Zhuang languages

TheZhuang languages(/ˈdʒwæŋ,ˈdʒwɒŋ/;autonym:Vahcuengh,Zhuang pronunciation:[βa˧ɕuːŋ˧], pre-1982:Vaƅcueŋƅ,Sawndip: 話僮, fromvah, 'language' andCuengh, 'Zhuang';simplified Chinese:壮语;traditional Chinese:壯語;pinyin:Zhuàngyǔ) are the more than a dozenTai languagesspoken by theZhuang peopleof SouthernChinain the province ofGuangxiand adjacent parts ofYunnanandGuangdong. 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 adialect continuumwithNorthern Taivarieties across the provincial border inGuizhou, which are designated asBouyei, whereas Southern Zhuang languages form another dialect continuum withCentral Taivarieties such asNung,TayandCaolaninVietnam.Standard Zhuangis based on the Northern Zhuang dialect ofWuming.
The Tai languages are believed to have been originally spoken in what is now southern China, with speakers of theSouthwestern Tai languages(which includeThai,LaoandShan) having emigrated in the face of Chinese expansion.
Noting that both the Zhuang and Thai peoples have the sameexonymfor theVietnamese,kɛɛu,from the Chinese commandery ofJiaozhiin northern Vietnam,Jerold A. Edmondsonposited that 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 theThaifrom 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 Zhuangdialectologypublished to date. It reports survey work carried out in 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)(seeTai 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 a number of vernacular varieties (known astǔyǔ土語 in Chinese) by Chinese linguists (Zhang & Wei 1997; Zhang 1999:29-30).TheWumingdialect of Yongbei Zhuang, classified within the "Northern Zhuang dialect", is considered to be the "standard" orprestige dialectof 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 the variety.
Zhang (1999) identified 13 Zhuang varieties.
Later research by theSummer Institute of Linguisticshas indicated that some of these are themselves multiple languages that are notmutually intelligiblewithout previous exposure on the part of speakers, resulting in 16 separateISO 639-3codes.
Northern Zhuang comprises dialects north of theYong River, with 8,572,200 speakers(Northern Zhuang[ccx] prior to 2007):
In east-central Guangxi, there are isolated pockets of Northern Zhuang speakers inZhongshan(14,200 Zhuang people),Pingle(2,100 Zhuang people),Zhaoping(4,300 Zhuang people),Mengshan(about 5,000 Zhuang people), andHezhou(about 3,000 Zhuang people) counties. These include the following varieties named after administrative villages that are documented by Wei (2017).
Southern Zhuang dialects are spoken south of theYong River, with 4,232,000 speakers(Southern Zhuang[ccy] prior to 2007):
TheTàyandNùnglanguage complex in Vietnam is also considered one of the varieties of Central Tai and shares a highmutual intelligibilitywith Wenshan Dai and other Southern Zhuang dialects inGuangxi. The Nùng An language has a mixture of Northern and Central Tai features.
Johnson (2011) distinguishes four distinct Zhuang languages inWenshan Prefecture,Yunnan:Nong Zhuang,Yei Zhuang,Dai Zhuang, andMin Zhuang, all of which are Southern Zhuang varieties except for Yei Zhuang, which is Northern Zhuang.Min Zhuangis a recently discovered Southern Zhuang variety that has never been described previous to Johnson (2011). (See alsoWenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture#Ethnic groups)
Pyang ZhuangandMyang Zhuangare recently described Southern Zhuang (Central Tai) languages spoken inDebao County, Guangxi, China.
The Zhuang languages have been written in the ancientsawndipscript for over a thousand years, possibly preceded by thesawgoekscript.Sawndipis based onChinese characters, similar to Vietnamesechữ Nôm.Somesawndiplogograms 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 the occasional use of a number of other scripts, including pictographicproto-writing.
In 1957, a hybrid script based on theLatin scriptand expanded with Cyrillic- and IPA-derived letters was introduced to writeStandard Zhuang. In 1982, it was updated to use only Latin letters.These are referred to as the 'old' and 'new' Zhuang, respectively.Bouyeiis written in Latin script.
B b D d G g C c By byƂƃƋƌ 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 a I i U u E e O oƟɵ Ə əƜɯ
Ƨƨ Ɜ ɜ Ч чƼƽƄƅ
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