The Zhuang languages ( / ˈ dʒ w æ ŋ , ˈ dʒ w ɒ ŋ / ; autonym : Vahcuengh , Zhuang pronunciation: [βa˧ɕuːŋ˧] , pre-1982: Vaƅcueŋƅ , Sawndip : 話僮, from vah , 'language' and Cuengh , 'Zhuang'; simplified Chinese : 壮语 ; traditional Chinese : 壯語 ; pinyin : Zhuàngyǔ ) are the more than a dozen Tai languages spoken by the Zhuang people of Southern China in the province of Guangxi and adjacent parts of Yunnan and Guangdong . The Zhuang languages do not form a monophyletic linguistic unit, as northern and southern Zhuang languages are more closely related to other Tai languages than to each other. Northern Zhuang languages form a dialect continuum with Northern Tai varieties across the provincial border in Guizhou , which are designated as Bouyei , whereas Southern Zhuang languages form another dialect continuum with Central Tai varieties such as Nung , Tay and Caolan in Vietnam . Standard Zhuang is based on the Northern Zhuang dialect of Wuming .
22-661: The Tai languages are believed to have been originally spoken in what is now southern China, with speakers of the Southwestern Tai languages (which include Thai , Lao and Shan ) having emigrated in the face of Chinese expansion. Noting that both the Zhuang and Thai peoples have the same exonym for the Vietnamese , kɛɛu , from the Chinese commandery of Jiaozhi in northern Vietnam, Jerold A. Edmondson posited that
44-472: A Northern Tai language. Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture#Ethnic groups Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in southeastern Yunnan Province , People's Republic of China, and is the easternmost prefecture-level division of the province. It borders Baise , Guangxi , to the east, Vietnam's Hà Giang Province to the south for 438 kilometres (272 mi), Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture to
66-645: A Southern group consisting of Thai and Lao . Pittayaporn, et al. (2018) note that following sound changes from Proto-Southwestern Tai (PSWT) to the Tai varieties represented in the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya inscriptions, and conclude that the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya inscriptions in fact represent the same language. Southern Thai (Pak Thai) is often posited to be the most divergent; it seems to retain regular reflexes of early tonal developments that were obscured in
88-598: A I i U u E e O o Ɵ ɵ Ə ə Ɯ ɯ Ƨ ƨ З з Ч ч Ƽ ƽ Ƅ ƅ B b D d G g C c By by Mb mb Nd nd Gv gv Y y Gy gy M m N n Ng ng Ny ny My my F f S s H h Ngv ngv V v L l R r A a I i U u E e O o Oe oe (from Ɵ) Ae ae (from Ə) W w (from Ɯ) Z z J j X x Q q H h Southwestern Tai languages The Southwestern Tai or Thai languages are a branch of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia . Its languages include Central Thai (Siamese) , Northern Thai (Lanna) , Lao (including Isan ), Shan and others. The internal classification of
110-805: A mixture of Northern and Central Tai features. Johnson (2011) distinguishes four distinct Zhuang languages in Wenshan Prefecture , Yunnan : Nong Zhuang , Yei Zhuang , Dai Zhuang , and Min Zhuang , all of which are Southern Zhuang varieties except for Yei Zhuang, which is Northern Zhuang. Min Zhuang is a recently discovered Southern Zhuang variety that has never been described previous to Johnson (2011). ( See also Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture#Ethnic groups ) Pyang Zhuang and Myang Zhuang are recently described Southern Zhuang (Central Tai) languages spoken in Debao County , Guangxi, China. The Zhuang languages have been written in
132-562: A number of vernacular varieties (known as tǔyǔ 土語 in Chinese) by Chinese linguists (Zhang & Wei 1997; Zhang 1999:29-30). The Wuming dialect of Yongbei Zhuang, classified within the "Northern Zhuang dialect", is considered to be the " standard " or prestige dialect of Zhuang, developed by the government for certain official usages. Although Southern Zhuang varieties have aspirated stops, Northern Zhuang varieties lack them. There are over 60 distinct tonal systems with 5–11 tones depending on
