Tibetan is the official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It is also spoken widely across the Himalayan region. The language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the vast and diverse Sino-Tibetan family. According to the eLinguistics.net analysis using specific software modules to assess linguistic relationships, the five languages most similar to Tibetan are Dzongkha, Burmese, Hakka, Meitei, and Bodo.
- Dzongkha (70.9)
The national language of Bhutan is Dzongkha. It shares a direct and very close lineage with Tibetan. It’s essentially a dialect of Tibetan that evolved in Bhutan, making it highly mutually intelligible with standard Central Tibetan. The similarities extend to vocabulary, grammar, and script (both use forms of the Tibetan script). - Burmese (36.4)
Burmese, the official language of Myanmar, is another prominent member of the Tibeto-Burman family. While both languages are part of the Tibeto-Burman family, their split occurred quite early in the family’s history. They share a common ancestor but have evolved independently for a very long time. They have similar basic vocabulary. - Hakka (28.7)
Hakka is one of the major Chinese languages spoken by the Hakka people in southern China, Taiwan, and throughout the global Chinese diaspora. Although it belongs to the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan family—a branch that diverged early from the Tibeto-Burman languages like Tibetan—the connections remain part of a larger shared heritage. - Meitei (28.5)
Meitei is a prominent Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Northeast India. They have a number of cognates in basic vocabulary. However, it’s not a direct descendant or closely related dialect like Dzongkha, meaning mutual intelligibility is low to non-existent. - Bodo (26.0)
Bodo is another significant Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Northeast India. Like Meitei, Bodo shares a common ancestor with Tibetan further back in the Tibeto-Burman tree than the immediate Tibetic branch. This means they share a common stock of inherited Tibeto-Burman vocabulary and some broader typological features.
(to be considered for the list, the language must be spoken by at least one million people)