Dzongkha, or Bhutanese (རྫོང་ཁ་ [dzoŋkʰa]), is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by over half a million people in Bhutan; it is the sole official and national language of the Kingdom of Bhutan. The Tibetan alphabet is used to write Dzongkha. The word dzongkha means “the language of the palace”; dzong means “palace” and kha is language. As of 2013, Dzongkha had 171,080 native speakers and about 640,000 total speakers.