Khamti language

Demographics

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).

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.

Possibly, there are also some Khamti in some parts of China (5,000 people).

History

The language seems to have originated around Mogoung in Upper Burma. 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.

Phonology

Initial consonants

Khamti has the following initial consonants:

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

The palatal nasal /ɲ/ and the rhotic /r/ are only used in the Myanmar variety.

Final consonants

Khamti has the following final consonants:

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

Vowels

The Khamti language uses the following vowels:

/ɤ/ only appears in the dialect in Myanmar.

Tones

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

Grammar

Syntax

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

Nouns

Nouns are divided into common nouns and proper nouns.

Common nouns

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.

Proper nouns

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/.

Pronouns

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:

Demonstratives

Khamti uses the following demonstratives:

Writing system

The Tai Khamtis have their own writing system called 'Lik-Tai', which they share with the Tai Phake people and Tai Aiton people. 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. 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.

Consonants

Vowels

Tones and other diacritics

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
• ꩰ — duplication