| Layakha | |
|---|---|
| ལ་ཡ་ཁ་, layakha | |
Layap woman in Laya Gewog |
|
| Spoken in | Bhutan Bhutan |
| Region | Laya Gewog, Gasa District; northern Punakha District; Lingzhi Gewog, Thimphu District |
| Ethnicity | Layap |
| Native speakers | 1,100 (2003) |
| Language family |
Sino-Tibetan
|
| Writing system | Tibetan |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | lya |
Layakha (Dzongkha: ལ་ཡ་ཁ་, ལ་ཡག་ཁ་; Wylie: la-ya-kha, la-yag-kha)[1] is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by indigenous Layaps inhabiting the high mountains of northwest Bhutan in the village of Laya, Gasa District. Speakers also inhabit the northern regions of Thimphu (Lingzhi Gewog) and Punakha Districts. Its speakers are ethnically related to Tibetans. Most speakers live at an altitude of 3,850 metres (12,630 ft), just below the Tsendagang peak. Layakha speakers are also called Bjop by the Bhutanese, sometimes considered a condescending term. Their population in 2003 stood at 1,100.[2][3]
Layakha is closely related to Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan.[4] Dzongkha speakers enjoy a limited mutual intelligibility, mostly in basic vocabulary and grammar.[5]
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