Khams Tibetan () is the Tibetic language used by the majority of the people in

Kham Kham (; ) is one of the three traditional Tibet, Tibetan regions, the others being Domey also known as Amdo in the northeast, and Ü-Tsang in central Tibet. The official name of this Tibetan region/province is Dotoe (). The original residents of ...

. Khams is one of the three branches of the traditional classification of Tibetic languages (the other two being

Amdo Tibetan Amdo Tibetan (; also called ''Am kä'') is the Tibetic language spoken in Amdo (now mostly in Qinghai, some in Ngawa and Gannan). It has two varieties, the farmer dialects and the nomad dialects. Amdo is one of the three branches of tradition ...

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 ...

, Khams could communicate 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" ...

). Both Khams Tibetan and Lhasa Tibetan evolve to not preserve 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, which makes them very far from

Classical Tibetan Classical Tibetan refers to the language of any text written in Tibetic after the Old Tibetan period. Though it extends from the 7th century until the modern day (along with Arabic, Ge'ez, and New Persian, it is one of the handful of 'living' ...

, especially when compared to the more

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

. Also, Kham and Lhasa Tibetan evolved to be tonal, which Classical Tibetan was not. Khams Tibetan has 80% lexical similarity with Central Tibetan.

Distribution

Kham Tibetan is spoken in

, which is now divided between the eastern part of

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), often shortened to Tibet in English or Xizang in Pinyin, Hanyu Pinyin, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China. It was established in 1965 to replace the ...

, the southern part of Qinghai, the western part of

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

, and the northwestern part of

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

, China. Khampa Tibetan is also spoken by about 1,000 people in two enclaves in eastern

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

, the descendants of pastoral yak-herding communities.

Dialects

There are five

dialects A dialect is a variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standardized varieties as well as vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardized varieties, such as those used in developing countries or iso ...

of Khams Tibetan proper: * Central Khams, spoken in Dêgê County and Chamdo * Southern Khams, spoken in the Dêqên Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Kongpo, 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 formerly known as Nangchen / Nangqên County and now Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture * Eastern Khams, spoken in Kangding * ''Hor'', or Western Khams, spoken in

Nagqu Prefecture Nagqu (also Naqu, Nakchu, or Nagchu; ; ) is a prefecture-level city in the north of the Autonomous regions of China, Chinese autonomous region of Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet. On May 7, 2018, the former Nagqu Prefecture was officially declare ...

* The Gêrzê dialect is sometimes considered Western Khams. These have relatively low

, but are close enough that they are usually considered a single language. Khamba and Tseku are more divergent, but classified with Khams by Tournadre. Several other languages are spoken by

Tibetans Tibetans () are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 7.7 million. In addition to the majority living in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans live in t ...

in the Khams region: Dongwang Tibetan language and the

Rgyalrong languages Gyalrong or rGyalrong (), also rendered Jiarong ( zh, t=嘉絨語, s=嘉绒语, p=Jiāróngyǔ), or sometimes Gyarung, is a subbranch of the Gyalrongic languages spoken by the Gyalrong people in Western Sichuan, China. Lai et al. (2020) refer ...

. 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. Other Khams Tibetan varieties include: * Lhagang, a Minyag Rabgang Khams dialect (Suzuki and Sonam Wangmo 2017) *Lethong, a Southern Route Khams dialect (Suzuki 2018b) *Choswateng, belonging to the rGyalthang group of Sems-kyi-nyila Khams (Suzuki 2018a) Deng (2020) documents 1,707 words in the following three Khams Tibetan dialects: *Cawagang 擦瓦岗, Yiqing Township 益庆乡,

Pasho County Pasho County or Baxoi County (; zh, s=八宿县, t=八宿縣, p=Bāsù Xiàn) is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Chamdo in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The county seat is at Pema, which is also called ...

, Chamdo Prefecture *Upper Batang Village 上巴塘村, Batang Township 巴塘乡, Yushu County, Qinghai *Rongbu Town 荣布镇,

Sog County Sog County (, zh, s=索县) is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Nagqu of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Geography Sog Dzong lies in the extreme western part of the former province of Kham. To its west is Cha ...

Nagqu Nagqu (also Naqu, Nakchu, or Nagchu; ; ) is a prefecture-level city in the north of the Chinese autonomous region of Tibet. On May 7, 2018, the former Nagqu Prefecture was officially declared the sixth prefecture-level city in Tibet after Lhas ...

Prefecture

Phonology

Consonants

* before front vowels are realized as palatal fricatives . * Palatal plosives 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. * are heard as plosives in the dGudzong dialect of the rGyalrong area. * may also be heard as a voiceless lateral in free variation.

Vowels

* are realized as sounds before a glottal stop .

References

External links

* A Bibliography of Tibetan Linguistics
A grammar of the Tibetan Dege (Sde dge) dialect
(Introduction) - Häsler, Katrin Louise. 1999.

Kham dialect notes {{Sichuan topics Bodic languages Languages of Tibet Languages of China Languages written in Tibetan script Languages of Bhutan Sichuanese Tibet