Phonology of Kammu dialects - article ; n°1 ; vol.9, pg 45-71

Lindell Kristina, Svantesson Jan-Olof, Tayanin Damrong

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Cahiers de linguistique - Asie orientale - Année 1981 - Volume 9 - Numéro 1 - Pages 45-71
27 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• dictionnaire

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• Publié par: CAHIERS_DE_LINGUISTIQUE_-_ASIE_ORIENTALE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1981
• Nombre de lectures: 88
• Langue: Slovak
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Kristina Lindell
Jan-Olof Svantesson
Damrong Tayanin
Phonology of Kammu dialects
In: Cahiers de linguistique - Asie orientale, vol. 9 n°1, 1981. pp. 45-71.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Lindell Kristina, Svantesson Jan-Olof, Tayanin Damrong. Phonology of Kammu dialects. In: Cahiers de linguistique - Asie
orientale, vol. 9 n°1, 1981. pp. 45-71.
doi : 10.3406/clao.1981.1089
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/clao_0153-3320_1981_num_9_1_1089kristína lindell, jan-olof svantcsson, damrong tayanin
PHONOLOGY OF KAMMU DIALECTS
Kasami is a Mon-Khmer language spoken in Northern Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, and in
Southern China. For a general description of the Kammu see LeBar et al (1964).
The Kammu recognize within themselves different subgroupings called tmóby. The word
tmooy seems in itself to mean just 'guest* and we can find no better translation of the
'Lao* or 'Thai1, word. However, at certain occasions it is used in contrast to ce meaning
thus one speaks of kun, tmooy meaning Kammu village without any further implication» When
used together with certain names, eg tmoby Yuan, tmooy Khwèen, it designates the entire
Kammu population of a somewhat vaguely defined geographical area. Also the Lamet (Rameet)
are regarded as one tmooy. The respective tmooy name is also attached to the dialect or
language spoken within the area.
The Kammu themselves use the negative particle to distinguish between the dialects.
The negative particles are as follows : Khween : à I ; Yuan : рээ ; Krooq : ploo ; Rook
khát ; Uu : am. Tmóoy L+ + is dialectally identified with either Rbok or Yuan. To belong
to tmóoy Rook bears a social stigma, and therefore Rook people avoid^their own negative
particle (khát) when outside their own area. In the North they say рээ hoping to be identified
as Yuan.
In actual fact no one of the Kroon. speakers known to us says plóo except for 'not at all1,
as do the Yuan. It is, however, possible that plóo is used in more southernly areas, or that,
it is obsolete, as is Rook khát .
The picture given here is seen from the point of view of our informants, and although
there is in fact a tmooy Uu to which one of them belongs, anything south of the Rook-speaking
aera is summarized as Uu by them. From Smalley .(1964), however, we are aware of it, that the
am speakers around Luang Prabang are divided into several tmooy.
We have used a word-list of about "550 words, based on Egerod (1965), which wehave recorded
with speakers from different Kammu dialect areas. The same list is used in Lindell (1974).
The Yuan dialect has been the starting point irt the investigation, resulting in the first
dialect description, Lindell (1974). Apart from the word-lists, we also have recordings of some
350 folk-tales, interviews and free speech with speakers of all these dialects, collected during
several periods of field research.
The following abbreviations are used for our informants :
Y » Yuan, based primarily on Lindell (1974).
Kh - Khween, based on word-lists recorded with two speakers.
Cah. de Ling. Asie Orientale № 9 Juin 1981, pp. 45-71. '
Kristina LINDELL 46
Jan-Olof SVANTESSON
Damrong TAYANIN
R » tôok, based primarily on two word-lists. Since the two speakers differ considerably
both in pronunciation and vocabulary, they are sometimes referred to as Rl and R2.
Kr » Krobf], based primarily on two
N.. ^ L « L++, based on the only word-list we possess by a speaker of this tmooy.
U ■ Uu, also based on a single word-list.
The northern dialects (Yuan, Khwfcen, Rook, KráoQ, L++) have almost identical phoneme
systems, in which the feature 'voice' plays only a minor role. In theses dialects there are
'high' and 'low'. two distinctive tones,
In the southern dialects, that is Uu, and those described in Smalley (1961), Delcros
(1966) and Maspero (1955), where the contrast between voiced and voiceless initials is pre
served, there seems to be no tone system. The distinction of tones in the northern dialects
corresponds to a difference between voiced and voiceless initials in the southern dialects.
