tenzin emphasised that DCDD should focus on reviving original Dzongkha words rather than coining new ones.
He also noted that Dzongkha as spoken in Thimphu and Punakha is still regarded as the original due to its cultural and political significance over many generations.
However, one of the challenges the group faces is that different Dzongkha-speaking regions believe their version of Dzongkha is the original.