Nam language

Nam
Nam
Region	Central Asia
Era	?
Language family	Sino-Tibetan (unclassified) Nam; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	namm1235

Nam is an unclassified extinct language preserved in Tibetan transcriptions in a number of Dunhuang manuscript fragments. The manuscript fragments are currently held at the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Classification[]

According to Ikeda Takumi, the research of F. W. Thomas, published in 1948, concluded that Nam "was one of the old Qiang [languages] spoken around the Nam mountain range near Koko nor in Qinghai province", associated with a country called Nam tig which is mentioned in some historical records. However, Ikeda further states that Thomas' conclusions were widely criticized.^[1]

Glottolog accepts that it was at least Sino-Tibetan.^[2]

Lexicon[]

Wen (1981: 18–19) lists the following basic vocabulary items, which have been taken from Thomas (1948: 399–451).

No.	Chinese gloss	English gloss	Nam
1	天	sky	mo, nam
2	云	cloud	gmog, mog, mog
3	日	sun	gnyi
4	月	moon	’la, la
5	火	fire	sme/’me, ’me’i, me, ’mye, ye
6	水	water	’ldya, ’ldya
7	山	mountain	’ri, gri, gri’i, ’ri’i
8	石	stone	’rto, rto
9	虎	tiger	cho
10	熊	bear (animal)	gre
11	牦牛	yak	’brong
12	马	horse	rta, rta’, ’rta, ’rta’
13	驴	donkey	gzu, ’ju , ’zu, ’dzu, ’ju’u’gduz
14	狗	dog	’kyi
15	猪	pig	’phag
16	头	head	’bu, ’ko
17	眼	eye	’me’i, méi, mye
18	齿	tooth	swa
19	手	hand	’phyag
20	心	heart	syning, snyang
21	盲	blind	klu
22	死	dead	’shi, shi (gshi, bshi)
23	箭	arrow	’da’, ’lda’?
24	门	door	rgo, ’go, ’ko(rgor)
25	大	big	rbo, bo-bon, rbom, ’bom, ’rbom
26	小	small	byi, hbyi
27	高	high	shid, ’shid, tho, ’tho, stang, ’stang

References[]

^ . "Spotlights to the decipherment of the Nam language". The 41st International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics. p. abstract. Retrieved November 27, 2010.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Nam". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

Further reading[]

陳宗祥 (1994). 〈敦煌古藏文拼冩的“南語”手卷��名稱問題〉Dūnhuáng Gǔzàngwén pīnxiěde 'Nányǔ' shǒujuànde míngchēng wèntí [The identity of the Dūnhuáng 'Nam language' scroll transcribed in Old Tibetan].《四川藏學研究》Sìchuān Zàngxué yánjiū 2. 中國藏學出版社 Zhōngguó Zàngxué chūbǎnshè, 164–180頁．（筆名爲寶羊與王建民合冩）
Chén Zōngxiáng 陳宗祥 (1997). 〈敦煌古藏文拼冩的“南語”手卷的有關地名考釋〉Dūnhuáng Gǔzàngwén pīnxiěde 'Nányǔ' shǒujuànde yǒuguān dìmíng kǎoshì [Explanation of the places names in the Dūnhuáng 'Nam language' scroll transcribed in Old Tibetan].《四川藏學研究》Sìchuān Zàngxué yánjiū 4．四川民族出版社 Sìchuān mínzú chūbǎnshè. 684–698．
Ikeda Takumi (2012). Highlights in the Decipherment of the Nam Language. Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages IV. Ed. Nathan W. Hill. Leiden: Brill, pp 111–119.
Lalou, Marcelle (1939). “Sur la langue « nam ».” Journal Asiatique 231: 453.
Thomas, Frederick William (1928). “The Nam Language.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 3: 630–634. JSTOR 25221378 doi:10.1017/S0035869X00060974
Thomas, Frederick William (1939). “The Nam Language.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2: 193–216. JSTOR 25201881 doi:10.1017/S0035869X00088456
Thomas, Frederick William (1948). Nam, an ancient language of the Sino-Tibetan borderland. London: Oxford University Press.
聞宥 (1981). 〈論所謂南語〉Lùn suǒwèi Nányǔ (On the 'Nam' language)《民族語文》. Mínzú yǔwén 1: 16–25.

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[1] . "Spotlights to the decipherment of the Nam language". The 41st International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics. p. abstract. Retrieved November 27, 2010.^{[permanent dead link]}

[2] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Nam". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

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