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Mulam
Mulam
Native to	China
Region	Luocheng County, Hechi, Northern Guangxi
Ethnicity	210,000 (2000 census)
Native speakers	86,000 (2005); < 10,000 monolinguals
Language family	Kra–Dai Kam–Sui Mulam; ;
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 (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).

Phonology

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]}

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)^[3]
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)^[4]
Xiali 下里乡 (in Xiecun 谢村, etc.)

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

References

^ ^a ^b Mulam at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b 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