Kyirong is a language from the subgroup of
Tibetic languages
The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descended from Old Tibetan (7th to 9th centuries).Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptiv ...
[N. Tournadre (2005) "L'aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes." ''Lalies'', 2005, n°25, p. 7–5]
/ref> spoken in the Gyirong County
Gyirong (alternatively romanized as sKyid-grong, Kyirong, ; ) is a county of Xigazê Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region. It is famous because of its mild climatically conditions and its abundant vegetation which is unusual for the Tibetan plate ...
of the Shigatse prefecture
Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê (; Nepali: ''सिगात्से''), is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of , corresponds to the histori ...
, of the Tibetan Autonomous Region
The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of Ü ...
.
Kyirong has lexical tone
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey empha ...
, with a three-tone system.
Relationship to other languages
There is a varying degree of mutual intelligibility between Kyirong and other Kyirong-Yolmo varieties. It is most closely related to the Nubri and Gyalsomdo languages,
Phonology
Consonants
There are 36 consonants in Kyirong, which are summarized in the table below.
Vowels
There are eight places of articulation for vowels. There is a length distinction at each place of articulation, as well as a long nasalised vowel.
Tone
Kyriong has a three tone system; high, medium and low. Low tone is often accompanied by breathy voice.
Sources
* Hedlin, M. (2011). ''An Investigation of the relationship between the Kyirong, Yòlmo, and Standard Spoken Tibetan speech varieties.'' Masters thesis, Payap University, Chiang Mai.
* Huber, B. (2005). ''The Tibetan dialect of Lende (Kyirong).'' Beiträge zur tibetischen Erzählforschung, 15.
References
{{Languages of China
Central Bodish languages
Languages of Nepal
Languages of Tibet