Dong (language)

Dong
Spoken in	China
speaker	2.4 million
Linguistic ; classification	Tai Kadai languages Kam Tai languages Kam-Sui languages Dong ;
Language codes
ISO 639 -1	-
ISO 639 -2	tai (other Kam-Tai languages)
ISO 639-3	doc (Northern Dong), kmc (Southern Dong)

Dong (own name: leec Gaeml ) is the mother tongue of the Dong of the same name - an indigenous ethnic group in China. It belongs to the Tai Kadai family and is distantly related to the Zhuang and Thai languages. As a complex tonal language , it has 13 different tones. The language is usually written down with Chinese characters. A Dong script based on the Latin alphabet, developed in 1958, was barely able to establish itself. The language is threatened in places as the younger generation mostly only speaks Chinese . Only in remote areas do the children still grow up with Dong as their mother tongue.

Ethnologue distinguishes two Dong dialects as separate languages with the codes doc and kmc .

According to Tilman Spengler, numerous subdialects can be distinguished in addition to the northern and southern dialect, such as the old dong , the light dong and the dong of dawn ; came lan , came dew and came tan . The name "dong" ( dòng , 侗) comes from Chinese, but was previously written with a character for cave (洞) in order to degrade the people as barbarians.

Phonology and Spelling

Initial sounds

Dong has 32 possible syllable sounds, seven of which (ʧ-, ʧʰ-, ʃ-, ɻ-, f-, ʦ- and ʦʰ-) occur only in foreign words from Chinese.

IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml	IPA	Gaeml
p	b	t	d	ʨ	j	k	G	ʧ	zh
pʰ	p	tʰ	t	ʨʰ	q	kʰ	k	ʧʰ	ch
m	m	n	n	nʲ	ny	ŋ	ng	ʃ	sh
w	w	l	l	ɕ	x	H	H	ɻ	r
p	bi	s	s	j	y	kʷ	gu	f	f
pʰʲ	pi	lʲ	left			kʷʰ	ku	ʦ	z
						ŋʷ	ngu	ʦʰ	c

Finals

Dong has 64 possible syllable endings, 14 of which only occur in Chinese foreign words and are not listed in the following table.

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	egg					oɪ	oi	uɪ	ui
aʊ	ao					eʊ	eeu	iʊ	iu	oʊ	ou
at the	at the	ɐm	aem	əm	em	em	eem	in the	in the	om	om	around	around
on	on	ɐn	aen	ən	en	en	eem	in	in	on	on	U.N	U.N
on	nec	ɐŋ	aeng	əŋ	closely	eŋ	eeng	in	ing	oŋ	ong	U.N	ung
ap	from	ɐp	from	əp	eb	ep	eb	ip	ib	op	if	up	ub
at	ad	ɐt	ad	ət	ad	et	ed	it	id	ot	or
ak	ag	ɐk	ag	ək	eg	ek	eg	ik	ig	OK	above	uk	ug

The sound value of the vowel in the finals written -ab, -ad and -ag is [ɐ] in syllables with the tones -l, -p and -c (see below), in syllables with the tones -s, - t and -x on the other hand [a]. The sound value of the vowel in the finals written -eb, -ed and -eg is [ə] in syllables with the tones -l, -p and -c, in syllables with the tones -s, -t and - x [e].

Sounds

Dong is a tonal language. Open syllables occur in nine different tones, closed syllables in six, so that some linguists distinguish 13 different tones. In the official spelling, the tones are designated by letters that are placed after the syllable.

course	55	35	11	323	13	31	53	453	33
Gaeml	-l	-p	-c	-s	-t	-x	-v	-k	-H
Example with an open syllable	bal	pap	bac	bas	qat	miax	bav	pak	bah
meaning	fish	Gray	rake	aunt	light	knife	leaf	break something	chaff
Example with a closed syllable	bedl	sedp	medc	bads	pads	bagx
meaning	duck	seven	ant	Can?	blood	White

Footnotes

^ Ethnologue: Language Family Trees - Tai-Kadai, Kam-Tai, Kam-Sui
^ Tilman Spengler : Die Dong: A life like in the times of the emperor In: GEO , March 1991, pp. 111-124

literature

Ōu Hēngyuán 欧亨元: Cic deenx Gaeml Gax / Dòng-Hàn cídiǎn侗汉词典 ( Dong-Chinese dictionary ; Běijīng 北京, Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族出版社 2004), ISBN 7-105-06287-8 .
Liáng Mǐn 粱敏, Dòngyǔ jiănzhì 侗语简志 (an outline of the Dòng language ; Běijīng 北京, Rénmín chūbǎnshè 人民族出版社 1980).

[1] Ethnologue: Language Family Trees - Tai-Kadai, Kam-Tai, Kam-Sui

[Geo1991-2] Tilman Spengler : Die Dong: A life like in the times of the emperor In: GEO , March 1991, pp. 111-124