Laomian (, also known as Bisu, Guba or Lawmeh) is a
Sino-Tibetan
Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. ...
language and is a Chinese derivation of the Lahu name Lawmeh. Laomian is closely related to the
Bisu language
Bisu () is a Loloish language of Thailand, with a couple thousand speakers in China. Varieties are Bisu proper (Mbisu) and Laomian (Guba), considered by Pelkey to be distinct languages.
The Laomian are classified within the Lahu ethnic group; t ...
, is spoken in Laomian Dazhai (老缅大寨), Zhutang Township (竹塘乡),
Lancang County
Lancang Lahu Autonomous County (; Lahu: ) is an autonomous county under the jurisdiction of Pu'er City, in southwestern Yunnan province, China. Lancang is the same as Lan Xang, and refers to the Mekong River (known in Chinese as the Lancang) on i ...
, Yunnan.
There are 4,000 speakers (out of 5,000 ethnic members) in central
Lancang County
Lancang Lahu Autonomous County (; Lahu: ) is an autonomous county under the jurisdiction of Pu'er City, in southwestern Yunnan province, China. Lancang is the same as Lan Xang, and refers to the Mekong River (known in Chinese as the Lancang) on i ...
, Yunnan, and fewer than 1,000 Laopin speakers, which may not be included in these numbers.
[ Its language family consists of Sino-Tibetan, ]Tibeto-Burman
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non- Sinitic members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, over 400 of which are spoken throughout the Southeast Asian Massif ("Zomia") as well as parts of East Asia and South Asia. Around 60 million people spea ...
, Ngwi-Burmese, Ngwi, Southern, Bisoid, Bisu-Pyen-Laomian, Bisu, Pyen, and Laomian.[ It is mostly spoken in China in the Southwestern areas of ]Yunnan Province
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in 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 Kunming. The province borders the C ...
that joins Thailand and Myanmar. Speakers of Laomian that live in areas with different ethnic groups mostly speak Laomian in their home, while using the main local ethnic language in public. The average age of Laomian speakers is increasing into the sixties to seventies in areas of heterogeneous communities because children are learning the main local language. The domination of Chinese language
Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...
has had a major impact on the villages of the Laomian people due to the increasing number of people who can speak multiple languages.
Geographic distribution
Two centuries ago, the Lahu people started a rebellion in the Shuangjiang, Lancang and Menglian
Menglian Dai, Lahu and Va Autonomous County () is an autonomous county in the southwest of Yunnan, Yunnan Province, China, bordering Ximeng County to the north, Lancang County to the north, northeast, and east, and Burma's Shan State to the south ...
areas of Yunnan Province. The Bisu people, also known as the Laomian and Laopin people, joined them. In 1801 the rebellion was stopped and the Bisu people followed the Nanku River south. They experienced many grades of oppression in various locations and finally arrived at Muga Mengnuo and Zhutand in Lancang. The Bisu people were entangled in an armed uprising of farmers. This was put down by the alliance of the Lahu Tsui, Han landlords and the local warlords. The Bisu people then moved to Menglian, Ximeng and Menghai
Menghai County (; Tai Lu: ᨾᩮᩨ᩠ᨦᩁᩣ᩠ᨿ ''Meng Haai'' lo, ເມືອງຮາຍ) is a county under the jurisdiction of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, in the far south of Yunnan, China, bordering Burma's Shan State to th ...
. Mong Yang township is bordered to the east by Menghai County and to the north by Menglian County – both areas where Bisu settled and remain to the present day.
Official status
China is the only country to still have people who still use Laomian. Some of the places located within China that still use this language are:[
* ]Yunnan Province
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in 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 Kunming. The province borders the C ...
** Lancang County
Lancang Lahu Autonomous County (; Lahu: ) is an autonomous county under the jurisdiction of Pu'er City, in southwestern Yunnan province, China. Lancang is the same as Lan Xang, and refers to the Mekong River (known in Chinese as the Lancang) on i ...
** Menglian County
Menglian Dai, Lahu and Va Autonomous County () is an autonomous county in the southwest of Yunnan Province, China, bordering Ximeng County to the north, Lancang County to the north, northeast, and east, and Burma's Shan State to the south and wes ...
** Ximeng County
Ximeng Va Autonomous County (; Va: or ) is an autonomous county under the jurisdiction of Pu'er City, in the southwest of Yunnan Province, China, bordering Myanmar's Shan State to the west. Wa/Va people, who speak the Wa language, are the main ...
