Mulam language
Kam–Sui language spoken in north Guangxi
title: "Mulam language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["languages-of-guangxi", "kam–sui-languages"] description: "Kam–Sui language spoken in north Guangxi" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulam_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Kam–Sui language spoken in north Guangxi ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Mulam |
| states | China |
| region | Luocheng County, Hechi, Northern Guangxi |
| ethnicity | 210,000 (2000 census) |
| speakers | 86,000 |
| speakers2 | |
| date | 2005 |
| ref | e18 |
| familycolor | Kradai |
| fam2 | Kam–Sui |
| iso3 | mlm |
| glotto | mula1253 |
| glottorefname | Mulam |
| :: |
|name=Mulam |states=China |region=Luocheng County, Hechi, Northern Guangxi |ethnicity=210,000 (2000 census) |speakers=86,000 |speakers2= |date=2005 |ref=e18 |script= |familycolor=Kradai |fam2=Kam–Sui |iso3=mlm |glotto=mula1253 |glottorefname=Mulam
The Mulam language () 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. The Mulam also call themselves kjam1, which is probably cognate with lam1 and the Dong people's autonym "Kam" (Wang & Zheng 1980).
Phonology
The Mulam language, like Dong, does not have voiced stops, 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.
Dialects
The following Mulam dialects are listed in Wang & Zheng (1980) (all of which are spoken in Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County).
- Dongmen 东门镇 (in Dayin 大银, Dafu 大福村, Le'e 勒俄村 etc.); documented in detail by Wang & Zheng (1980)
- Long'an 龙岸镇 (in Liangsi 良泗, etc.)
- Huangjin 黄金镇 (in Zhongjian 中间寨, etc.); documented in Qiu (2004)
- Qiaotou 桥头镇 (in Dongnong 洞弄屯, etc.)
- Siba 四把镇 (in Dawu 大梧, Miao'er 苗儿屯, Shuangzhai 双寨村, etc.); documented in Guangxi (2008)
- Xiali 下里乡 (in Xiecun 谢村, etc.)
The following comparison of Mulam dialects is from Ni Dabai (2010:221-222).
::data[format=table] | English gloss||Chinese gloss||Qiaotou 桥头||Huangjin 黄金||Siba 四把||Dongmen 东门||Long'an 龙岸 | |---| | die | | medicine | | intestines | | cloud | | bran | | dog | | hair, fur | ::
References
References
- See [[Proto-Tai language#Tones]] for an explanation of the tone codes.
- Qiu Jing [岳静]. 2004. Huangjinzhen Mulaoyu gaikuang [黄金镇仫佬语概况]. ''Minzu Yuwen'' 民族语文 2004(4).
- Guangxi Minority Languages Orthography Committee. 2008. ''Vocabularies of Guangxi ethnic languages'' [广西民族语言方音词汇]. Beijing: Nationalities Publishing House [民族出版社].
- Ni Dabai [倪大白]. 2010. ''侗台语概论 [An introduction to Kam-Tai languages]''. Beijing: Ethnic Publishing House [民族出版社]. {{ISBN. 978-7-105-10582-3
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