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

Amdo Amdo ( �am˥˥.to˥˥ zh , c = 安多 , p = Ānduō ), also known as Domey (), is one of the three traditional Tibetan regions. It encompasses a large area from the Machu (Yellow River) to the Drichu (Yangtze). Amdo is mostly coterminous wi ...

(now mostly in

Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...

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

Khams Tibetan Khams Tibetan () is the Tibetic languages, 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 ...

and

Ü-Tsang Ü-Tsang (དབུས་གཙང་། Wylie; dbus gtsang) is one of the three Tibetan regions, the others being Amdo to the northeast and Kham to the east. Geographically Ü-Tsang covers the Yarlung Tsanpo drainage basin, the western dist ...

). In terms of

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intelli ...

, Amdo speakers cannot communicate even at a basic level with the

branch (including

Lhasa Tibetan Lhasa Tibetan or Standard Tibetan is a standardized dialect of Tibetan spoken by the people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branched" ...

). Amdo Tibetan has 70% lexical similarity with Central Tibetan and

. 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 has become a source of pride among Amdo Tibetans. Amdo is one of the Tibetic languages that have undergone a spelling reform to make the written form closer to the spoken language: Guŋthaŋpa Dkonmchog Bstanpa˛i Sgronme (1762–1823) wrote "the Profound Dharma given in the vernacular so as to be well understood by all people of weak intellect" in the early 19th century using the vernacular of the time. Modern Amdo works have continued the use of vernacular-based orthography: the 2007 novel ''Joys and Sorrows of the Nagtsang Boy'', originally "written in ''kha skad''", was translated to literary Tibetan and published in India in 2008.

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. Mabzhi is a dialect belonging to the Kokonor group of Amdo Tibetan (Tsering Samdrup and Suzuki 2017). mDungnag, a divergent Tibetan language spoken in

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

, is not mutually intelligible with any of the Amdo dialects.Shao, Mingyuan 邵明园 (2018). ''Hexi Zoulang binwei Zangyu Dongnahua yanjiu'' 河西走廊濒危藏语东纳话研究 tudy on the mDungnag dialect, an endangered Tibetan language in Hexi Corridor Guangzhou: Zhongshan University Publishing House 中山大学出版社. Hua (2001) contains word lists of the

Xiahe County Xiahe County ( zh, s=夏河县; ) is a county in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu province, China, bordering Qinghai province to the west. The name (both Chinese and Tibetan), which literally means "Xia River", refers to the Daxia Riv ...

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

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 The Edwin Mellen Press, sometimes stylised as Mellen Press, is an academic publisher. It was founded in 1972 by theology professor Herbert Richardson (publisher), Herbert W. Richardson. It has been involved in a number of notable legal and acad ...

, 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

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

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