Lamu (Lamo; autonym: ') is a highly endangered

Loloish language 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 ...

of northeastern

Binchuan County Binchuan County () is a county in the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture located in the west of Yunnan Province, China. Mount Jizu Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: ...

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 ...

. According to Bradley (2007), the Lamo language is similar to

Lisu Lisu may refer to: *Lisu people, an ethnic group of Southeast Asia *Lisu language, spoken by the Lisu people * Old Lisu Alphabet or Fraser Alphabet *Lisu syllabary *Lisu (Unicode block), the block of Unicode characters for the Lisu language. *Lisu ...

and

Lipo A lithium polymer battery, or more correctly lithium-ion polymer battery (abbreviated as LiPo, LIP, Li-poly, lithium-poly and others), is a rechargeable battery of lithium-ion technology using a polymer electrolyte instead of a liquid electrolyt ...

, although the speakers are classified by the Chinese government as ethnic Lahu. There are only about 100 speakers left, all of whom are also first-language speakers of

. Lamo speakers were located by Bradley in 1999.

Demographics

Lamu is spoken in 5 villages of Zhongying Township 钟英傈僳族乡 in the northeastern corner of

Dali Prefecture Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture (; Bai: ) is an autonomous prefecture of northwestern Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China. Dali has an area of and its seat is located in Xiaguan, Dali City. Subdivisions The prefecture is subdivided into ...

, Yunnan, China.Bradley, David. 2004.
Endangered Central Ngwi Languages of Central Yunnan
'. Keynote Presentation, 37th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Lund University, Sweden. In all 5 villages, the Lipo (officially classified as Lisu) are the majority while the Lamu are the minority. There are also some Lolo speakers (officially classified as Yi) in the area. Most Lamu speakers have non-Lamu spouses. According to Bradley (2004), the Central Ngwi homeland may be in the Lamu area.

References

*Bradley, David. 2004.
Endangered Central Ngwi Languages of Central Yunnan
'. Keynote Presentation, 37th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Lund University, Sweden. (''Lamu wordlist in the appendix'') *Bradley, David (2007). "Language Endangerment in China and Mainland Southeast Asia". In Matthias Brenzinger, ed. ''Language diversity endangered''. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. {{Lolo-Burmese languages Loloish languages Languages of China Articles citing ISO change requests