The Khamti language is a Southwestern Tai language spoken in Myanmar and India by the Khamti people. It is closely related to, and sometimes considered a dialect of, Shan.

Name

''Khamti'' has been variously rendered ''Hkamti'', ''Khampti'', ''Kam Ti'', ''Kamti'', ''Tai Kam Ti'', ''Tai-Khamti'', ''Khamti Shan'', ''Khampti Shan'', ''Khandi Shan'', ''Hkampti Shan'', and ''Khampti Sam'' (). The name ''Khamti'' means 'place of gold'.

Demographics

In Burma, Khamti is spoken by 3,500 near

Myitkyina Myitkyina (, ; Jingpho language, Jinghpaw: ''Myitkyina'', ; , ''Sèna'') is the capital city of Kachin State in Myanmar (Burma), located from Yangon, and from Mandalay. In Burmese language, Burmese it means "near the big river", and Myitkyina i ...

and by 4,500 in Putao District,

Kachin State Kachin State (; Jingpho language, Kachin: ) is the northernmost administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. It is bordered by China to the north and east (Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet and Yunnan, respectively), Shan State to the sou ...

(both reported in 2000). In India, it is spoken by 5,000 in

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

and

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in northeast India. It was formed from the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and India declared it as a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and la ...

, in the Dikrong Valley, Narayanpur, and north bank of the

Brahmaputra The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Southwestern China, Northeastern India, and Bangladesh. It is known as Brahmaputra or Luit in Assamese, Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, and ...

(reported in 2007). Three dialects of Khamti are known: North Burma Khamti, Assam Khamti, and Sinkaling Khamti. All speakers of Khamti are bilingual, largely in Assamese and Burmese. Possibly, there are also some Khamti in some parts of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(5,000 people).

History

The language seems to have originated around Mogoung in Upper Burma. Mung Kang was captured, a large group of Khamtis moved to the north and east of Lakhimpur. In the year 1850, 300–400 Khamtis settled in Assam.

Phonology

Initial consonants

Khamti has the following initial consonants: /c/ can be heard as or ʃacross dialects. /s/ can also be heard as � Note: only the variety found in Myanmar uses the palatal nasal /ɲ/ and the rhotic /r/.

Final consonants

Khamti has the following final consonants: - occurs after front vowels and , - occurs after back vowels and .

Vowels

The Khamti language uses the following vowels: /ɤ/ only appears in the dialect in Myanmar.

Tones

Khamti uses five tones, namely: low falling /21/, mid rising /34/, mid falling /42/, high falling /53/~ 3 and high level /55/~ 4

Grammar

Syntax

Unlike other Tai languages that display SVO word order, Khamti has SOV word order.Wilaiwan Kanittanan. 1986. Kamti Tai: From an SVO to an SOV language. In Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (ed.), South Asian Languages: Structure, Convergence and Diglossia, 174-178. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

Nouns

Nouns are divided into common nouns and proper nouns.

Common nouns

Common nouns can pluralized by adding behind the noun. Common nouns are class categorized by using classifiers such as the generic for people and for animals.

Proper nouns

People's names and place names are classified as proper nouns. Khamti prefixes people's names, depending on the social class or status of that person. These prefixes are gender specific. The prefix for Miss is and the prefix for Mr is . A prefix for Mr used to respectfully address a male of higher status is or .

Pronouns

Khamti uses a triparte pronoun system, consisting of singular, dual and plural forms. The dual form and the first person plural form are further divided between inclusive and exclusive forms. The following set of pronouns are the pronouns found in the Khamti language:

Demonstratives

Khamti uses the following demonstratives:

Writing system

The Tai Khamtis have their own writing system called 'Lik-Tai', which they share with the Tai Phake people and Tai Aiton people. It closely resembles the Northern

Shan script Shan may refer to; People and languages *Shan (surname), or 单 in Chinese, a Chinese surname *Shan, a variant of the Welsh given name usually spelled Siân *Occasionally used as a short form of Shannen/Shannon (given name), Shannon Ethnic grou ...

of Myanmar, which is a variant of the

Mon–Burmese script The Mon–Burmese script (, ; , , also called the Mon script and Burmese script) is an abugida that derives from the Pallava Grantha script of southern India and later of Southeast Asia. It is the primary writing system for Burmese, Mon, Sh ...

, with some of the letters taking divergent shapes. Their script is evidently derived from the Lik Tho Ngok script since hundreds of years ago. There are 35 letters including 17 consonants and 14 vowels. The script is traditionally taught in monasteries on subjects like

Tripitaka There are several Buddhist canons, which refers to the various scriptural collections of Buddhist sacred scriptures or the various Buddhist scriptural canons.

Jataka tales The ''Jātaka'' (Sanskrit for "Birth-Related" or "Birth Stories") are a voluminous body of literature native to the Indian subcontinent which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. Jataka stories we ...

, code of conduct, doctrines and philosophy, history, law codes, astrology, and palmistry etc. The first printed book was published in 1960. In 1992 it was edited by the Tai Literature Committee, Chongkham. In 2003 it was again modified with tone marking by scholars of Northern Myanmar and Arunachal Pradesh.

Consonants

Vowels

Tones and other diacritics

Displaying with the dummy letter ဢ, * tone 1 1 ** for checked syllable, including single consonant - ဢႉ ** for else - ဢႇ * tone 2 4- ဢႛ * tone 3 2- ဢႈ * tone 4 3- ဢး - In speaking, it may become 3 * tone 5: ** for short open syllable - ဢႚ 4(rare usage) ** for else - ဢ 5(unmarked) * ဢ် - asat - final consonant, silences inherent vowel * ꩰ - duplication

References

External links

at Omniglot
Mung huw Tai Khamti Song

Tai-Khamti Song - Tai-Khamti Girls

Tai-Khamti Talk

Words of Life Khamti People/Language Movie Trailer

Tai Khamti Song - Mung hau

Tai Khamti Song - panlong sau
{{Tai-Kadai languages Languages of Myanmar Languages of Assam Southwestern Tai languages Languages of Arunachal Pradesh

Name

Demographics

History

Phonology

Initial consonants

Final consonants

Vowels

Tones

Grammar

Syntax

Nouns

Common nouns

Proper nouns

Pronouns

Demonstratives

Writing system

Consonants

Vowels

Tones and other diacritics

Further reading

References

External links