Kam language

Kam
Gaeml
Native to China
Region Guizhou, Hunan, Guangxi
Ethnicity Kam people
Native speakers
 1.5 million (2003)[1]
Kam alphabet (Latin script)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Variously:
doc – Northern Dong
kmc – Southern Dong
cov – Cao Miao
Glottolog kami1255[2]

The Kam language, also known as Gam (autonym: lix Gaeml), or in Chinese, Dong or Tung-Chia, is a Kam–Sui language spoken by the Dong people. Ethnologue distinguishes three Kam varieties as separate but closely related languages.[1]

Dialects

The Kam language can be divided into two major subdivisions, Southern Kam and Northern Kam (Yang & Edmondson 2008).[3] Northern Kam displays more Chinese influence and lacks vowel length contrast, while Southern Kam is more conservative. Language varieties closely related to or part of Kam include Cao Miao and Naxi Yao. A northern Pinghua variety called Tongdao Pinghua, spoken in Tongdao County, Hunan, has also been significantly influenced by Kam.

Southern Kam
  • First lectal area: Róngjiāng Zhānglǔ (榕江县章鲁村), Lípíng Hóngzhōu (黎平县洪州镇), Jǐnpíng Qǐméng (锦屏县启蒙镇) in Guizhou; Tōngdào (通道县) in Hunan; Longsheng (龙胜县) and Sanjiang Dudong (三江侗族自治县独峒乡) in Guangxi
  • Second lectal area: Lípíng Shuǐkǒu (黎平县水口镇), Cóngjiāng Guàndòng (从江县贯洞镇), Róngjiāng Píngjiāng (榕江县平江乡) in Guizhou; Sānjiāng Hélǐ (三江侗族自治县和里村) in Guangxi
  • Third lectal area: Zhènyuǎn Bàojīng (镇远县报京乡) in Guizhou
  • Fourth lectal area: Róngshuǐ (融水苗族自治县) in Guangxi
Northern Kam
  • First lectal area: Tiānzhù Shídòng (天柱县石洞镇), Sānsuì Kuǎnchǎng (三穗县款场), Jiànhé Xiǎoguǎng (剑河县小广侗寨) in Guizhou
  • Second lectal area: Tiānzhù Zhǔxī (天柱县注溪乡) in Guizhou
  • Third lectal area: Jǐnpíng Dàtóng (锦屏县大同乡) in Guizhou

Long (2012:19-20)[4] classifies the Kam lectal areas (dialects) as follows.

Southern Kam
Northern Kam

In Congjiang County, Dong consists of three dialects: Jiudong 九洞 (similar to Chejiang 车江 Dong), Liudong 六洞 (similar to Liping 黎平 Dong), and another dialect spoken in Xishan 西山, Bingmei 丙梅, and Guandong 贯洞 (similar to Sanjiang 三江 Dong) (Congjiang County Almanac 1999:109).

In Suining County, Hunan, Dong is spoken in Lianfeng 联丰 (including Duolong 多龙村), Huangsangping 黄桑坪, Le'anpu 乐安铺, and other nearby locations.[5] In Chengbu County, Hunan, Dong is spoken in Yanzhai 岩寨, Chang'anying 长安营, and Jiangtousi 江头司.[6]

Kam is also spoken in the single village of Đồng Mộc, Trung Sơn Commune, Yên Sơn District, Tuyên Quang Province, northern Vietnam,[7] where there are about 35 Kam people (Edmondson & Gregerson 2001).[8] The Kam of Đồng Mộc had migrated to Vietnam from China about 150 years ago. The Kam variety spoken in Đồng Mộc is most similar to that of Lípíng Shuǐkǒu (黎平县水口镇) in southeastern Guizhou, China.

In China, a total of six counties designated as Dong Autonomous Counties (侗族自治县).

Others

According to the Shaoyang Prefecture Gazetteer (1997), language varieties closely related to Southern Kam are spoken in Naxi 那溪, Dongkou County (which had 4,280 ethnic Yao in 1982 (Chen 2013:39)) and Lianmin 联民, Suining County. However, they are officially classified by the Chinese government as ethnic Yao, not Dong. Chen Qiguang (2013:39)[9] reports that the ancestors of Naxihua 那溪话 speakers had migrated to their current location from Tianzhu, Liping, and Yuping counties of southeastern Guizhou during the early 15th century.

Sanqiao 三锹 (三橇) is a mixed Dong–Miao language spoken in Liping County and Jinping County, Guizhou, China by about 6,000 people.[10]

Phonology and orthography

Initials

Kam has 32 syllable-initial consonants; seven of them (tʃ-, tʃʰ-, ʃ-, ɻ-, f-, ts- and tsʰ-) only occur in recent loanwords from Chinese.

