The Phonetic Structure of Dzongkha: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Dzongkha is the national language of Bhutan, but its phonetic nature has not been studied instrumentally in depth. This research note thus explores the phonetic structure of this language, focusing on its three aspects: (i) the vowel quality, (ii) the tonal contrast, and (iii) the four-way laryngeal contrast. The results show (i) that the first three formants are necessary to distinguish the eight vowels of this language, (ii) that the tonal contrast most clearly manifests itself at the onset of syllables, and (iii) that the laryngeal contrast is acoustically differentiated in terms of both VOT and F0 of the following vowels. Although the current analysis is limited in that it is based on the data from a single speaker, it is hoped that it provides a stepping stone toward further analyses of Dzongkha, and comparative phonetic studies of other related languages.