Lewu 乐舞 is an unclassified extinct
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 of
Jingdong Yi Autonomous County
Jingdong Yi Autonomous County () is an autonomous county in the west-central part of Yunnan Province, China. It is the northernmost county-level division of the prefecture-level city of Pu'er.
Administrative divisions
In the present, Jingdong Yi ...
,
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. The Lewu are officially classified by the Chinese government as ethnic
Yao people.
Demographics
According to the ''Jingdong County Gazetteer'' (1994:519), ethnic Yao numbered 3,889 individuals in 1990, and lived mainly in Chaqing 岔箐
and Dasongshu 大松树
Villages of Taizhong Township 太忠乡. Yao language speakers, known as the Lewu Yao 乐舞瑶族, are found in Puya Village 普牙村, Chaqing Township 岔箐乡 (''Jingdong County Ethnic Gazetteer'' 2012:144).
Classification
Lewu may have been related to the
Lawu language
Lawu (autonym: ') is a highly endangered unclassified Loloish language of Yunnan, China. It has about 50 elderly speakers in Jiuha village 旧哈村, Shuitang district 水塘镇, Xinping County, Yuxi Prefecture, Yunnan Province. There are possib ...
of
Xinping County
Xinping Yi and Dai Autonomous County () is an autonomous county located in the central part of Yunnan Province, China. It is the westernmost county-level division of the prefecture-level city of Yuxi.
Administrative divisions
Xinping Yi and Dai A ...
,
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 ...
, but classification remains uncertain due to the paucity of data.
[Hsiu, Andrew. 2017. ]
The Lawu languages: footprints along the Red River valley corridor
'.
Vocabulary
A word list of the Lewu Yao language is transcribed using
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...
in the ''Jingdong County Ethnic Gazetteer'' (2012:144-145). The language is already extinct, and was recorded in 1985 from 85-year-old Zhu Zhaojin 祝兆金 of Puya Village 普牙村, who could remember only some words.
References
Sources
*Hsiu, Andrew. 2017.
The Lawu languages: footprints along the Red River valley corridor'.
{{Lolo-Burmese languages
Loloish languages
Languages of China