The Uu dialect of our informant has in fact one extremely high and one low tone, but
they can be considered redundant if the contrast between voiced and voiceless initials is
taken to be primary.
Thus it seems appropriate to distinguish between two major dialects, Northern and
Southern Kammu.
Our Northern Kammu is designated 09-2 in Ferlus (1974), and Southern Kammu is 09-1.
We have no informants representing his 09-3, where voiced stops have become voiceless
aspirates.
1. PHONEMES IN MAJOR SYLLABLES
Most Kammu words consist of one major syllable, or a major syllabe preceded by a minor
syllabe. Major syllables have the structure C(C)V(C). The minor syllables will be described
later.
The following phonemes occur in major syllables :
Initiale consonants
Northern Kammu Southern Kammu
p t с к ? t с к p
b d 'j g
ph th ch kh ph th ch kh
b d ?m ?n
n ■J D n" m n fi n m n
r
г
1
1 1
s s
о w v.
w W У У
?w ?У ? У
Initials consonants clusters
Northern Kammu Southern Kammu
РГ pi pr Pi
br bl
tr tr
dr
cr/sr sr
kr kl kw kr kl kw
gr gi gw
khw (khw) .
OF KAMMU DIALECTS 47 PHONOLOGY
Final consonants
p t с к ?
m n R о
г
I
s q x
w y
Vowels
i ; u II UU 1а 1а ua
e Э о ее ээ оо эа
a л аа лл e Э ее ээ
IPA symbols have been used with the following exceptions :
у ■ IPA j ; ri » IPA p ; j » IPA j(voiced palatal stop) ; aa, etc, long vowels ; kh etc,
aspired stops.
Northern Кашши /b/ and /d/ correspond to /?m/ and /711/ in Southern Kammu. Most words
where they occur are Lao loans. Auditively they are "preglottalized" and differ strongly
from the /b/ and /d/ of Southern Kammu. Their phonetic characteristics have not been in
vestigated.
All aspirated stops are rare, and in the word-lists only a few words with /ch/ are
found. The Lf+ speaker replaces /ch/ by /s/.
The phonemes /r/ and /r/ (initial and final) are trilled, except for the second Rook
speaker, who has a fricative [j].
The initial cluster /cr/ always occurs in Yuan, while the others sometimes, or always,
replace it with /sr/.
Initial /khw/ is rare, and it is not found in the word-lists. In our Yuan material there
are a few contrasting pairs, such as khwaar), 'across', and kwaao, 'red cotton tree*.
The vowels and the final consonants are the same in all dialects. (Except for the final
spirants, see below) .
Final stops are generally not released, [p1] etc. One speaker of the KrobQ dialect has
released final stops. Cf. Smalley (1961), p. 3.
In the table three final spirants, [s], [q], and [x] are shown. No dialect has three
contrasting phonemes, and in fact a two-phoneme analysis could be made for each dialect, using
the phonemes /s/ and /h/ (or /x/) . This would lead to different phonetic realizations of the
phonemes in the different dialects, so we have used a phonetic rather than a phonemic annotation
at this point. This question will also be discussed later.
There is also a zero final, i e open syllable. This occurs only after long vowels. It is
realized as a clearly audible [h] in several idiolects. Final [x] and /?/ are found only after
short vowels. After the diphthongs both a zero final and a glottal stop can occur, but no
some
Word initial and word final /7 / have been omitted in our transcription, except after
diphthongs. In, the middle of a word, the sign ' is used to indicate /?/, as in c/5oo 'tree1.
It is also used to mark the limit between syllables, when necessary, as in tk'lok 'neck'.
Ther vowels /л/ and /лл/ are rare, and might be missing in some dialects.
The diphthongs are falling, with long first component, except in informant Rl, who has
rising with very short first component, (cf. also the diphthongs followed by /?/
discussed above.
2. TONES
In Northern Kammu some words have a distinctive contrast between a high falling tone and Qo' 'rice' a low even tone, e- g ; qb 'to fear', while in mosç words tone is no distinctive
feature. A e phone tic analysis of the tones will be found in Garding and Lindell (1977), and in
Gandour, .Garding and lindell (1978). 48 Kristina LINDELL
Jan-Olof SVANTESSON
Damrong TAÏANIN
Words with high tone in Northern Kannnu as a rule have voiceless initials in Southern
Kammu, while words with low tone have voiced initials. E g : ?\o 'rice' ; no 'to fear1. This
is true as regards unaspirated stops (except /?/), nasals, liquids and /w/ (and possibly /y/,
cf. Smalley (1961)).
In the examples below, and in the word-lists, we have used tone-marks only for the Yuan
dialect, of which we have the most reliable information on tones.
Correspondences :
Southern Kammu examples are culled from our Uu informant, and from Smalley (1961), Delcros
(1966) or Maspero (1955).
paat paat Sm paat Y U eut
Y paa U baa Sm baa thou (fem.)
pie? Y pie и pie Sm fruit
bla' Y pl