Bhutan DDC, launched nine national language books yesterday

The Dzongkha Development Commission (DDC), in its effort to promote the national langauge, launched nine books yesterday.

A guide to translations, a handbook of abbreviation, unicode tools for Dzongkha (a guide to installation and configuration), books on Dzongkha verbs, Dzongkha honorific, ballads and a book on the name of countries and their capitals are expected to tighten up Dzongkha grammar, literature and sentence of learners and readers, said officials at the launch.

A CD containing Dzongkha-English and English-Dzongkha-dictionaries will save users from referring to dictionaries, as they can do it a a click of a button. It has also resources for Dzongkha computing and publications as well.

DDC officials said that they felt publishing as many books as possible in Dzongkha would help promote Dzongkha literature. “We’ll try to produce materials and resources in Dzongkha, and make available to our readers,” said DDC’s secretary, Dasho Sherub Gyeltshen.

The newly released books were written and designed to suit the need of youth, who are fast losing interest in learning Dzongkha language and literature, said officials. They said the contents of the books widely talk about Bhutanese value and principles, but put it in a simple way so that readers could understand its meaning. “The books were deliberately kept thin to not deter readers. Many people don’t even open the book if it is thick,” said dasho Sherub Gyeltshen.

The books will be distributed to schools to use as reference.

Source: Kuenselonline