Amdo Tibetan (; also called ''Am kä'') is the Tibetic language spoken in

Amdo Amdo ( �am˥˥.to˥˥ ) is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions, the others being U-Tsang in the west and Kham in the east. Ngari (including former Guge kingdom) in the north-west was incorporated into Ü-Tsang. Amdo is also the ...

(now mostly in

Qinghai Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...

, some in Ngawa and Gannan). It has two dialects, the farmer dialect and the nomad dialect. Amdo is one of the three branches of traditional classification of Tibetic languages (the other two being

Khams Tibetan Khams Tibetan () 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). In terms of mutua ...

and

Ü-Tsang Ü-Tsang is one of the three traditional provinces of Tibet, the others being Amdo in the north-east, and Kham in the east. Ngari (including former Guge kingdom) in the north-west was incorporated into Ü-Tsang. Geographically Ü-Tsang covered ...

). In terms of

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...

, Amdo could not communicate even at a basic level with the

branch (including

Lhasa Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan (), or Standard Tibetan, is the Tibetan dialect spoken by educated people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branc ...

). The nomad dialect of Amdo Tibetan is closer to classical written Tibetan as it preserves the word-initial

consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...

s and it is non- tonal, both now elided in the

branch (including

). Hence, its conservatism in phonology becomes a source of pride among Amdo Tibetans.

Dialects

Dialects are: *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) includes Thewo and Choni as close to Amdo if not actually Amdo dialects. Hua (2001) contains word lists of the Xiahe County 夏河, Tongren County 同仁, Xunhua County 循化, Hualong County 化隆,

Hongyuan County Gakog (Hongyuan) County ( or ; ) is a county in the north of Sichuan Province, China. It is under the administration of the Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. There is a river called ''Ka Chu/Gaqu'' () in the area and ''kog'' means ...

红原, and Tianjun County 天峻 dialects of Amdo Tibetan in Gansu and

provinces.

Phonology

Consonants

* Retroflex stop sounds may also be pronounced as affricate sounds in free variation. * Voiced consonants are often heard as pre-breathy-voiced (i.e. ) among different dialects. * , typically written phonemically as , can be heard as an alveolar flap in word-medial positions. * may also be heard as a palatal in free variation. * Labio-dental fricatives and may also occur in words of foreign origin.

Vowels

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

Media

;Inside China *The Qinghai Tibetan Radio () station broadcasts in Amdolese Tibetan on FM 99.7. ;Diaspora *Radio Free Asia broadcasts in three Tibetan languages: Standard Tibetan, Khams language and Amdolese 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 ��语安多方言词汇 Lanzhou: Gansu People's Press ��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,

红原, and Tianjun County 天峻 dialects in Gansu and

provinces.)

External links

The Tibetan Phrasebook - A Phrasebook of Modern Amdo TibetanA Bibliography of Tibetan Linguistics
an Amdo primer
AHP43 Amdo Tibetan Language
{{Authority control Bodic languages Qinghai Languages of Tibet Tibet Languages written in Tibetan script Non-tonal languages in tonal families