Romanization

There are various systems of romanization and transliteration for Dzongkha, but none accurately represents its phonetic sound.^[7] The Bhutanese government adopted a transcription system known as Roman Dzongkha, devised by the linguist George van Driem, as its standard in 1991.^[5]

Tones

Dzongkha is a tonal language and has two register tones: high and low.^[8] The tone of a syllable determines the allophone of the onset and the phonation type of the nuclear vowel.^[9]

Consonants

All consonants may begin a syllable. In the onsets of low-tone syllables, consonants are voiced.^[9] Aspirated consonants (indicated by the superscript h), /ɬ/, and /h/ are not found in low-tone syllables.^[9] The rhotic /r/ is usually a trill [r] or a fricative trill [r̝],^[8] and is voiceless in the onsets of high-tone syllables.^[9]

/t, tʰ, ts, tsʰ, s/ are dental.^[8] Descriptions of the palatal affricates and fricatives vary from alveolo-palatal to plain palatal.^[8][10][9]

Only a few consonants are found in syllable-final positions. Most common among them are /m, n, p/.^[9] Syllable-final /ŋ/ is often elided and results in the preceding vowel nasalized and prolonged, especially word-finally.^[11][9] Syllable-final /k/ is most often omitted when word-final as well, unless in formal speech.^[9] In literary pronunciation, liquids /r/ and /l/ may also end a syllable.^[8] Though rare, /ɕ/ is also found in syllable-final positions.^[8][9] No other consonants are found in syllable-final positions.

Vowels

• When in low tone, vowels are produced with breathy voice.^[8][11]
• In closed syllables, /i/ varies between [i] and [ɪ], the latter being more common.^[8][9]
• /yː/ varies between [yː] and [ʏː].^[8]
• /e/ varies between close-mid [e] and open-mid [ɛ], the latter being common in closed syllables. /eː/ is close-mid [eː]. /eː/ may not be longer than /e/ at all, and differs from /e/ more often in quality than in length.^[8]
• Descriptions of /øː/ vary between close-mid [øː] and open-mid [œː].^[8][9]
• /o/ is close-mid [o], but may approach open-mid [ɔ] especially in closed syllables. /oː/ is close-mid [oː].^[8]
• /ɛː/ is slightly lower than open-mid, i.e. [ɛ̞ː].^[8]
• /ɑ/ may approach [ɐ], especially in closed syllables.^[8][9]
• When nasalized or followed by [ŋ], vowels are always long.^[11][9]

Phonotactics

Many words in Dzongkha are monosyllabic.^[9] Syllables usually take the form of CVC, CV, or VC.^[9] Syllables with complex onsets are also found, but such an onset must be a combination of an unaspirated bilabial stop and a palatal affricate.^[9] The bilabial stops in complex onsets are often omitted in colloquial speech.^[9]