Amdo Tibetan
Amdo Tibetan (Tibetan script: ཨ་མདོའི་སྐད་, Wylie: A-mdo’i skad, Lhasa dialect: [ámtokɛ́ʔ]; also called Am kä) is the Tibetic language spoken in Amdo (now mostly in Qinghai, some in Ngawa and Gannan). It has two varieties, the farmer dialects and the nomad dialects.
| Amdolese | |
|---|---|
| ཨ་མདོའི་སྐད།, A-mdo’i skad | |
| Native to | China |
| Region | Amdo (include Qinghai, Gansu, Tibet Autonomous Region and Sichuan) |
Native speakers | 2.5 million (2005) |
| Tibetan script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | adx |
| Glottolog | amdo1237 |
Amdo is one of the three branches of traditional classification of Tibetic languages (the other two being Khams Tibetan and Ü-Tsang). In terms of mutual intelligibility, Amdo speakers cannot communicate even at a basic level with the Ü-Tsang branch (including Lhasa Tibetan).
Amdo Tibetan has 70% lexical similarity with Central Tibetan and Khams Tibetan.
The nomad dialect of Amdo Tibetan is closer to classical written Tibetan as it preserves the word-initial consonant clusters and it is non-tonal, both now elided in the Ü-Tsang branch (including Lhasa Tibetan). Hence, its conservatism in phonology has become a source of pride among Amdo Tibetans.