In the Hen Kha speaking villages, the majority still speaks their ethnic language fluently. But "families who left their villages essentially abandoned Hen Kha once they arrived in their new communities as minority migrants." (p. 82)

Dzongkha is the national language which, together with English, is taught in school. Dzongkha is also the lingua franca of eastern Bhutan. Uneducated people are usually bilingual in Hen Kha and Dzongkha while educated speakers are able to speak English besides Hen Kha and Dzongkha.

"All of those who speak Mangde are regarded as members of the Mangde ethnic group, but not all of them speak Mangde. All ages and sexes us Dzongkha ..." (p.77)

"[A]ll of the Mangde people are bilingual or trilingual. In general, the younger generation have adopted Mangde or Dzongkha as their first language. English is also an additional resource in their verbal repertoire among younger generation in a multilingual setting. It is worth noting that 20.8% of the Mangde people speak Mangde as their third language [...] the linguistic limitations of Mangde could not account for the vast majority of switches that occurred [...] The age group clearly illustrates the distinctive language shift from Mangde to Dzongkha and English. Most of the younger generation tend to count the numbers in Dzongkha and English. Not a single song was to be sung by them." (p. 85)