A first look at Kami, the Tibetan dialect of Muli

Ekaterina Chirkova (1)

1 CRLAO - Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale

This article provides a sychronic and diachronic description of the phonological system of Kami Tibetan, a Khams Tibetan dialect spoken in Mùlǐ Tibetan Autonomous County (Sìchuān Province). It focuses on characteristic features of Kami that set this variety apart from the best-recorded Khams dialects (Bātáng and Dégé) and from the dialects of Díqìng Prefecture (Zhōngdiàn and Dōngwāng), with which Kami is grouped in one cluster in Qú and Jīn's (1981) classification. Based on presented Kami data and viewed in relation to corresponding phenomena in the neighboring Qiangic languages, the article critically evaluates (1) the current subgrouping scheme whereby Kami is grouped together with the dialects of Díqìng Prefecture, and (2) the phylogenetic Qiangic subgrouping hypothesis.

Mots clés: Kham Tibetan; Kami; phonological system; classification; Qiangic languages

Domaines: Linguistique

Ekaterina Chirkova. A first look at Kami, the Tibetan dialect of Muli. 2010. ⟨hal-00553057v1⟩