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Khams Tibetan (Tibetan: ཁམས་སྐད, Wylie: Khams skad, THL: Khamké) 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).[4] In terms of mutual intelligibility, Khams could communicate at a basic level with the Ü-Tsang branch (including Lhasa Tibetan).[4]

Khams Tibetan
Khams skad, Khamké
ཁམས་སྐད
Region	Khams (Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan in China) Bhutan
Native speakers	(1.4 million cited 1994)[2]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Tibeto-Kanauri ? Bodish Tibetic Khams Tibetan
Writing system	Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: khg – Khams kbg – Khamba[3] tsk – Tseku
Glottolog	kham1299
ELP	Khamba
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Both Khams Tibetan and Lhasa Tibetan evolve to not preserve the word-initial consonant clusters,[5][6] which makes them very far from Classical Tibetan, especially when compared to the more conservative Amdo Tibetan.[7][8] Also, Kham and Lhasa Tibetan evolved to be tonal, which Classical Tibetan was not.[6]

Distribution

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.[9]

Dialects

There are five dialects of Khams Tibetan proper:

• Central Khams, spoken in Dêgê County and Chamdo
• Southern Khams, spoken in the Dêqên Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. There are several subdialects due to the mountainous terrain, as well as contact with neighboring language communities for trade.
• Northern or Northeastern Khams, spoken in Nangqên County and Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
• Eastern Khams, spoken in Kangding
• Hor, or Western Khams, spoken in Nagqu Prefecture
• The Gêrzê dialect is sometimes considered Western Khams

These have relatively low mutual intelligibility, but are close enough that they are usually considered a single language. Khamba and Tseku are more divergent, but classified with Khams by Tournadre (2013).

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]

Phonology

Consonants

		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.[12]
• /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.[13]

Vowels

	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/.[14]

See also

• Standard Tibetan
• Balti language
• Languages of Bhutan

References

Further reading

• 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. doi:10.1075/ltba.38.2.07suz

External links

• A Bibliography of Tibetan Linguistics
• A grammar of the Tibetan Dege (Sde dge) dialect (Introduction) - Häsler, Katrin Louise. 1999.
• The Tibetan Language School of Sichuan Province
• www.zangthal.co.uk Kham dialect notes

На других языках

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- [en] Khams Tibetan

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[fr] Tibétain du Kham

Le tibétain du Kham (tibétain standard : ཁམས་སྐད, wylie : Khams skad) fait partie des langues tibétiques principales avec deux autres langues : le tibétain standard, le tibétain de l'Amdo. Il est la langue parlée par la majorité de la population du Kham, une région historique du Tibet, au Sichuan, au Yunnan et au Qinghai.

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[ru] Камский тибетский язык

Камский язык (кхамский, камско-тибетский; тиб. ཁམས་སྐད, Вайли: Khams skad, тиб. пиньинь: Kham kä, лхасское произношение: [kʰâm kɛ]) — один из языков тибетцев, входит в тибетскую группу языков[1]. Является одним из самых распространённых языков в Тибете, на нём говорит 1,49 миллиона человек. Распространён в регионе Кам, занимающим восточную часть исторического Тибета (восток ТАР, южный Цинхай, западная Сычуань, северо-западная Юньнань). Отличается от других тибетских языков произношением и грамматикой, но написание слов в них одинаковое, так как используется классическая орфография. Различия возникли из-за изолированности некоторых областей Тибета.

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