The Lakkia language (), also spelled Lakkja, is a Kra–Dai language spoken in

Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County Jinxiu (; za, italic=yes, Ginhsiu) is a county of eastern Guangxi, China, located in an area of relatively high concentrations of the Yao people. It is administered as the Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County of Laibin City. Established in 1952, with the ...

Laibin Laibin (, Zhuang: Laizbinh) is a prefecture-level city in the central part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. History Laibin is an ancient town with more than 2000 years of history. The area was settled in prehistoric times, more t ...

, East-Central

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. Lakkia speakers are thought to have migrated from further east, possibly from the Biao-speaking areas of Northwestern

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...

Province (L.-Thongkum 1992). Today, they live mostly in the Dayaoshan () region of

Jinxiu County Jinxiu (; za, italic=yes, Ginhsiu) is a county of eastern Guangxi, China, located in an area of relatively high concentrations of the Yao people. It is administered as the Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County of Laibin City. Established in 1952, with the ...

Names

Lakkia people are also known as the ''Cháshān Yáo'' 茶山瑶, meaning "Tea Mountain Yao", since they were traditionally considered by neighboring peoples to be ethnic

Yao people The Yao people (its majority branch is also known as Mien; ; vi, người Dao) is a government classification for various minorities in China and Vietnam. They are one of the 55 officially recognised ethnic minorities in China and reside in t ...

. The name ''Lakkia'' is an autonym (self-designated name) that means "

mountain people Hill people, also referred to as mountain people, is a general term for people who live in the hills and mountains. This includes all rugged land above and all land (including plateaus) above elevation. The climate is generally harsh, with s ...

". All Lakkia dialects have 5 tones.

Classification

There is currently no consensus on the classification of Lakkia within the Kra–Dai family. Solnit (1988) and Hansell (1988) classify Lakkia as a sister of the Kam–Sui branch. Additionally, Solnit (1988) classifies Biao and Lakkia together as part of a Biao-Lakkia branch that is coordinate to Kam-Sui. However, L.-Thongkum (1992) considers Lakkia to be most closely related to the Tai branch, based on the large number of shared lexical items.

Dialects

Dialects of Lakkia include (L.-Thongkum 1992): *Jintian 金田 *Liula 六拉 *Jinxiu 金秀 *Lingzu 岭祖 *Changdong 长峒 The Lingzu dialect still preserves /kl-/ initial clusters, which corresponds to /kj-/ in most other dialects (L.-Thongkum 1992). Additionally, Changdong 长洞 and Jintian 金田 tone (51) corresponds to Jinxiu 金秀 tone (231). Also, L.-Thongkum (1992) reports that Jintian 金田 is a less conservative dialect. Classification of Lakkia dialects by Norquest (2021): ;Lakkja *Western **Jintian 金田 *Eastern **Liula 六拉 **Jinxiu 金秀

Distribution

Lakkia is spoken in the following locations.Guangxi Minority Languages Orthography Committee. 2008. ''Vocabularies of Guangxi ethnic languages ��西民族语言方音词汇'. Beijing: Nationalities Publishing House ��族出版社 *Jinxiu Township 金秀镇: Jinxiu 金秀, Baisha 白沙, Liula 六拉, Xidi 昔地, Changtan 长滩, Chang'er 长二, Zhaibao 寨保, Yangliu 杨柳, Liuduan 六段, Jiangjun 将军, Sanpian 三片, Tiancun 田村, Liucun 刘村, Shecun 社村, Mengcun 孟村, Meicun 美村, Jincun 金村, Jintian 金田, Luomeng 罗梦 *Changdong Township 长洞乡: Changdong 长洞, Gufang 古放, Pingdao 平道, Daojiang 道江, Dishui 滴水, Rongdong 容洞 *Sanjiao Township 三角乡: Liuding 六定 *Zhongliang Township 忠良乡: Lingzu 岭祖, Bale 巴勒 *Luoxiang Township 罗香乡: Pingzhu 平竹

Lexical isoglosses

Some Biao-Lakkja lexical isoglosses as proposed by Norquest (2021):

Notes

References

* Theraphan L.-Thongkum. 1992.
A Preliminary Reconstruction of Proto-Lakkja (Cha Shan Yao)
" In ''The Mon–Khmer Studies Journal'', 20: 57-90.

* * Hansell, Mark. 1988. The Relation of Be to Tai: Evidence from Tones and Initials. In ''Comparative Kadai: Linguistic studies beyond Tai''. Edited by Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit. Summer Institute of Linguistics and The University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics No. 86: 239-288. * Haudricourt, André-G. 1967. "La langue lakkia." Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient 57 / Bulletin de la Société Linguistique de de Paris 62:1:165-182. * Lan Qingyuan 蓝庆元. 2011. ''Lajiayu yanjiu'' 拉珈语研究. Nanning: Guangxi Normal University Press 广西师范大学出版社. * Solnit, David B. 1988. "The position of Lakkia within Kadai." In ''Comparative Kadai: Linguistic studies beyond Tai'', Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit (eds.). pages 219-238. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics 86. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. * Su Defu ��德富 ''et al.'' 1992. Chashan Yao yanjiu wenji 茶山瑤研究文集. Beijing:

Minzu University Minzu University of China (MUC, ) is a national public university in Haidian District, Beijing, China designated for ethnic minorities in China. MUC was selected as one of national key universities to directly receive funding from Double First ...

: 中央民族学院出版社.

External links

ABVD: Proto-Lakkja word list

ABVD: Lakkja (Jinxiu) word list
{{Tai-Kadai languages Languages of China Kra–Dai languages Guangxi