Yei Zhuang language

Yei Zhuang
Buyue
Pronunciation	[pu˨jai˩˧]
Native to	China
Region	Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan; western Guangxi
Ethnicity	Sha
Native speakers	1,200,000  (2007)
Language family	Tai–Kadai Tai Northern Tai Yei Zhuang
Dialects	Po-ai
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: zgn – Guibian Zhuang zqe – Qiubei Zhuang

Yei Zhuang is a Northern Tai language complex spoken in Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan, China. Its speakers are also known as the Sha (沙族).

Distribution

In Yunnan, Yei Zhuang dialects are spoken in Funing and Guangnan counties (also in Guangxi to the east and north), as well as Qiubei (probably also in Qujing Municipality to the north). The largest concentrations of Yei Zhuang speakers are found in Qiubei (80% of total Zhuang population) and Funing (50% of total Zhuang population) counties (Johnson 2011a:43).

Po-ai, a Tai language of Funing County described by Fang-kuei Li in the mid-1900s, was determined by Johnson (2011b) to be a Yei Zhuang dialect.

Names

Below are various names (both autonyms and exonyms) for speakers of Yei Zhuang (Johnson 2011a:43).

• pu Nong (濮侬)
• pu˧˥ʔjai˧˦, pu˧juei˧˦, pu˨jai˩˧; bu ji (Qiubei)
• bu Yai (布雅衣)
• bu Yei (布依, 布瑞, 布越)
• Shazu (沙族) or Sharen (沙人)
• Baisha (白沙)
• Nongqianbeng (侬迁绷)
• Zhongjia (仲家)

Many of these are names of Bouyei as well.

Characteristics

There are no palatalized consonants in Qiubei Zhuang. /pj/ in standard Zhuang is /p/, as in /pja1/ "fish", pjak7(vegetable) is pa1、pak7. mJ is m or n，for example mja:k3(slippery), mja:i2(saliva) as ma6、 na:i2. kJ is merged into k or t，for example kja：ŋ1(middle)、kja4(orphan) is ka:ŋ3, tsa4. The consonant k before i、e is changed to ts, for instance ki3(several), ki:ŋ2(Triangular cooker), ke5(old) as tʃi1、tʃi:ŋ2、tʃes. 声母阱入v，h变成ɣ，而ɣ又变读作6。如fuuq2(手)、 fa:i5(棉)读əŋ2、va:i5、hau4(米)、haɯ3(给)变读ɣau4、ɣaɯ3；ɣam4(水)、ɣum2(风)、ɣo:k8(外)变渎为6am4、6em2、6ue5。

References

• Johnson, Eric C. 2011a. "The Southern Zhuang Languages of Yunnan Province's Wenshan Prefecture from a Sociolinguistic Perspective." [Working paper]. S.l.: s.n. 49 pages.
• Johnson, Eric C. 2011b. "A Lexical and Phonological Comparison of the Central Taic Languages of Wenshan Prefecture, China: Getting More Out of Language Survey Wordlists Than Just Lexical Similarity Percentages." SIL Electronic Working Papers 2011-005: 170.