Sharchop
/ˈʃɑːr.tʃɒp/noun
A name for an ethnic group of eastern Bhutan and for their traditionally spoken language, more commonly called Tshangla.
Did you know?“Sharchop” is largely an exonym: it is a Dzongkha designation for easterners, while many speakers identify their language as Tshangla.
Etymological Timeline
Classical Tibetan period
Tibetan
shar
“East; the direction of the rising sun”
Pre-modern Himalayan usage
Tibetan/Dzongkha
shar
“Eastern or located toward the east”
Pre-modern Dzongkha
Dzongkha
sharchop
“An easterner or eastern person; the precise second element is conventionally analyzed as an ethnographic suffix rather than securely reconstructed”
20th Century
English
Sharchop
“An English rendering of the Dzongkha ethnonym for eastern Bhutanese people”
Modern English
English
Sharchop
“An ethnic and linguistic label associated especially with eastern Bhutan and the Tshangla language”
Explore more surprising origins