The Kam language, also known as Gam (autonym: lix Gaeml), or in Chinese, Dong or Tung-Chia, is the language of the Dong people

Dong people

The Dong , a Kam–Sui people of southern China, are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They are famed for their native-bred Kam Sweet Rice , carpentry skills, and unique architecture, in particular a form of covered bridge known as the "wind and rain...

. Ethnologue

Ethnologue

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...

 distinguishes two Kam dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

s as separate but closely related languages with the codes doc and kmc.http://www.ethnologue.org/show_family.asp?subid=90182

Initials

Kam has 32 syllable

Syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...

-initial consonant

Consonant

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...

s; seven of them (tʃ-, tʃʰ-, ʃ-, ɻ-, f-, ts- and tsʰ-) only occur in recent loanwords from Chinese.

IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml
p	b	t	d	tɕ	j	k	g	tʃ	zh
pʰ	p	tʰ	t	tɕʰ	q	kʰ	k	tʃʰ	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
pʲʰ	pi	lʲ	li			kʷʰ	ku	ts	z
						ŋʷ	ngu	tsʰ	c

Finals

Kam 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

Vowel

In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...

 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].

Tones

Kam is a tonal language. Open syllables can occur in one of nine different tones, checked syllables in six tones (so-called entering tone

Entering tone

A checked tone, commonly known by its Chinese calque entering tone , is one of four syllable types in the phonology in Middle Chinese which are commonly translated as tone. However, it is not a tone in the phonetic sense, but rather describes a syllable that ends in a stop consonant, such as p, t,...

s), so that the traditional approach counts fifteen tones. As with the Hmong alphabet

Romanized Popular Alphabet

The Romanized Popular Alphabet or Hmong RPA , is a system of romanization for the various dialects of the Hmong language. Created in Laos between 1951 and 1953 by a group of missionaries and Hmong advisers, it has gone on to become the most widespread system for writing the Hmong language in the...

, the orthography marks tones with a consonant at the end of each syllable.

tone contour:	˥	˧˥	˩	˧˨˧	˩˧	˧˩	˥˧	˦˥˧	˧
	high	high rising	low	dipping	low rising	low falling	high falling	peaking	mid
	/55/	/35/	/212/	/323/	/13/	/31/	/53/	/453/	/33/
Orthography:	-l	-p	-c	-s	-t	-x	-v	-k	-h
example (open syllable)	bal	pap	bac	bas	qat	miax	bav	pak	bah
	"fish"	"grey"	"rake"	"aunt"	"light"	"knife"	"leaf"	"destroy"	"chaff"
example (checked syllable)	bedl	sedp	medc	bads	pads	bagx
	"duck"	"seven"	"ant"	"can"?	"blood"	"white"

Further reading

• Long, Y., Zheng, G., & Geary, D. N. (1998). The Dong language in Guizhou Province, China. Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington publications in linguistics, publication 126. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 1556710518

External links

• Southern Dong word list from the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
• Dong-language Swadesh vocabulary list of basic words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)