| Khamti | |
|---|---|
| (တဲး)ၵမ်းတီႈ / (တဲး)ၵံးတီႈ (Tai) Khamti | |
| Region | Burma,India |
| Ethnicity | Khamti |
Native speakers | (13,000 cited 2000–2007)[1] |
Kra–Dai
| |
| Burmese script (Khamti variation, called Lik-Tai)[2] | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kht |
| Glottolog | kham1290 |
| ELP | Khamti |
 | |
TheKhamti language is aSouthwestern Tai language spoken in Myanmar and India by theKhamti people. It is closely related to, and sometimes considered a dialect of,Shan.
Khamti has been variously renderedHkamti,Khampti,Kam Ti,Kamti,Tai Kam Ti,Tai-Khamti,Khamti Shan,Khampti Shan,Khandi Shan,Hkampti Shan, andKhampti Sam (Burmese:ခန္တီးရှမ်းလူမျိုး).[3] The nameKhamti means 'place of gold'.[citation needed]
In Burma, Khamti is spoken by 3,500 nearMyitkyina and by 4,500 in Putao District,Kachin State (both reported in 2000). In India, it is spoken by 5,000 inAssam andArunachal Pradesh, in theDikrong Valley,Narayanpur, and north bank of theBrahmaputra (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]
The language seems to have originated aroundMogoung in Upper Burma.[4] Mung Kang was captured, a large group of Khamtis moved to the north and east ofLakhimpur. In the year 1850, 300–400 Khamtis settled in Assam.[5]
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]
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]
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]
Khamti uses five tones, namely: low falling /21/, mid rising /34/, mid falling /42/, high falling /53/~[33], and high level /55/~[44].[6]
Unlike other Tai languages that display SVO word order, Khamti has SOV word order.[8]
Nouns are divided into common nouns and proper nouns.[9]
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]
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]
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/ | |
Khamti uses the following demonstratives:[9]
| 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' |
The Tai Khamtis have their own writing system called 'Lik-Tai', which they share with theTai Phake people andTai Aiton people.[2] It closely resembles the NorthernShan script of Myanmar, which is a variant of theMon–Burmese script, with some of the letters taking divergent shapes.[6] Their script is evidently derived from theLik 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 likeTripitaka,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]
Displaying with the dummy letter ဢ,