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Khamti language

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The Khamti language is a Southwestern Tai language spoken in Myanmar and India by the Khamti people. It is closely related to, and sometimes considered a dialect of, Shan.

Khamti
(တဲး)ၵမ်းတီႈ / (တဲး)ၵံးတီႈ
(Tai) Khamti
RegionBurma, India
EthnicityKhamti
Native speakers
13,000 (2000–2007)[1]
Kra–Dai
Burmese script
(Khamti variation,
called Lik-Tai)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3kht
Glottologkham1290
ELPKhamti
Diorama and wax figures of Khamti people in Jawaharlal Nehru Museum, Itanagar.

Name

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Khamti has been variously rendered Hkamti, Khampti, Kam Ti, Kamti, Tai Kam Ti, Tai-Khamti, Khamti Shan, Khampti Shan, Khandi Shan, Hkampti Shan, and Khampti Sam (Burmese: ခန္တီးရှမ်းလူမျိုး).[3] The name Khamti means 'place of gold'.[citation needed]

Demographics

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In Burma, Khamti is spoken by 3,500 near Myitkyina and by 4,500 in Putao District, Kachin State (both reported in 2000). In India, it is spoken by 5,000 in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, in the Dikrong Valley, Narayanpur, and north bank of the Brahmaputra (reported in 2007).[citation needed]

Three dialects of Khamti are known: North Burma Khamti, Assam Khamti, and Sinkaling Khamti. All speakers of Khamti are bilingual, largely in Assamese and Burmese.[3]

History

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The language seems to have originated around Mogoung in Upper Burma.[4] Mung Kang was captured, a large group of Khamtis moved to the north and east of Lakhimpur. In the year 1850, 300–400 Khamtis settled in Assam.[5]

Phonology

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Initial consonants

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Khamti has the following initial consonants:[2][6][7]

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Plosive Tenuis p t c k ʔ
Aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ
Fricative s h
Lateral l
Rhotic r
Semi-vowel w j

/c/ can be heard as [c] or [tʃ] across dialects. /s/ can also be heard as [ʃ].

Note: only the variety found in Myanmar uses the palatal nasal /ɲ/ and the rhotic /r/.[6]

Final consonants

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Khamti has the following final consonants:

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive Tenuis p t k ʔ
Semi-vowel w j

-[w] occurs after front vowels and [a]-, -[j] occurs after back vowels and [a]-.[2]

Vowels

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The Khamti language uses the following vowels:[6][7]

Front Back
unr. unr. rnd.
short long short long short long
Close i iː ɯ ɯː u uː
Mid e eː ɤ o oː
Open ɛ ɛː a aː ɔ ɔː
Diphthong ia aɯ ua

/ɤ/ only appears in the dialect in Myanmar.[6]

Tones

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Khamti uses five tones, namely: low falling /21/, mid rising /34/, mid falling /42/, high falling /53/~[33], and high level /55/~[44].[6]

Grammar

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Syntax

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Unlike other Tai languages that display SVO word order, Khamti has SOV word order.[8]

Nouns

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Nouns are divided into common nouns and proper nouns.[9]

Common nouns

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Common nouns can pluralized by adding /nai1 khau/ behind the noun. Common nouns are class categorized by using classifiers such as the generic /an3/, /ko1/ for people and /to1/ for animals.[9]

Proper nouns

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People's names and place names are classified as proper nouns. Khamti prefixes people's names, depending on the social class or status of that person. These prefixes are gender specific. The prefix for Miss is /na:ng4/ and the prefix for Mr is /tsa:i3/. A prefix for Mr used to respectfully address a male of higher status is /tsau2/ or /tsau2 nuai/.[9]

Pronouns

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Khamti uses a triparte pronoun system, consisting of singular, dual and plural forms. The dual form and the first person plural form are further divided between inclusive and exclusive forms. The following set of pronouns are the pronouns found in the Khamti language:[9]

singular dual plural
1st person inclusive /kau3/ /ha:4/ /haw1/
exclusive /hang4 khe:u/ /tu:3/
2nd person /maeu4/ /suang khe:u/ /su3/
3rd person /man4/ /suang kha:/ /khau/

Demonstratives

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Khamti uses the following demonstratives:[9]

Demonstratives
singular plural
near /an3 nai1/
'this' 		/an3 nai1 nai1 khau/
'these'
approximate /amaeu4 nai1/
'that near you' 		/amaeu4 nai1 khau/
'those by you'
distal /an3 pu:n nai1/
'that over there' 		/an3 pu:n nai1 nai1 khau/
'those over there'

Writing system

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See also: Mon–Burmese script

The Tai Khamtis have their own writing system called 'Lik-Tai', which they share with the Tai Phake people and Tai Aiton people.[2] It closely resembles the Northern Shan script of Myanmar, which is a variant of the Mon–Burmese script, with some of the letters taking divergent shapes.[6] Their script is evidently derived from the Lik Tho Ngok script since hundreds of years ago. There are 35 letters including 17 consonants and 14 vowels. The script is traditionally taught in monasteries on subjects like Tripitaka, Jataka tales, code of conduct, doctrines and philosophy, history, law codes, astrology, and palmistry etc. The first printed book was published in 1960. In 1992 it was edited by the Tai Literature Committee, Chongkham. In 2003 it was again modified with tone marking by scholars of Northern Myanmar and Arunachal Pradesh.[citation needed]

