It is closely related to Laya and Lunana and partially intelligible with Sikkimese, and to some other Bhutanese languages such as Chocha Ngacha, Brokpa, Brokkat and Lakha.

It is closely related to and partially intelligible with Sikkimese, and to some other Bhutanese languages such as Chocha Ngacha, Brokpa, Brokkat and Lakha.

Dzongkha bears a close linguistic relationship to J'umowa, which is spoken in the Chumbi Valley of Southern Tibet.

Chöke was used as the language of education in Bhutan until the early 1960s when it was replaced by Dzongkha in public schools.

Wangdue Phodrang, Punakha, Thimphu, Gasa, Paro, Ha, Dagana and Chukha).

[7] There are also some native speakers near the Indian town of Kalimpong, once part of Bhutan but now in North Bengal, and in Sikkim.

[8] Dzongkha study is mandatory in all schools, and the language is the lingua franca in the districts to the south and east where it is not the mother tongue.

[10] The Tibetan script used to write Dzongkha has thirty basic letters, sometimes known as "radicals", for consonants.

[14] The Bhutanese government adopted a transcription system known as Roman Dzongkha, devised by the linguist George van Driem, as its standard in 1991.

[15][16] Dzongkha nouns are marked for 5 cases: genitive, locative, ablative, dative and ergative.

[19] The following is a sample vocabulary:[9][page needed] The following is a sample text in Dzongkha of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: འགྲོ་’Gro-བ་ba-མི་mi-རིགས་rigs-ག་ga-ར་ra-དབང་dbaṅ-ཆ་cha-འདྲ་’dra-མཏམ་mtam-འབད་’bad-སྒྱེཝ་sgyew-ལས་las-ག་ga-ར་ra-གིས་gis-གཅིག་gcig-ལུ་lu-སྤུན་spun-ཆའི་cha’i-དམ་dam-ཚིག་tshig-བསྟན་bstan-དགོ།dgoའགྲོ་ བ་ མི་ རིགས་ ག་ ར་ དབང་ ཆ་ འདྲ་ མཏམ་ འབད་ སྒྱེཝ་ ལས་ ག་ ར་ གིས་ གཅིག་ ལུ་ སྤུན་ ཆའི་ དམ་ ཚིག་ བསྟན་ དགོ།’Gro- ba- mi- rigs- ga- ra- dbaṅ- cha- ’dra- mtam- ’bad- sgyew- las- ga- ra- gis- gcig- lu- spun- cha’i- dam- tshig- bstan- dgoAll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.