Phonological and Lexical Profiles of the Kham Dialect Muya

Abstract: The Tibetan Muya dialect is a unique regional dialect in the Kham area. It is mainly distributed in Dartsendo, most of YaJiang, and BaMei, Sichuan. Muya dialect retains some features of the ancient Tibetan language in phonetic, lexical, and grammatical structure.

But it changes slightly in phonetics and semantics over time. It is a valuable living fossil for us to study the grammar of language evolution.

Therefore, this essay focuses on the Muya dialect, starting from the phonology(consonants and vowels, as well as the type of syllable structure) and vocabulary(word formation, loan words), to systematically analyze the phonetic and lexical systems of the Muya dialect.