IPAGaemlIPAGaemlIPAGaemlIPAGaemlIPAGaeml
pbtdtɕjkgtʃzh
pʰptʰttɕʰqkʰktʃʰch
mmnnnʲnyŋngʃsh
wwllɕxhhɻr
pʲbissjykʷguff
pʲʰpilʲlikʷʰkutsz
ŋʷngutsʰc

Finals

Kam has 64 syllable finals; 14 of them occur only in Chinese loans and are not listed in the table below.

IPAGaemlIPAGaemlIPAGaemlIPAGaemlIPAGaemlIPAGaemlIPAGaeml
aaəeeeeiioouu/uu
aɪaiəɪeioɪoiuɪui
aʊaoeʊeeuiʊiuoʊou
amamɐmaeməmememeemimimomomumum
ananɐnaenəneneneenininononunun
aŋangɐŋaengəŋengeŋeengiŋingoŋonguŋung
apabɐpabəpebepebipibopobupub
atadɐtadətedeteditidotod
akagɐkagəkegekegikigokogukug

The phonetic value of the vowel in the finals spelled -ab, -ad and -ag, is [ɐ] in syllables that have the tones -l, -p and -c (see table below); in syllables with tones -s, -t and -x, it is [a]. The phonetic value of the vowel in the finals spelled -eb, -ed and -eg, is [ə] in syllables that have the tones -l, -p and -c; in syllables with tones -s, -t and -x, it is [e].

Tones

Kam is a tonal language. Open syllables can occur in one of nine different tones, checked syllables in six tones (so-called entering tones), so that the traditional approach counts fifteen tones. As with the Hmong alphabet, the orthography marks tones with a consonant at the end of each syllable.

tone contour:highhigh risinglowdippinglow risinglow fallinghigh fallingpeakingmid
/˥/ (55)/˧˥/ (35)/˨/ (11)/˨˦/ (24)/˩˧/ (13)/˧˩/ (31)/˥˧/ (53)/˦˥˧/ (453)/˧/ (33)
Orthography:-l-p-c-s-t-x-v-k-h
example
(open syllable)		balpapbacbasqatmiaxbavpakbah
"fish""grey""rake""aunt""light""knife""leaf""destroy""chaff"
example
(checked syllable)		bedlsedpmedcbadspadsbagx
"duck""seven""ant""can"?"blood""white"

References

  1. 1 2 Northern Dong at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
    Southern Dong at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
    Cao Miao at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kamic". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Yang Tongyin and Jerold A. Edmondson (2008). "Kam." In Diller, Anthony, Jerold A. Edmondson, and Yongxian Luo ed. The Tai–Kadai Languages. Routledge Language Family Series. Psychology Press, 2008.
  4. ↑ Long Yaohong [龙耀宏]. 2012. A study of Dong dialectology [侗语方音研究 Dongyu fangyin yanjiu]. Ph.D. dissertation, Shanghai Normal University [上海师范大学]. http://www.taodocs.com/p-5926320.html
  5. ↑ Suining County Almanac (1997)
  6. ↑ Shaoyang Prefecture Almanac (1997)
  7. ↑ danviet.vn. "Những hương vị thân thương gần gũi ở quê nhà mà không nơi nào có". danviet.vn. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  8. ↑ Edmondson, J.A. and Gregerson, K.J. 2001, "Four Languages of the Vietnam-China Borderlands", in Papers from the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, ed. K.L. Adams and T.J. Hudak, Tempe, Arizona, pp. 101-133. Arizona State University, Program for Southeast Asian Studies.
  9. ↑ Chen, Qiguang [陈其光] (2013). Miao and Yao language [苗瑶语文]. Beijing: China Minzu University Press.
  10. ↑ Yu Dazhong [余达忠]. 2017. "Ethnic Interactions and the Formation of the Sanqiu People in the Borderland of Modern Hunan，Guizhou and Guangxi Provinces [近代湘黔桂边区的族群互动和“三锹人”的形成]". In Journal of Guizhou Education University [贵州师范学院学报], Vol. 33, No. 1 (Jan 2017).
  • Ōu Hēngyuán 欧亨元: Cic deenx Gaeml Gax / Dòng-Hàn cídiǎn 侗汉词典 (Kam–Chinese dictionary; Běijīng 北京, Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族出版社 2004), ISBN 7-105-06287-8.

Further reading

  • Long, Y., Zheng, G., & Geary, D. N. (1998). The Dong language in Guizhou Province, China. Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington publications in linguistics, publication 126. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 1-55671-051-8
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