The Mulam language (Chinese: 仫佬; pinyin: Mùlǎo) is a Kam–Sui language spoken mainly in Luocheng County, Hechi, Northern Guangxi by the Mulao people. The greatest concentrations are in Dongmen and Siba communes. Their autonym is mu6 lam1.[2] The Mulam also call themselves kjam1, which is probably cognate with lam1 and the Dong people's autonym "Kam" (Wang & Zheng 1980).
Mulam | |
---|---|
Native to | China |
Region | Luocheng County, Hechi, Northern Guangxi |
Ethnicity | 210,000 (2000 census)[1] |
Native speakers | 86,000 (2005)[1] < 10,000 monolinguals |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | mlm |
Glottolog | mula1253 |
ELP | Mulam |
Mulam is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger |
The Mulam language, like Dong, does not have voiced stop, but does have a phonemic distinction between unvoiced and voiced nasals and laterals. It has a system of eleven distinct vowels. It is a tonal language with ten tones, and 65% of its vocabulary is shared with the Zhuang and Dong languages.[citation needed]
The following Mulam dialects are listed in Wang & Zheng (1980) (all of which are spoken in Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County).
The following comparison of Mulam dialects is from Ni Dabai (2010:221-222).[2][5]
English gloss | Chinese gloss | Qiaotou 桥头 | Huangjin 黄金 | Siba 四把 | Dongmen 东门 | Long'an 龙岸 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
die | 死 | tai1 | tai1 | pɣai1 | tai1 | tai1 |
medicine | 药 | ta2 | ta2 | kɣa2 | - | tsa2 |
intestines | 肠子 | taːi3 | taːi3 | kɣaːi3 | khɣaːi3 | tsaːi3 |
cloud | 云 | ma3 | ma3 | kwa3 | kwa3 | fa3 |
bran | 细糠 | pwa6 | pwa6 | kwa6 | kwa6 | fa6 |
dog | 狗 | m̥a1 | m̥a1 | ŋwa1 | ŋ̥wa1 | m̥a1 |
hair, fur | 毛发 | pəm1 | pəm1 | pɣam1 | pɣam1 | kjam1 |