Kam language

Not to be confused with Kam language (Nigeria) or Donga language.

Kam
Gaeml
Spoken in	China
Region	Guizhou, Hunan, Guangxi
Native speakers	1.5 million  (no date)
Language family	Kra–Dai Kam–Sui Kam
Language codes
ISO 639-3	either: doc – Northern Dong kmc – Southern Dong
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The Kam language, also known as Gam ((autonym: li^x Gaem^l)), or in Chinese, Dong or Tung-Chia, is the language of the Dong people. Ethnologue distinguishes two Kam dialects as separate but closely related languages with the codes doc and kmc.[1]

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.

IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml
p	b	t	d	tɕ	j	k	g	tʃ	zh
pʰ	p	tʰ	t	tɕʰ	q	kʰ	k	tʃʰ	ch
m	m	n	n	nʲ	ny	ŋ	ng	ʃ	sh
w	w	l	l	ɕ	x	h	h	ɻ	r
pʲ	bi	s	s	j	y	kʷ	gu	f	f
pʲʰ	pi	lʲ	li			kʷʰ	ku	ts	z
						ŋʷ	ngu	tsʰ	c

Finals

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

IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml
a	a			ə	e	e	ee	i	i	o	o	u	u/uu
aɪ	ai			əɪ	ei					oɪ	oi	uɪ	ui
aʊ	ao					eʊ	eeu	iʊ	iu	oʊ	ou
am	am	ɐm	aem	əm	em	em	eem	im	im	om	om	um	um
an	an	ɐn	aen	ən	en	en	een	in	in	on	on	un	un
aŋ	ang	ɐŋ	aeng	əŋ	eng	eŋ	eeng	iŋ	ing	oŋ	ong	uŋ	ung
ap	ab	ɐp	ab	əp	eb	ep	eb	ip	ib	op	ob	up	ub
at	ad	ɐt	ad	ət	ad	et	ed	it	id	ot	od
ak	ag	ɐk	ag	ək	eg	ek	eg	ik	ig	ok	og	uk	ug

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:	˥	˧˥	˩	˧˨˧	˩˧	˧˩	˥˧	˦˥˧	˧
	high	high rising	low	dipping	low rising	low falling	high falling	peaking	mid
	/55/	/35/	/212/	/323/	/13/	/31/	/53/	/453/	/33/
Orthography:	-l	-p	-c	-s	-t	-x	-v	-k	-h
example (open syllable)	bal	pap	bac	bas	qat	miax	bav	pak	bah
	"fish"	"grey"	"rake"	"aunt"	"light"	"knife"	"leaf"	"destroy"	"chaff"
example (checked syllable)	bedl	sedp	medc	bads	pads	bagx
	"duck"	"seven"	"ant"	"can"?	"blood"	"white"

References

• 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 1556710518

External links

• Southern Dong word list from the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
• Dong-language Swadesh vocabulary list of basic words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)