Laya dialect

Laya (Dzongkha: ལ་ཡ་ཁ་, ལ་ཡག་ཁ་; Wylie: la-ya-kha, la-yag-kha)^[2] is a Tibetic variety 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 the Tibetans. Most speakers live at an altitude of 3,850 metres (12,630 ft), just below the Tsendagang peak. Laya speakers are also called Bjop by the Bhutanese, sometimes considered a condescending term. There were 1,100 speakers of Laya in 2003.^[3][4]

Laya
ལ་ཡ་ཁ་, layakha
Native to	Bhutan
Region	Laya Gewog, Gasa District; northern Punakha District; Lingzhi Gewog, Thimphu District
Ethnicity	Layap
Native speakers	1,100 (2003)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman Tibeto-Kanauri (?) Bodish Tibetic Dzongkha–Lhokä Dzongkha Laya
Writing system	Tibetan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lya
Glottolog	laya1253

Laya is a variety of Dzongkha, the national language of Bhutan.^[5] There is a limited mutual intelligibility with Dzongkha, mostly in basic vocabulary and grammar.^[6]

See also

• Layap
• Laya Gewog
• Laya village
• Languages of Bhutan