Khams Tibetan

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Not to be confused with Kham language.
Khams Tibetan
ཁམས་སྐད Khams skad, Khamké
RegionKhams (Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan in China)
Bhutan
Native speakers
2 million (2022)[1]
Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
khg – Khams
kbg – Khamba
tsk – Tseku
Glottologkham1299
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Khams Tibetan (Tibetan: ཁམས་སྐད, Wylie: Khams skad, THL: Khamké), Kham dialect is the Tibetic language used by the majority of the people in Kham. Khams is one of the three branches of the traditional classification of Tibetic languages (the other two being Amdo Tibetan and Ü-Tsang Tibetan).[2] In terms of mutual intelligibility, Khams could communicate at a basic level with the Ü-Tsang branch (including Lhasa Tibetan).[2]

Both Khams Tibetan and Lhasa Tibetan evolve to not preserve the word-initial consonant clusters,[3] which makes them very far from Classical Tibetan, especially when compared to the more conservative Amdo Tibetan.[4][5] Also, Kham and Lhasa Tibetan evolved to be tonal, which Classical Tibetan was not.[3] Khams Tibetan has 80% lexical similarity with Central Tibetan.[6]

Distribution

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Kham Tibetan is spoken in Kham, which is now divided between the eastern part of Tibet Autonomous Region, the southern part of Qinghai, the western part of Sichuan, and the northwestern part of Yunnan, China.

Khampa Tibetan is also spoken by about 1,000 people in two enclaves in eastern Bhutan, the descendants of pastoral yak-herding communities.[7]

Dialects

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There are five dialects of Khams Tibetan proper:

These have relatively low mutual intelligibility, but are close enough that they are usually considered a single language. Khamba[8] and Tseku are more divergent, but classified with Khams by Tournadre.[9][full citation needed]

Several other languages are spoken by Tibetans in the Khams region: Dongwang Tibetan language and the Rgyalrong languages.[10]

The phonologies and vocabularies of the Bodgrong, Dartsendo, dGudzong, Khyungpo (Khromtshang), Lhagang Rangakha, Sangdam, Sogpho, sKobsteng, sPomtserag, Tsharethong, and Yangthang dialects of Kham Tibetan have been documented by Hiroyuki Suzuki.[11]

Other Khams Tibetan varieties include:[12]

  • Lhagang, a Minyag Rabgang Khams dialect (Suzuki and Sonam Wangmo 2017)[13]
  • Lethong, a Southern Route Khams dialect (Suzuki 2018b)[14]
  • Choswateng, belonging to the rGyalthang group of Sems-kyi-nyila Khams (Suzuki 2018a)[15]

Deng (2020) documents 1,707 words in the following three Khams Tibetan dialects:[16]

Phonology

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Consonants

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Labial Alveolar Retroflex (Alveolo-)
palatal 		Velar Glottal
Nasal voiceless m̥ n̥ ɲ̊ ŋ̊
voiced m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive voiceless p t k ʔ
aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ
voiced b d ɡ
Affricate voiceless ts tʂ tɕ
aspirated tsʰ tʂʰ tɕʰ
voiced dz dʐ dʑ
Fricative voiceless s ʂ ɕ x h
aspirated sʰ ɕʰ xʰ
voiced z ʑ ɣ
Approximant w ɹ j
Lateral fricative ɬ
approximant l
  • /x, xʰ, ɣ/ before front vowels /i, e, ø, ɛ/ are realized as palatal fricatives [ç, çʰ, ʝ].
  • Palatal plosives /c, ɟ/ are included in the consonant inventory of the dGudzong dialect, but these sound values may include a phonetic variant of palatalised velar plosives. The velar plosive series generally do not include a phonetic variant of palatal plosives. These two series, therefore, are still distinctive, but it is supposed that they may merge into velar ones in the near future.[17]
  • /tʂ, tʂʰ, dʐ/ are heard as plosives [ʈ, ʈʰ, ɖ] in the dGudzong dialect of the rGyalrong area.
  • /ɬ/ may also be heard as a voiceless lateral [l̥] in free variation.[18]

Vowels

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Front Back
Close i u
Close-mid e ø o
Open-mid ɛ
Open a ɑ
  • /i, u, o/ are realized as sounds [ɨ, ʉ, ʊ] before a glottal stop /ʔ/.[19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Khams at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Khamba at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
    Tseku at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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  8. ^ George van Driem, Languages of the Himalayas, p 892
  9. ^ (2013)
  10. ^ N. Tournadre (2005) "L'aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes." Lalies, 2005, n°25, p. 7–56 [1]
  11. ^ Asian and African Languages and Linguistics
  12. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  13. ^ Suzuki, Hiroyuki & Sonam Wangmo (2017). Language evolution and vitality of Lhagang Tibetan: a Tibetic language as a minority in Minyag Rabgang. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 245: 63–90. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  14. ^ Suzuki, Hiroyuki (2018b). Litangxian ji qi zhoubian Zangzu yuyan xianzhuang diaocha yu fenxi [Current situation of Tibetans’ languages in Lithang County and its surroundings: Research and analysis]. Minzu Xuekan 2: 35-44+106-109. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  15. ^ Suzuki, Hiroyuki (2018a). Xianggelila-si hokubu no Kamutibettogo syohoogen no hoogen tokutyoo to sono keisei [Dialectal characteristics of Khams Tibetan dialects spoken in the north of Shangri-La Municipality and their formation]. Journal of Asian and African Studies 95: 5–63. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  16. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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Further reading

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  • Suzuki, Hiroyuki and Sonam Wangmo. 2015. Discovering endangered Tibetic varieties in the easternmost Tibetosphere: A case study on Dartsendo Tibetan. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 38:2 (2015), 256–270. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Research on Tibetan Languages: A Bibliography
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