154-639: Is 2,016,089, accounting for 57.31% of the total population. The Wenshan Prefecture Gazetteer 文山壮族苗族自治州志 (2000) lists the following Gelao ethnic subdivisions in Wenshan Prefecture. The Gelao of Wenshan are also locally known as the Laobazi 老巴子 or Bazi 巴子 . The prefecture has been inhabited for at least 4000 years, as evidenced by surviving neolithic rock art in Malipo County . The seat of Guangnan , known today as Liancheng ( 莲城镇 ),
176-459: Is argued for by Edward Robinson in his paper "Features of Proto-Nüa-Khamti" (1994). The following features set off the Nüa-Khamti group from all the other Southwestern Tai dialects. Luo Yongxian (2001) also recognizes the uniqueness of Dehong Tai (Tai Nuea), but argues for that it should be placed in a separate Northwestern Tai branch with Southwestern Tai as a sister branch. Luo claims that
198-513: Is not clear where they belong in the classification above. Ethnologue also lists under Tai, without further classification, Kuan (Laos), Tai Do (Viet Nam), Tai Pao (Laos), and Tay Khang (Laos). Geographically these would all appear to be Southwestern. Ethnologue also includes Tày Sa Pa (Sapa) of Vietnam, which Pittayaporn excludes from Southwestern Tai but classifies as the most closely related language outside of that group. Pittayaporn also includes Yoy , which Ethnologue classifies as
220-545: The Wenshan Prefecture Ethnic Gazetteer ( 文山壮族苗族自治州志 ) (2005) list the following Yi ethnic subdivisions in Wenshan Prefecture. The Wenshan Prefecture Gazetteer ( 文山壮族苗族自治州志 ) (2000) lists the following Yao ethnic subdivisions in Wenshan Prefecture. Among the resident population, the Han population is 1,501,852, accounting for 42.69% of the total population; the ethnic minorities population
242-579: The 11th century C.E. (between 700 and 1000 C.E., during the late Tang dynasty or early Song dynasty ), as evidenced by loanwords from Late Middle Chinese . Pittayaporn (2018) recognizes two branches within Southwestern Tai, namely Eastern and Western . The Eastern branch consists of the closely related languages Black Tai , White Tai , and Red Tai , while the Western branch is much more internally diverse. The Western branch also contains
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#1732781024730264-527: The 1950s, and includes a 1465-word list covering 36 varieties of Zhuang. For the list of the 36 Zhuang variants below from Zhang (1999), the name of the region (usually county) is given first, followed by the specific village. The phylogenetic position of each variant follows that of Pittayaporn (2009) (see Tai languages#Pittayaporn (2009) ). The Zhuang language (or language group) has been divided by Chinese linguists into northern and southern "dialects" (fāngyán 方言 in Chinese), each of which has been divided into
286-481: The Northwestern Tai branch has many Northern Tai and Central Tai features that are not found in Southwestern Tai. His proposed tree for the Tai branch is as follows. According to Pittayaporn (2009:301), Southwestern Tai (his subgroup Q) is defined by a phonological shift of *kr- → *ʰr-. Pittayaporn (2014) also suggests that Southwestern Tai began to disperse southward after the 7th century C.E. but before
308-544: The Southwestern Tai dialects into two major subgroups. According to this classification, Dehong Tai and Khamti are the first languages to have split off from the Southwestern Tai branch. A transition zone between the Northern and Southern groups occurs among the Tai languages (including Tai Mau) around the Burma-China border region of Mangshi, Namhkam, and Mu-se near Ruili . This bipartite division of Southwestern Tai
