Dong language

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The Dong language (own name: leec Gaeml) is a Tai-Kadai (or Zhuang-Dong) language spoken by the Dong people of China. It has been traditionally written in Chinese characters. A new spelling based on the Latin alphabet was developed in 1958, but it is not used very much, due to a lack of printed material and trained teachers.

Ethnologue distinguishes two Dong dialects as separate but very closely related "languages" with the codes doc and kmc.[1]

1 Phonology and orthography
2 Reference
3 External links

[edit] Phonology and orthography

[edit] Initials

Dong has 32 syllable-initial consonants; seven of them (ʧ-, ʧʰ-, ʃ-, ɻ-, f-, ʦ- and ʦʰ-) only occur in recent loanwords from Chinese.

IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml
p	b	t	d	ʨ	j	k	g	ʧ	zh
pʰ	p	tʰ	t	ʨʰ	q	kʰ	k	ʧʰ	ch
m	m	n	n	nʲ	ny	ŋ	ng	ʃ	sh
w	w	l	l	ɕ	x	h	h	ɻ	r
pʲ	bi	s	s	j	y	kʷ	gu	f	f
pʰʲ	pi	lʲ	li			kʷʰ	ku	ʦ	z
						ŋʷ	ngu	ʦʰ	c

[edit] Finals

Dong has 64 syllable finals; 14 of them occur only in Chinese loans and are not listed in the table below.

IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml
a	a			ə	e	e	ee	i	i	o	o	u	u/uu
aɪ	ai			əɪ	ei					oɪ	oi	uɪ	ui
aʊ	ao					eʊ	eeu	iʊ	iu	oʊ	ou
am	am	ɐm	aem	əm	em	em	eem	im	im	om	om	um	um
an	an	ɐn	aen	ən	en	en	een	in	in	on	on	un	un
aŋ	ang	ɐŋ	aeng	əŋ	eng	eŋ	eeng	iŋ	ing	oŋ	ong	uŋ	ung
ap	ab	ɐp	ab	əp	eb	ep	eb	ip	ib	op	ob	up	ub
at	ad	ɐt	ad	ət	ad	et	ed	it	id	ot	od
ak	ag	ɐk	ag	ək	eg	ek	eg	ik	ig	ok	og	uk	ug

The phonetic value of the vowel in the finals spelled -ab, -ad and -ag, is [ɐ] in syllables that have the tones -l, -p and -c (see table below); in syllables with tones -s, -t and -x, it is [a]. The phonetic value of the vowel in the finals spelled -eb, -ed and -eg, is [ə] in syllables that have the tones -l, -p and -c; in syllables with tones -s, -t and -x, it is [e].

[edit] Tones

Dong is a tonal language. Open syllables can occur in one of nine different tones, checked syllables in six tones, so that some linguists speak of thirteen different tones. In the official spelling, the tones are marked by consonants attached to the end of each syllable.

tone contour	55	35	11	323	13	31	53	453	33
Gaeml	-l	-p	-c	-s	-t	-x	-v	-k	-h
example - open syllable	bal	pap	bac	bas	qat	miax	bav	pak	bah
translation	fish	grey	rake	aunt	light	knife	leaf	destroy	chaff
example - checked syllable	bedl	sedp	medc	bads	pads	bagx
translation	duck	seven	ant	can?	blood	white

[edit] Reference

Ōu Hēngyuán 欧亨元: Cic deenx Gaeml Gax / Dòng-Hàn cídiǎn 侗汉词典 (Dong-Chinese dictionary; Běijīng 北京, Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族出版社 2004), ISBN 7-105-06287-8.