The following is the entry for this language as it appeared in the 14th edition (2000).
It was superseded by the corresponding entry in the 15th edition (2005). See also the corresponding entry in the current edition of Ethnologue.
SIL code: DOC
ISO 639-2: mis
| Population | 907,560 speakers out of 2,514,014 in the official nationality (1990 census). Population total both countries 907,560. |
| Region | Area where southeastern Guizhou (Yuping Autonomous County), western Hunan, and northern Guangxi provinces meet, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 20 contiguous counties. Also spoken in Viet Nam. |
| Alternate names | KAM, GAM, TONG, TUNG, TUNG-CHIA |
| Classification | Tai-Kadai, Kam-Tai, Kam-Sui. |
| Comments | Reported to be close to Mulam. 80% lexical similarity within Northern Dong, 71% between Northern Dong and Southern Dong. 49% lexical similarity with Northern Zhuang, 46% with Laka, 29% with Laqua, 28% with Buyang, 26% with Hlai, 24% with Gelo, 22% with Lati, 6% with Hmong, 4% with Mien. Speakers of Northern Dong are more bilingual than are those in Southern Dong. Speakers use Mandarin for literature. Dong is an official nationality in China. 'Kam' is their own name, 'Dong' is the Chinese name. Traditional way of life is relatively undisturbed. Investigation needed: intelligibility with S. Dong. 9 tones. Literacy rate in second language: 55%. Has an official orthography. Agriculturalists: rice, tung oil, tea oil; forestry. Polytheist. |
