Abstract: The Tai Dam are an ethnic minority with sizable communities in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and the United States, and khap is their main vocal genre. This study analyzes the timbre of 24 khap documented from nine Tai Dam communities in four countries, focusing on the nonlexical vocable. I argue the vocables from these Tai Dam communities share a timbral concordance, as expressed through the primary œ vowel, along with a constellation of additional language sounds that suggest their own timbral relationships. For Tai Dam khap , the primary vocable vowel generates timbral consistency, while the constellation of additional language sounds adds timbral variety.
John Latartara (2025) studied this question.