j_wilkes Posted October 26, 2005 at 01:43 PM Report Share Posted October 26, 2005 at 01:43 PM Dear all, I am planning a trip to eastern Guizhou province, and I'd be grateful for any information anyone can give about the Kam people (also known as Dong) and their language. Specifically: Does anyone know of any learning resources for Kam? I can't speak Mandarin (so can't use eg. a Kam/Chinese dictionary). What proportion of the population in the area east of Kaili (eg. the villages of Liping, Rongjiang, Zhaoxing) are able to speak Putonghua? What is the likelyhood of being able to find a Kam to Mandarin translator? What are the chances of finding a translator who can speak Kam and English? My purpose in travelling here is to record traditional oral poems and songs in Kam. If anyone has visited this area recently, I'd be very happy to hear from you. (I hope this post is not too off-topic for the site.) Many thanks. Yours, Jamie Wilkes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferno Posted October 27, 2005 at 02:51 AM Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 at 02:51 AM i don't really know anything but Ethnologue has some info... Dong, Northern: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=doc Dong, Southern: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=kmc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_wilkes Posted October 27, 2005 at 09:51 AM Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 at 09:51 AM Thanks, interesting links. I've read the Norman Geary book & found it helpful, but this has given me some more leads to follow up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hakkaboy Posted November 1, 2005 at 08:00 PM Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 at 08:00 PM Well, I visited Sanjiang once. All the villagers spoke Dong, but could not write it. Apparently there is a script invented by the government, but they popularised it in three villages only, but I don't know which three. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_wilkes Posted November 2, 2005 at 02:10 PM Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 at 02:10 PM Apparently there is now a scheme in Zaidang village, Guizhou, where Kam children are taught bilingually. If you're interested, and can download pdf files, here's a link to an article, by Geary & Pam, in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development: http://www.multilingual-matters.net/jmmd/024/0274/jmmd0240274.pdf The children are taught to read and write in Kam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferno Posted November 2, 2005 at 08:43 PM Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 at 08:43 PM Well, I visited Sanjiang once. All the villagers spoke Dong, but could not write it. Apparently there is a script invented by the government, but they popularised it in three villages only, but I don't know which three. since when do dialects get their own script?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quest Posted November 2, 2005 at 09:06 PM Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 at 09:06 PM since when do dialects get their own script?? I dont know what the "Dong" language is exactly, but it should be a minority language, and not a dialect of Chinese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j_wilkes Posted November 2, 2005 at 09:25 PM Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2005 at 09:25 PM Yes, it's a minority language. I'm far from an expert on the matter, but as far as I've been able to discover, attempts to introduce a script began in the late 1950s. It's a Roman script, and uses the same conventions as pinyin where the sounds are the same as standard Chinese (I found this info in the article I linked in my previous post). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ah-Bin Posted November 3, 2005 at 05:15 AM Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 at 05:15 AM I thought I saw a dictionary of Dong to Chinese once, but the romanisation was only like pinyin to a point. The tones were written with letters put after each syllable, like Zhuang. naz, naj, naq, na, are all pornounced "na" but with different tones. If you can read Chinese, or have a friend who does, you can check out this website http://www.kam-tai.org/languages/languagesdangan/dongyu.htm I'll just go and have a look at the pages and find one with the tones for you... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ah-Bin Posted November 3, 2005 at 05:23 AM Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 at 05:23 AM http://www.kam-tai.org/languages/dong/teaching/dyjz/dyjz02.htm The first vertical line of numbers on the left-hand side shows the tones for Rongjiang. Dong has fifteen tones! I'm glad I'm not learning it.... The numbers are the pitches of the tones, five being the highest pitch and one the lowest. The numbers for the Mandarin tones are 55, 25, 213, and 51 (I think!) get a Mandarin speaker to say the four tones for you so you can see how tones are mapped with numbers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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