Amdo Tibetan language
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Amdo
Spoken in Qinghai, Gansu, Tibet, Sichuan
Total speakers 800,000 (1987)
Language family Sino-Tibetan
Writing system Tibetan script
Language codes
ISO 639-1 None
ISO 639-2 –
ISO 639-3 adx
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
Amdo language, "Am Ke" is the spoken language of the majority of the people of Amdo in North Eastern Tibet, in Chinese states of Qinghai and some parts of Sichuan (Aba) and Gansu (Ganlho). It is one of the four main spoken languages of Tibetan, the other three being Standard Tibetan (ü ke) Kham (kham ke) and Ladakhi (tö ke). All four main languages of Tibetan 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 language and standard Tibetan, Amdo language is not tonal. It retains many word-initial consonant clusters which have been lost in Central Tibetan.
Spoken Dialects
The majority of the Amdo people speak a common Amdo dialect. However there are many other minor dialects spoken in isolated valleys, referred to as lung ke.
Media
Radio Free Asia broadcasts in three Tibetan languages: Standard Tibetan, Khams language and Amdo language.
The Qinghai Television station broadcasts in Amdo language and Chinese language.
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.
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of
External links
- A Bibliography of Tibetan Linguistics
- A Week in Rebkong, Amdo, an Amdo primer
Tibetan languages · Standard Tibetan · Classical Tibetan · Grammar
Script: Umê (Zhuza, Bêcug), Uchen (Chuyik/Khyungyik), Bamyik · Transcription: Wylie, ZWPY, THDL
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