* Menghai County
Menghai County (; Tai Lu: ᨾᩮᩨ᩠ᨦᩁᩣ᩠ᨿ ''Meng Haai'' lo, ເມືອງຮາຍ) is a county under the jurisdiction of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, in the far south of Yunnan, China, bordering Burma's Shan State to th ...
(in Mengzhe Township)
Dialects/Varieties
The languages Lanmeng, Huaipa, Dakao, Laopin are similar to Pyen and Bisu, but have a ninety-three to ninety-five percent lexical
Lexical may refer to:
Linguistics
* Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language
* Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification
* Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge
* Lexical ...
similarity to Laomian and Laopin and eighty-eight percent to Bisu in Thailand.[
]
Derived languages
Laopin has been influenced by the Tai Lue people over a long time period, while both Laomian and Laopin have been influenced recently by Chinese. Due to this, there are many loanwords, concepts and new technological terms that are not traditional Bisu terms. These neighboring influences have affected Laomian and Laopin grammar and phonology.
Grammar
In 2000, Person studied sentence-final particles in Bisu narrative. In his studies, he looked at 13 written folktales, 6 expository texts, and 3 life histories to establish the aspects that influence particle usage. Person examines variables such as, place in the discourse, relative transitivity, sentence complexity, occurrence or nonoccurrence in quotations and evidential perspective. He also studied the effect of text-type on particle usage in Bisu discourse and concluded that Bisu particles vary according to text type.
Syntax
A researcher named Xu Shixuan studied and gave examples of how Bisu syntax had been affected due to the contact that they had with neighbouring languages. The traditional SOV constituent order is occasionally changed to SVO because both Chinese and Dai have SVO order. Also, another researcher, Day, analyzed Bisu noun phrase in Doi Chumphu village, Thailand. She characterized the noun phrase in Bisu, and declared that the word, aŋ in Bisu is a classifier and that the prefix ŋ-is a nominalizer. Another researcher, Gustafson, contributed a detailed grammar statement for Thailand Bisu. She described complex sentences including nominalization, relativization and complementation, as well as, a more in-depth piece information of verbal particles, pragmatically marked structures and an explanation of the role of the prefixes ang- and a- are provided in her study.
Vocabulary
In the recent years, the use of Chinese is becoming more popular and is causing a language shift. Many people are using Lahu, Mandarin
Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to:
Language
* Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country
** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China
** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
Chinese, Hani and Lü. [ Laomian is very threatened to endangerment, notably in the Nanya in ]Menglian
Menglian Dai, Lahu and Va Autonomous County () is an autonomous county in the southwest of Yunnan, Yunnan Province, China, bordering Ximeng County to the north, Lancang County to the north, northeast, and east, and Burma's Shan State to the south ...
, where it is economically advantaged and the use of Chinese and Lahu are replacing Laomian. More than fifty percent of the Laomian population that is left in China is mixed with Lahu-majority villages and not all of the remaining people can speak Laomian.
In Muang Muang Tun's research 48/48 of the people responded that they use Laomian/Laopin while speaking to their parents, grandparents, siblings, children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. These people use Laomian/Laopin the most in their families. Although, 3/36 Laomian people stated that they use Lahu when they speak to their spouses and 3/12 Laopin people use Chinese or Lahu or Dai to communicate with their spouses. 48/48 Laomian/Laopin people stated that they use Laomian/Laopin when they talk to Laomian/Laopin friends at a funeral or village meeting, but 48/48 00%said that they use Chinese when they meet government workers. Lastly, 48/48 00%said that the Laomain/Laopin children will be speaking Laomian/Laopin in the future.
Writing system
The writing system that is used is Thai script
The Thai script ( th, อักษรไทย, ) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols ( th, พยัญชนะ ...
which is experimental.[ The Thai script consists of 44 consonant letters and 15 vowel symbols and combine into at least 28 vowel forms, as well as, four tone diacritics. Thai script is a segmental ]writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable form ...
or an abugida
An abugida (, from Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; ...
. While using this writing system, the consonants are written horizontally from left to right and the vowels are placed either to the left or right, or above or below the consonant that is being used.
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*Bradley, David (2007). "Language Endangerment in China and Mainland Southeast Asia". In Matthias Brenzinger, ed. ''Language diversity endangered''. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
External links
Ethnologue
The Endangered Languages Project
{{Lolo-Burmese languages
Southern Loloish languages