Amdo Tibetan
| Amdo | |
|---|---|
| Region | Qinghai, Gansu, Tibet, Sichuan |
Native speakers | (950,000 cited 1987–2004) |
| Tibetan script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | adx |
The Amdo language (Tibetan: ཨ་མདོ་སྐད་, Wylie: A-mdo skad, Lhasa dialect: [ámtokɛ́ʔ]; also called Am kä) is the spoken language of the majority of the people of Amdo in northeastern ethno-cultural Tibet, in Chinese provinces of Qinghai and some parts of Sichuan (Aba) and Gansu (Gannan). It is one of the four main spoken languages of Tibetan, the other three being Standard Tibetan (ü ke) Kham (kham ke) and Ladakhi (tö ke). All four main languages of Tibetan share a common written script but their spoken pronunciations, vocabularies and grammars are different. These differences may have emerged due to geographical isolation of the regions of Tibet. Unlike Khams language and standard Tibetan, Amdo language is not tonal. It retains many word-initial consonant clusters which have been lost in Central Tibetan.
Dialects
Dialects are:[1]
- 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)[2] includes Thewo and Choni as close to Amdo if not actually Amdo dialects.
Media
- Inside Amdo
- The Qinghai Television station broadcasts in Amdo Tibetan and Mandarin Chinese language.[3]
- The Qinghai Tibetan Radio (མཚོ་སྔོན་བོད་སྐད་རླུང་འཕྲིན།) station broadcasts in Amdo Tibetan on FM 99.7.[4]
- Dispora
- Radio Free Asia broadcasts in three Tibetan languages: Standard Tibetan, Khams language and Amdo language.[5]
See also
References
- ^ N. Tournadre (2005) "L'aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes." Lalies, 2005, n°25, p. 7–56 [1]
- ^ Bradley (1997)[dead link]
- ^ http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_23744.htm
- ^ 青海藏语广播网 མཚོ་སྔོན་བོད་སྐད་རླུང་འཕྲིན། - 青海藏语广播网 མཚོ་སྔོན་བོད་སྐད་རླུང་འཕྲིན།
- ^ http://www.rfa.org/tibetan/
Bibliography
- Norbu, Kalsang, Karl Peet, dPal Idan bKra shis, & Kevin Stuart, Modern Oral Amdo Tibetan: A Language Primer. Edwin Mellen Press, 2000.
External links
- The Tibetan Phrasebook - A Phrasebook of Modern Amdo Tibetan
- A Bibliography of Tibetan Linguistics
- A Week in Rebkong, Amdo, an Amdo primer
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