Consonants

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  • က - ka - k - [k]
  • ၵ - kha - kh - [kʰ]
  • ꩠ - ga - g - [ɡ]
  • ၷ - gha - gh - [ɡʱ]
  • င - nga - ng - [ŋ]
  • ꩡ - ca - c - [t͡ʃ], [t͡s]
  • ꩢ - cha - ch - [t͡ʃʰ], [t͡sʰ]
  • ꩣ - ja - j - [d͡ʒ], [d͡z]
  • ꩤ - jha - jh - [d͡ʒʱ], [d͡zʱ]
  • ꩥ - nya - ny - [ɲ]
  • ꩦ - ṭa - ṭ - [ʈ]
  • ꩧ - ṭha - ṭh - [ʈʰ]
  • ꩨ - ḍa - ḍ - [ɖ]
  • ꩩ - ḍha - ḍh - [ɖʱ]
  • ၼ - ṇa - ṇ - [ɳ]
  • တ - ta - t - [t]
  • ထ - tha - th - [tʰ]
  • ၻ - da - d - [d]
  • ꩪ - dha - dh - [dʱ]
  • ꩫ - na - n - [n]
  • ပ - pa - p - [p]
  • ၸ - pha - ph - [pʰ]
  • ၿ - ba - b - [b]
  • ၹ - bha - bh - [bʱ]
  • မ - ma - m - [m]
  • ယ - ya - y - [j]
  • ꩳ or ရ - ra - r - [r~ɹ][10]
    • ြ ([ɾ]) medially, such as ၸြႃ (phraa, "Buddha")
  • လ - la - l - [l]
  • ဝ - wa - w - [w~v]
  • ꩬ - sa - s - [s]
  • ꩭ - ha - h - [h]
  • ꩮ - ḷa - ḷ - [ɭ]
  • ꩯ - fa - f - [f]
  • ꩲ - za - z - [z]
  • ꩱ - xa - x - [x]
  • ꩴ - oay - oay - [oaʲ]
  • ꩵ - qn - qn - [qⁿ]
  • ꩶ - hm - hm - [mʰ]
  • ဢ - a - a - [ʔ][11]

Vowels

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  • ႊ - a - [a]
  • ၢ - ā, aa - [aː]
  • ႃ - ā - [aː]
  • ိ - i - [i]
  • ီ - ī - [iː]
  • ု - u - [u]
  • ူ - ū - [uː]
  • ေ - e - [eː]
  • ူဝ် - o - [oː]
  • ဲ - ai - [ai][12]
  • ၢဲ - aai - [aːi]
  • ဝ် - au - [au]
  • ်ွ - au - [au]
  • ၢဝ် - aau - [aːu]
  • ံ - aṁ - [(a)ŋ̊][11]
  • ႄ - ae - [ɛ]
  • ေႃ - aw - [ɔ]
  • ွ - aw - [ɔ]
  • ိဝ် - iu - [iu]
  • ႅ - ia - [ia]
  • ႅဝ် - iau - [iau]
  • ျႃ - iaa - [iaː]
  • ိူ - oe - [ɤ]
  • ွဲ - oi - [oi]
  • ွ - ua - [ua]
  • ဴွ - uai - [uai]
  • ွႃ - uaa - [uaː]
  • ေူ - ui - [ui]
  • ို - ue - [ɯ]
  • ိုဝ် - uee - [ɯː][13]
  • ုဝ် - uo - [wo]
  • ႂ် - aue - [aɯ]
  • ိုဝ် - uea - [ɯa]

Tones and other diacritics

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Displaying with the dummy letter ဢ,

  • tone 1 [21]:
    • for checked syllable, including single consonant - ဢႉ
    • for else - ဢႇ
  • tone 2 [34] - ဢႛ
  • tone 3 [42] - ဢႈ
  • tone 4 [53] - ဢး - In speaking, it may become [33].
  • tone 5:
    • for short open syllable - ဢႚ [44] (rare usage)
    • for else - ဢ [55] (unmarked)
  • ဢ် - asat - final consonant, silences inherent vowel[11]
  • ꩰ - duplication

Further reading

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References

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  1. ^ Khamti at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b c d Diller, Anthony (1992). "Tai languages in Assam: Daughters or Ghosts". Papers on Tai Languages, Linguistics and Literatures: 16.
  3. ^ a b "Khamti". Endangered Languages Project. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  4. ^ "Khamti". Khamti - A Language of Siamese-Chinese sub-family. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  5. ^ Needham, J.F. (1894). Outline Grammar of the Khamti Language. Government Printing, Burma.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Inglis, Douglas (2017). "Myanmar-based Khamti Shan Orthography". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society.
  7. ^ a b Weidert, Alfons (1977). Tai-Khamti phonology and vocabulary. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner.
  8. ^ Wilaiwan Kanittanan. 1986. Kamti Tai: From an SVO to an SOV language. In Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (ed.), South Asian Languages: Structure, Convergence and Diglossia, 174-178. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
  9. ^ a b c d e Inglis, Douglas (2007). "Nominal Structure in Tai Khamti". www.academia.edu. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
  10. ^ Ben Mitchell. "Notes on Khamti" (PDF). 20162-notes-khamti.pdf. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  11. ^ a b c "Khamti alphabet and language". Omniglot. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  12. ^ Hosken, Martin. "Representing Myanmar in Unicode: Details and Examples Version 4" (PDF). Unicode. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  13. ^ INGLIS, Douglas (January 2017). "Myanmar-based Khamti Shan Orthography". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
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