ང་ཅའི་ སྐོར་ལོ།

Number of speakers: 
The State Socio-Economic Census of Government of Sikkim (2006) lists 49,837 ethnic Bhutias in Sikkim but not all of them can speak the Bhutia language (also known as Denjongke and Lhoke).
 
Writing Script: 
Tibetan script with minor modifications.

Location: 
Most Bhutias live in Sikkim, while a significant number also reside in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts of northern West Bengal and countries such as Nepal and Bhutan.

Language details: 
The language spoken by the Bhutias of Sikkim has four main names: Denjongke (also spelled Drenjongke, འབྲས་ལྗོངས་སྐད་), Lhoke (ལྷོ་སྐད་), Sikkimese and Bhutia. It is a Tibetic language that is 65% lexically similar to Dzongkha, the language of Bhutan, which is partly mutually intelligible with Denjongke. By comparison, Denjongke is less closely related to Standard Tibetan, with only 42% lexically similarity. Many monastically educated Denjongke speakers also understand Tibetan, and most speakers are conversant in Nepali.
For most of its history, Denjongke was an oral language. After Sikkim became a state of India in 1975, Denjongke/Bhutia started to be taught in schools in Sikkim, and a way to write it with the Tibetan alphabet was developed. By 2001, about 68% of Bhutia people were literate in their language.