:''"Ku" is also the ISO 639-1 Language Code for the

Kurdish language Kurdish (, ) is a language or a group of languages spoken by Kurds in the geo-cultural region of Kurdistan and the Kurdish diaspora. Kurdish constitutes a dialect continuum, belonging to Western Iranian languages in the Indo-European language ...

.'' Ku (

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

: ') is a

Loloish The Loloish languages, also known as Yi in China and occasionally Ngwi or Nisoic, are a family of fifty to a hundred Sino-Tibetan languages spoken primarily in the Yunnan province of China. They are most closely related to Burmese and its relat ...

language cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

of southeastern

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

, China.

Varieties

There are three different varieties of Ku. Speakers of each consider themselves to be separate ethnic groups. However, they are officially classified by the Chinese government as ethnic Yi.Qiubei County Gazetteer 丘北县志 (1999) *Ku (autonym: ''ku55'') is spoken in Bainitang 白泥塘, Shede Township 舍得彝族乡,

Qiubei County Qiubei County () is under the administration of the Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, in southeast Yunnan province, China. Administrative divisions In the present, Qiubei County has 3 towns, 4 townships and 5 ethnic townships. ;3 to ...

Province. They are also locally known as the Bo (), and continue to build

hanging coffins Hanging coffins are coffins which have been placed on cliffs. They are practiced by various cultures in China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. China Hanging coffins in China are known in Mandarin as ''xuanguan'' () which also means "hanging ...

. The Ku of Bainitang claim that their ancestors had migrated from

Yibin Yibin (; Sichuanese Pinyin: nyi2bin1; Sichuanese Mandarin, Sichuanese pronunciation: ) is a prefecture-level city in the southeastern part of Sichuan province, China, located at the junction of the Min River (Sichuan), Min and Yangtze Rivers. Its ...

, Sichuan. *Another variety of Ku (autonym: ''ku55'') in Wujiazhai 五家寨, Shede Township 舍得彝族乡,

Province is unintelligible with Ku of Bainitang 白泥塘. *Ku of Shidongmen 石洞门, Xijide Village 西基得村, Zhulin Township 珠琳镇,

Guangnan County Guangnan County (; Zhuang: ) is located in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, China. The seat of Guangnan, known today as Liancheng (), was the heart of the Gouding Kingdom () that lasted approximately 400 years, f ...

Province

References

{{Lolo-Burmese languages Loloish languages Languages of Yunnan