Zhang-Zhung language
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| Zhang-Zhung | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in | Western Tibet and Central Asia | |
| Language extinction | tenth century | |
| Language family | Sino-Tibetan
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | sit | |
| ISO 639-3 | xzh | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Zhang-Zhung (象雄語) or Zhangzhung is an extinct Tibeto-Burman language that was spoken in western Tibet and Central Asia from about the seventh to tenth centuries CE. It remains the sacred language of the Bon religion.
Some Western Tibetan place names derive from the Zhang-Zhung language, for instance Burang (Tibetan spu hreng) is believed to derive from the Zhang-Zhung phrase pu hrang meaning 'horse head' (pu means 'head', and hrang means 'horse', with reversed word order compared with the equivalent Tibetan phrase rta mgo).
Bradley (2002) states that it "is now agreed to have been a Kanauri or West Himalayish language."
[edit] References
- David Bradley (2002) "The Subgrouping of Tibeto-Burman", in Chris Beckwith, Henk Blezer, eds., Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages. Brill.
- Dan Martin (2004), "Zhang-zhung Dictionary".
[edit] See also
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