Amdo Tibetan
The Amdo language (Tibetan: ཨ་མདོ་སྐད་, Wylie: A-mdo skad, Lhasa dialect IPA: [ámtokɛ́ʔ]
; also called Am kä) is the spoken language of the majority of the people of Amdo in northeastern ethno-cultural Tibet, in the Chinese province Qinghai and some parts of Sichuan (Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture) and Gansu (Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture).
Amdo 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 their spoken pronunciations, vocabularies and grammars are different. These differences may have emerged due to geographical isolation of the regions of Tibet. Unlike Khams and Standard Tibetan, Amdo language is not a tonal language. It retains many word-initial consonant clusters that have been lost in Central Tibetan.
Dialects
Dialects are:[3]
- 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)[4] 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.[5]
- The Qinghai Tibetan Radio (མཚོ་སྔོན་བོད་སྐད་རླུང་འཕྲིན།) station broadcasts in Amdo Tibetan on FM 99.7.[6]
- Dispora
- Radio Free Asia broadcasts in three Tibetan languages: Standard Tibetan, Khams language and Amdo language.[7]
See also
References
Bibliography
- Norbu, Kalsang, Karl Peet, dPal Idan bKra shis, & Kevin Stuart, Modern Oral Amdo Tibetan: A Language Primer. Edwin Mellen Press, 2000.
External links
