Alternate Names: Bazi, Bozi, Draba, nDrapa, Zaba, Zha
Dialects: Drame (Southern nDrapa, Zhami), Drate (Northern nDrapa). Reportedly similar to Stau (Horpa ,) and Queyu ,, but no mutual intelligibility. Many loanwords from Tibetan and Chinese varieties.
Status Notes: Language of recognized nationality: Tibetan.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 7,800 (Genxia Wengmu and Hu Shujin 2008), decreasing. Many young monolingual speakers in Zhaba and Zhamai districts. Ethnic population: 9,000 (Gong 2007).
Language Use: Most use Chinese or Tibetan varieties even when they speak with other Zhaba people. Personal communication among themselves. All ages. Negative attitudes. Regarded as useless. Users strongly desire to learn/improve Chinese varieties.
Language Development: Literacy rate in L2: Low. Many in elder generation illiterate. No written tradition. Poetry. Dictionary.
Typology: Verb-final; agglutinating; suffixes and prefixes, case-marking employs postpositions, case system nominative-accusative; tonal.
Nation of Origin: China
Other Comments: Different from Queyu ,. Buddhist (Lamaist).