Mantsi (autonym: '; also called Mondzi, Munji (mo21 ndʑi21), Lolo, Flowery Lolo, or Red Lolo, is a
Lolo-Burmese language. Speakers are located mostly in
Funing County, Yunnan
Funing County (; Zhuang language: ) is located in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, in the east of Yunnan province, China. It is the easternmost county-level division of Yunnan, bordering Guangxi to the north, east and southeast, and ...
, China and
Hà Giang Province, Vietnam. In China they are classified as a subgroup of the
Yi people
The Yi or Nuosu people,; zh, c=彝族, p=Yízú, l=Yi ethnicity historically known as the Lolo,; vi, Lô Lô; th, โล-โล, Lo-Lo are an ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Numbering nine million people, they are the sev ...
. In Vietnam they are called ''
Lô Lô'' and is classified as one of the official 54 ethnic groups in the country.
Mantsi has 40 initials, 27 vowels (11 monophthongs and 13 diphthongs), and 6 tones (Lama 2012).
Classification
Mantsi may be related to the
Kathu
Kathu is a town in South Africa, and the iron ore capital of the Northern Cape province. Its name means "town under the trees", after the Camel Thorn forest it is situated in. The phrase "the town under the trees" was coined by an engineer wo ...
(Kasu, Gasu) and
Mo'ang (') languages of
Wenshan Prefecture
Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture is an autonomous prefecture in southeastern Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China and the easternmost prefecture-level division of the province. It borders Baise, Guangxi to the east, Vietnam's ...
,
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 (Edmondson 2003). Lama (2012) concludes that Mantsi (Mondzi) and
Maang constitute the most divergent branch of the
Lolo-Burmese languages
The Lolo-Burmese languages (also Burmic languages) of Burma and Southern China form a coherent branch of the Sino-Tibetan family.
Names
Until ca. 1950, the endonym ''Lolo'' was written with derogatory characters in Chinese, and for this reas ...
.
Distribution
''Monji'' or ''Mondzi'' is reportedly spoken in some villages of Muyang Township, Funing County. ''Munji'' is reportedly spoken by the Flowery Yi (Lolo) of Donggan Town, Malipo County, Yunnan. It is closely related to the Mandzi or Mantsi of the Flowery Lolo and Black Lolo of Vietnam. The Red Lolo and Flowery Lolo live across the border in
Đồng Văn district,
Hà Giang
Hà Giang () is a city located on the banks of the Lô River in the Northeast region of Vietnam. It is the capital of Hà Giang Province. The city has an area of 135.33 km2 and a population of 55 559 inhabitants. The population is compose ...
province of Vietnam. Both speak similar languages. The language spoken by the Red Lolo was investigated by
Jerold A. Edmondson
Jerold Alan Edmondson (born 1941) (Chinese name: 艾杰瑞 Aì Jiéruì) is an American linguist whose work spans four subdisciplines: historical and comparative linguistics, Asian linguistics, field linguistics, and phonetics. He is a leading spe ...
in the late 1990s. In
Funing County Funing may refer to the following locations in China:
*Ningde, Fujian, formerly named Funing
* Funing County, Hebei (抚宁县)
*Funing County, Jiangsu (阜宁县)
*Funing County, Yunnan
Funing County (; Zhuang language: ) is located in Wenshan Z ...
in Yunnan across the border in China, related languages are spoken by peoples known as the White Lolo (Edmondson 2003).
In Vietnam
The Lô Lô ethnic group of northern Vietnam consists of 3,134 people in Hà Giang and Cao Bằng, also including some in
Mường Khương District
Mường Khương is a rural district of Lào Cai province in the Northeast region of Vietnam. ''Mường'' is as variation of ''Mueang''. As of 2003, the district had a population of 48,242. The district covers an area of 552 km². The dis ...
of Lào Cai Province. They are also known as Mùn Di, Di, Màn Di, La La, Qua La, Ô Man, and Lu Lộc Màn.
;Flowery Lolo
*
Hà Giang
Hà Giang () is a city located on the banks of the Lô River in the Northeast region of Vietnam. It is the capital of Hà Giang Province. The city has an area of 135.33 km2 and a population of 55 559 inhabitants. The population is compose ...
Province
**Xín Cái,
Mèo Vạc District
The Miao are a group of linguistically-related peoples living in Southern China and Southeast Asia, who are recognized by the government of China as one of the 56 List of ethnic groups in China, official ethnic groups. The Miao live primarily in ...
**Lũng Cù,
Đồng Văn District
;Red Lolo
*
Hà Giang
Hà Giang () is a city located on the banks of the Lô River in the Northeast region of Vietnam. It is the capital of Hà Giang Province. The city has an area of 135.33 km2 and a population of 55 559 inhabitants. The population is compose ...
Province
**
Mèo Vạc District
The Miao are a group of linguistically-related peoples living in Southern China and Southeast Asia, who are recognized by the government of China as one of the 56 List of ethnic groups in China, official ethnic groups. The Miao live primarily in ...
**
Yên Minh District
;White Lolo
*
Hà Giang
Hà Giang () is a city located on the banks of the Lô River in the Northeast region of Vietnam. It is the capital of Hà Giang Province. The city has an area of 135.33 km2 and a population of 55 559 inhabitants. The population is compose ...
Province
**
Mèo Vạc District
The Miao are a group of linguistically-related peoples living in Southern China and Southeast Asia, who are recognized by the government of China as one of the 56 List of ethnic groups in China, official ethnic groups. The Miao live primarily in ...
;Black Lolo
*
Bảo Lạc District,
Cao Bằng
Cao Bằng () is a city in northern Vietnam. It is the capital and largest settlement of Cao Bằng Province. It is located on the bank of the Bằng Giang river, and is around away from the border with China's Guangxi region. According to the ...
Province
**Hồng Tri (including Nà Van village
)
**Đức Hạnh (Bảo Lạc)
**Nghàm Lồm, Cô Ba Township
Phonology
Phonology of Mondzi:
Consonants
can only appear as a
coda.
Mondzi also has 3
consonant clusters
In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
:
g k kʰ
Vowels
Monophthongs
Diphthongs
Tones
References
Further reading
* YYFC (1983)
andwritten manuscript cited in Lama (2012)
* Edmondson, Jerold A. (2003).
Three Tibeto-Burman Languages of Vietnam'. m.s.
*
*
*
{{Lolo-Burmese languages
Mondzish languages
Languages of Vietnam
Languages of China