A'ou (阿欧方言) or Red Gelao (红仡佬语) is an endangered
Gelao language spoken by fewer than 100 people in
Guizhou
Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Only the Hongfeng (红丰) and Bigong (比贡)
dialects
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
are still spoken, each with only a few dozen speakers.
Dialects
The main dialects of A'ou, which all have limited
mutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
, are:
*Hongfeng (红丰)
*Bigong (比贡)
*Qiaoshang (桥上) (extinct)
Only one elderly speaker of the Houzitian (猴子田) dialect was found in 2013, and it is likely now extinct.
Mulao (木佬) is sometimes also included, in addition to
Yi (羿), an extinct A'ou
variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
of
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
.
[Zhang Jimin 张済民. 1993. ''Gelao yu yan jiu 仡佬语研究 (A study of Gelao)''. Guiyang, China: Guizhou People's Press 贵州民族出版社.]
References
Kra languages
Languages of China
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