Kam

Kam, the language of the Dong people, gives its name to the Kam-Sui branch of the Kra-Dai family. These languages are spoken mainly in eastern Guizhou, western Hunan and northern Guangxi, and their speakers trace their descent to the Bai Yue and Rau peoples, who broke into small chiefdoms after the Yue kingdom collapsed around the first century. Kam splits into a more conservative southern form and a northern form more deeply marked by Chinese; centuries of contact added Chinese words to its vocabulary.

Kam had no traditional script, and speakers borrowed Chinese characters to note down its sounds. Dong history was carried orally in long polyphonic songs sung without instruments.

The Dong appear under their present name in Ming records after 1368, and their mountain valleys saw repeated, unsuccessful risings through the Ming and Qing dynasties.