Khams Tibetan () is the

Tibetic language The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descended from Old Tibetan (7th to 9th centuries).Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptiv ...

used by the majority of the people in Kham. Khams is one of the three branches of the traditional classification of

s (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 dialects, the farmer dialect and the nomad dialect. Amdo is one of the three branches of traditional c ...

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 ...

, Khams could communicate 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 ...

). 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 12th century until the modern day, it particularly refers to the language of early canonical texts translated from ot ...

, especially when compared to the more

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

. Also, Kham and Lhasa Tibetan evolved to be tonal, which Classical Tibetan was not.

Distribution

Kham Tibetan is spoken in Kham, which is now divided between the eastern part of

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions of � ...

, the southern part of Qinghai, the western part of

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

, and the northwestern part of

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

, China.

Khampa Tibetan Khampa may refer to: *Natives of Kham, a historical region of Tibet ** Khampa language *Jad people The Jad people are a community found in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. They are also known as Lamba and Khampa. Social status , the Jad peo ...

is also spoken by about 1,000 people in two enclaves in eastern

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

, the descendants of pastoral yak-herding communities.

Dialects

There are five

dialects The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

of Khams Tibetan proper: * Central Khams, spoken in

Dêgê County Dêgê County (; ) is a county in southern China, which was formerly one of the Kham region's five independent kingdoms - the Kingdom of Derge - but is now administered as a county in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in far northwestern Sich ...

and

Chamdo Chamdo, officially Qamdo () and also known in Chinese as Changdu, is a prefecture-level city in the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Its seat is the town of Chengguan in Karuo District. Chamdo is Tibet's third largest city ...

* Southern Khams, spoken in the

Dêqên Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Dêqên Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, also known as Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (; ) is an autonomous prefecture in Northwestern Yunnan Province, China. It has an area of . Its capital, which is also the largest city in the prefecture, ...

. There are several subdialects due to the mountainous terrain, as well as

contact Contact may refer to: Interaction Physical interaction * Contact (geology), a common geological feature * Contact lens or contact, a lens placed on the eye * Contact sport, a sport in which players make contact with other players or objects * ...

with neighboring language communities for trade. * Northern or Northeastern Khams, spoken in

Nangqên County Nangqên County, or Nangchen (, ), is a county of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and is the southernmost county-level division of Qinghai province, China, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region to the south. The county seat is Xangda (sh ...

and

Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (, , retranscribed into Tibetan as ), also transliterated as Yüxü or Yulshul, is an autonomous prefecture of Southwestern Qinghai Province, China. Largely inhabited by Tibetans, the prefecture has an area of ...

* Eastern Khams, spoken in

Kangding Kangding (), also called Tachienlu and Dartsedo (; ), is a county-level city and the seat of Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province of Southwest China. Kangding is on the bank of the Dadu River and has been considered the histor ...

* ''Hor'', or Western Khams, spoken in

Nagqu Prefecture 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 Lhasa, ...

* 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 (2013). Several other languages are spoken by

Tibetans The Tibetan people (; ) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Tibet. Their current population is estimated to be around 6.7 million. In addition to the majority living in Tibet Autonomous Region of China, significant numbers of Tibetans liv ...

in the Khams region: Dongwang Tibetan language and the

Rgyalrong languages Gyalrong or rGyalrong (), also rendered Jiarong (), or sometimes Gyarung, is a subbranch of the Gyalrongic languages spoken by the Gyalrong people in Western Sichuan, China. Lai et al. (2020) refer to this group of languages as East Gyalrongic. ...

. 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.

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