Amdo Tibetan

The Amdo Tibetan (Tibetan: ཨ་མདོའི་སྐད་, Wylie: A-mdo’i skad, Lhasa dialect: [ámtokɛ́ʔ] ; also called Am kä) is the Tibetic language spoken by the majority of Amdowa, mainly in Qinghai and some parts of Sichuan (Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture) and Gansu (Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture).

Amdolese
ཨ་མདོའི་སྐད།, A-mdo’i skad
Native toChina
RegionQinghai, Gansu, Tibet Autonomous Region, Sichuan, Amdo
Native speakers
1.8 million (2005)[1]
Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-3adx
Glottologamdo1237

Amdo Tibetan is one of the four main spoken Tibetic languages, the other three being Central Tibetan, Khams Tibetan and Ladakhi. These four related languages share a common written script but different in phonology, grammar and vocabulary. These differences may have emerged due to geographical isolation of the regions of Tibet. Unlike Standard Tibetan, Amdo language is not tonal. It retains many word-initial consonant clusters that have been lost in Central Tibetan.

Dialects

Dialects are:[2]

  • 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)[3] includes Thewo and Choni as close to Amdo if not actually Amdo dialects.

Hua (2001)[4] contains word lists of the Xiahe County 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 Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

Media
Inside China
  • The Qinghai Tibetan Radio (མཚོ་སྔོན་བོད་སྐད་རླུང་འཕྲིན།) station broadcasts in Amdolese Tibetan on FM 99.7.[5]
Diaspora
  • Radio Free Asia broadcasts in three Tibetan languages: Standard Tibetan, Khams language and Amdolese language.[6]

See also

References
  1. Amdolese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. N. Tournadre (2005) "L'aire linguistique tibétaine et ses divers dialectes." Lalies, 2005, n°25, p. 7–56
  3. Bradley (1997) Archived December 8, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  4. Hua Kan 华侃主编 (ed). 2001. Vocabulary of Amdo Tibetan dialects [藏语安多方言词汇]. Lanzhou: Gansu People's Press [甘肃民族出版社].
  5. 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།
  6. "བོད་སྐད་སྡེ་ཚན།". rfa.org.

Bibliography
  • Norbu, Kalsang, Karl Peet, dPal Idan bKra shis, & Kevin Stuart, Modern Oral Amdo Tibetan: A Language Primer. Edwin Mellen Press, 2000.
  • Hua Kan 华侃主编 (ed). 2001. Vocabulary of Amdo Tibetan dialects [藏语安多方言词汇]. Lanzhou: Gansu People's Press [甘肃民族出版社]. (Contains word lists of the Xiahe County 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 Gansu and Qinghai provinces.)
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