330-517: The Southwestern Tai dialects is still not well agreed on. Chamberlain (1975) divides Southwestern Tai into 4 branches. Chamberlain based his classification on the following phonological patterns. ( Note: For an explanation of the notation system for Tai tones, see Proto-Tai language#Tones .) The Tai Muong Vat of Yen Chau , Vietnam is a PH-type language like Lao , even though it is geographically surrounded by Black Tai ( Theraphan 2003; Chamberlain 1984). Edmondson & Solnit (1997) divide
352-488: The ancient sawndip script for over a thousand years, possibly preceded by the sawgoek script. Sawndip is based on Chinese characters , similar to Vietnamese chữ Nôm . Some sawndip logograms were directly borrowed from Han characters, whereas others were created locally from components of Chinese characters. It has been used for writing songs, and more recently in public communications encouraging people to follow official family planning policy. There has also been
374-633: The following varieties named after administrative villages that are documented by Wei (2017). Southern Zhuang dialects are spoken south of the Yong River , with 4,232,000 speakers ( Southern Zhuang [ ccy ] prior to 2007): The Tày and Nùng language complex in Vietnam is also considered one of the varieties of Central Tai and shares a high mutual intelligibility with Wenshan Dai and other Southern Zhuang dialects in Guangxi . The Nùng An language has
396-606: The occasional use of a number of other scripts, including pictographic proto-writing . In 1957, a hybrid script based on the Latin script and expanded with Cyrillic- and IPA-derived letters was introduced to write Standard Zhuang . In 1982, it was updated to use only Latin letters. These are referred to as the 'old' and 'new' Zhuang, respectively. Bouyei is written in Latin script. B b D d G g C c By by Ƃ ƃ Ƌ ƌ Gv gv Y y Gy gy M m N n Ŋ ŋ Ny ny My my F f S s H h Ŋv ŋv V v L l R r A
418-409: The other (Central–Eastern) languages. The reconstructed language is called Proto-Thai ; cf. Proto-Tai , which is the ancestor of all of the Tai languages . The following tree follows that of Ethnologue According to Ethnologue , other Southwestern dialects are Tai Ya (China), Pu Ko (Laos), Pa Di (China), Tai Thanh (Vietnam), Tai Long (Laos), Tai Hongjin (China), Yong (Thailand). It
440-582: The split between Zhuang and the Southwestern Tai languages happened no earlier than the founding of Jiaozhi in 112 BC. He also argues that the departure of the Thai from southern China must predate the 5th century AD, when the Tai who remained in China began to take family names. Zhāng Jūnrú's (張均如) Zhuàngyǔ Fāngyán Yánjiù ( 壯語方言研究 [A Study of Zhuang dialects]) is the most detailed study of Zhuang dialectology published to date. It reports survey work carried out in
462-859: The variety. Zhang (1999) identified 13 Zhuang varieties. Later research by the Summer Institute of Linguistics has indicated that some of these are themselves multiple languages that are not mutually intelligible without previous exposure on the part of speakers, resulting in 16 separate ISO 639-3 codes. Northern Zhuang comprises dialects north of the Yong River , with 8,572,200 speakers ( Northern Zhuang [ ccx ] prior to 2007): In east-central Guangxi, there are isolated pockets of Northern Zhuang speakers in Zhongshan (14,200 Zhuang people), Pingle (2,100 Zhuang people), Zhaoping (4,300 Zhuang people), Mengshan (about 5,000 Zhuang people), and Hezhou (about 3,000 Zhuang people) counties. These include
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#1732781024730484-554: The west, and Qujing to the north. Wenshan is highly diverse. According to a local saying, "Han and Hui live by the market, Zhuang and Dai live by the water, Miao and Yi live on the mountains, and Yao live among the valleys." ( 汉族、回族住街头，壮族、傣族住水头，苗族、彝族住山头，瑶族住箐头。 ) Some of Wenshan's ethnic groups include: Yunnan (1979) lists Jiazhou 甲州 (pop. 475), Longjiang 龙降 (pop. 54), Tusi 土司 (pop. 134), and Bendi 本地 (pop. 7) as Zhuang subgroups of unknown linguistic affiliation. The Wenshan Prefecture Gazetteer ( 文山壮族苗族自治州志 ) (2000) and
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