it is not closely related to Tshangla language of eastern Bhutan, also called "Monpa" and predating Dzongkha in the region, which belongs to a different branch of the family.

[3] Gerber (2018)[4] notes that Black Mountain Mönpa has had extensive contact with Gongduk before the arrival of East Bodish languages in Bhutan.

According to Tournadre & Suzuki (2023),[8] there are three dialects, spoken by 500 speakers in Tronsa ཀྲོང་སར་ and Wangdi Phodr’a དབང་འདུས་ཕོ་བྲང་ districts.. ʼOle was unknown beyond its immediate area until 1990,[citation needed] and is now highly endangered, and was originally assumed to be East Bodish.

[9] George van Driem described ʼOle as a remnant of the primordial population of the Black Mountains before the southward expansion of the ancient East Bodish tribes.

[10] More recently, Gwendolyn Hyslop (2016),[6] agreeing with van Driem, has suggested that ʼOle is an isolate branch of the Sino-Tibetan family that has been heavily influenced by East Bodish languages.