lingvo.wikisort.org - Language

Amdo Tibetan (Tibetan script: ཨ་མདོའི་སྐད་, Wylie: A-mdo’i skad, Lhasa dialect: [ámtokɛ́ʔ]; also called Am kä) is the Tibetic language spoken in Amdo (now mostly in Qinghai, some in Ngawa and Gannan). It has two dialects, the farmer dialect and the nomad dialect.[2]

Amdolese
ཨ་མདོའི་སྐད།, A-mdo’i skad
Native to	China
Region	Amdo (include Qinghai, Gansu, Tibet Autonomous Region and Sichuan)
Native speakers	1.8 million (2005)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Kanauri ? Bodish Tibetic Amdolese
Writing system	Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	adx
Glottolog	amdo1237
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Amdo is one of the three branches of traditional classification of Tibetic languages (the other two being Khams Tibetan and Ü-Tsang).[3] In terms of mutual intelligibility, Amdo could not communicate even at a basic level with the Ü-Tsang branch (including Lhasa Tibetan).[3]

The nomad dialect of Amdo Tibetan is closer to classical written Tibetan as it preserves the word-initial consonant clusters and it is non-tonal, both now elided in the Ü-Tsang branch (including Lhasa Tibetan). Hence, its conservatism in phonology becomes a source of pride among Amdo Tibetans.[4][2]

Dialects

Dialects are:[5]

• North Kokonor (Kangtsa, Themchen, Arik, etc.)
• West Kokonor (Dulan, Na'gormo, etc.),
• Southeast Kokonor (Jainca, Thrika, Hualong, etc.)
• Labrang (Labrang, Luchu)
• Golok (Machen, Matö, Gabde)
• Ngapa (Ngapa, Dzorge, Dzamthang)
• Kandze

Bradley (1997)[6] includes Thewo and Choni as close to Amdo if not actually Amdo dialects.

Hua (2001)[7] contains word lists of the Xiahe County 夏河, Tongren County 同仁, Xunhua County 循化, Hualong County 化隆, Hongyuan County 红原, and Tianjun County 天峻 dialects of Amdo Tibetan in Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar		Retroflex		(Alveolo-) palatal		Velar		Uvular		Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	pʰ	t	tʰ	ʈ	ʈʰ			k	kʰ
	voiced	b		d		ɖ				ɡ
Affricate	voiceless			ts	tsʰ			tɕ	tɕʰ
	voiced			dz				dʑ
Fricative	voiceless			s	sʰ	ʂ		ɕ		x				h	hʷ
	voiced			z		ʐ		ʑ				ʁ	ʁʷ
	lateral			ɬ
Lateral				l
Nasal		m		n				ɲ		ŋ
Approximant		w						j

• Retroflex stop sounds /ʈ, ʈʰ, ɖ/ may also be pronounced as affricate sounds [ʈʂ, ʈʂʰ, ɖʐ] in free variation.[8]
• Voiced consonants are often heard as pre-breathy-voiced (i.e. /d/ [ʱd]) among different dialects.
• /ʐ/, typically written phonemically as /r/, can be heard as an alveolar flap [ɾ] in word-medial positions.
• /x/ may also be heard as a palatal [ç] in free variation.
• Labio-dental fricatives /f/ and /v/ may also occur in words of foreign origin.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open	a

• Amdo Tibetan typically has a four-vowel system as /e, ə, a, o/, as all close vowels [i, ɨ, u] have merged to one vowel /ə/. However, when there is a consonant sound within the coda position, the pronunciation of /ə/ is changed, thus realizing one of the three close sounds [i, ɨ, u], depending on the consonant in place.
• /a/ may typically be heard as more fronted before a mid vowel /e/, and may also be realized as an open-mid [ɛ] in some environments.[9]

Media

Inside China

• The Qinghai Tibetan Radio (མཚོ་སྔོན་བོད་སྐད་རླུང་འཕྲིན།) station broadcasts in Amdolese Tibetan on FM 99.7.[10]

Diaspora

• Radio Free Asia broadcasts in three Tibetan languages: Standard Tibetan, Khams language and Amdolese language.[11]

See also

• Balti language

References

Bibliography

• Norbu, Kalsang, Karl Peet, dPal Idan bKra shis, & Kevin Stuart, Modern Oral Amdo Tibetan: A Language Primer. Edwin Mellen Press, 2000.
• Hua Kan 华侃主编 (ed). 2001. Vocabulary of Amdo Tibetan dialects [藏语安多方言词汇]. Lanzhou: Gansu People's Press [甘肃民族出版社]. (Contains word lists of the Xiahe County 夏河, Tongren County 同仁, Xunhua County 循化, Hualong County 化隆, Hongyuan County 红原, and Tianjun County 天峻 dialects in Gansu and Qinghai provinces.)

External links

• The Tibetan Phrasebook - A Phrasebook of Modern Amdo Tibetan
• A Bibliography of Tibetan Linguistics
• A Week in Rebkong, Amdo, an Amdo primer
• AHP43 Amdo Tibetan Language

На других языках

---

- [en] Amdo Tibetan

---

[fr] Tibétain de l'Amdo

Le tibétain de l'Amdo (tibétain ཨ་མདོ་སྐད་, Wylie : A-mdo skad, dialecte de Lhassa API : ámtokɛ́ʔ) est la langue parlée par la majorité de la population de l'Amdo au nord-est ethno-culturelle du Tibet, dans les provinces chinoises du Qinghai et certaines parties du Sichuan (Aba) et du Gansu (Gannan).

---

---