Zhang-Zhungis an extinct

Extinct language

An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...

 Tibeto-Burman language

Tibeto-Burman languages

The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Chinese members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken thoughout the highlands of southeast Asia, as well as lowland areas in Burma ....

 that was spoken in what is now western Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

. The term 'Zhang-zhung language' has been used to refer to two different entities. The first 'Old Zhang-zhung' refers to the language which appears in a small number of documents preserved in Dunhuang. The language of these text was identified as 'Zhang-zhung' by F. W. Thomas and this identification has been accepted by Takeuchi Tsuguhito (武内紹人). However, Dan Martin questions the wisdom of connecting the language of these texts to the language which occurs occasionally in the scriptures of the Bon religion.

'A Cavern of Treasures' (mdzod phug)

'A Cavern of Treasures' is a terma

Terma (Buddhism)

Terma are key Tibetan Buddhist and Bön teachings, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a...

 uncovered by 'Shenchen Luga' in the early eleventh century. Martin (n.d.: p. 21) identifies the importance of this scripture for studies of the Zhang-zhung language:

"For students of Tibetan culture in general, the mDzod phug is one of the most intriguing of all Bon scriptures, since it is the only lengthy bilingual work in Zhang-zhung and Tibetan (some of the shorter but still significant sources for Zhang-zhung are signalled in Orofino 1990."

Relationships between the ZhangZhung and Tibetan languages

Bradley (2002) states that it "is now agreed to have been a Kanauri or West Himalayish language

West Himalayish languages

The West Himalayish languages, also known as Almora and Kanauric, are a family of Tibeto-Burman languages centered on Kanauri, in Himachal Pradesh and across the border into Nepal.The languages include:...

."

Scripts

The Zhang Zhung language is claimed to have multiple different scripts. However, these scripts appear to have little existence outside of calligraphy manuals. One one extant document, a seal originally held at Tsurpu monastery, is claimed to be written in such a script. In the words of McKay (2003: p. 447):

"There is also a Zhang-zhung alphabet, but despite its rather unusual appearance to anyone who is unfamiliar with the Indo-Tibetan ornate style of lettering known as lan-tsha, one observes that it is modeled letter by letter upon Thon-mi Sambhota's alphabet of thirty letters."

Further reading

• Martin, Dan (n.d.). "Comparing Treasuries: Mental states and other mdzod phug lists and passages with parallels in Abhidharma works of Vasubandhu and Asanga, or in Prajnaparamita Sutras: A progess report." University of Jerusalem.
• 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".
• Haarh, Erik. The Zhang-zhung Language: A Grammar and Dictionary of the Unexplored Language of the Tibetan Bönpos. Universitetsforlaget i Aarhus og Munksgaard, 1968.
• Hummel, Seigbert and Guido Vogliotti, ed. and trans. On Zhang-zhung. Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2000.
• Namgyal Nyima Dagkar. “Concise Analysis of Zhang Zhung Terms in the Documents of Dunhuang.” In Tibet, Past and Present: Tibetan Studies I, edited by Henk Blezer, Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000, vol. 1, pp. 429–439. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
• Namgyal Nyima (Rnam rgyal nyi ma). Zhang-zhung – Tibetan – English Contextual Dictionary. Berlin, 2003. Description: This new dictionary of Zhangzhung terminology from the Bön tradition of Tibetan religion includes 3875 entries drawn from 468 sources. These entries include Tibetan and English definitions as well as the citation of passages in which they occur with full bibliographical information for these passages.
• Tsuguhito Takeuchi. “The Old Zhangzhung Manuscript Stein Or 8212/ 188.” In Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages, edited by Christopher Beckwith, Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000, vol. 6, pp. 1–11. Leiden: Brill, 2002.