Min Zhuang is a recently described

Tai language The Tai or Zhuang–Tai languages ( th, ภาษาไท or , transliteration: or ) are a branch of the Kra–Dai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai–Kadai languages, including Standard Thai or S ...

spoken in the Langheng (郎恒) area of

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 China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, and possibly also southwestern

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

province. All speakers are reportedly bilingual in

Yei Zhuang Yei Zhuang is a Northern Tai language complex spoken in Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan, China. Its speakers are also known as the Sha (沙族). Distribution In Yunnan, Yei Zhuang dialects are spoken in Funing and Guangnan counties (also in Guangxi ...

(also known as Guibian Zhuang or Sha), which is classified as

Northern Tai The Northern Tai languages are an established branch of the Tai languages of Southeast Asia. They include the northern Zhuang languages and Bouyei of China, Tai Mène of Laos and Yoy of Thailand. Languages Ethnologue ''Ethnologue'' distingui ...

(Johnson 2011a). The language was first described in 2011 by Eric C. Johnson of

SIL International SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to ex ...

, though it had been earlier mentioned in Kullavanijaya and L-Thongkum (1998).

Names

The Min Zhuang speakers of Guixun-Anhe call their language ' or '. Another Min Zhuang dialect is called ' or '.

Classification

Johnson (2011b) reported Min Zhuang to share many features with Nong Zhuang, a

Central Tai The Central Tai languages include southern dialects of Zhuang, and various Nung and Tày dialects of northern Vietnam. Central Tai languages differ from Northern Tai languages in that Central Tai distinguishes unaspirated and aspirated onset ...

language. However, it is unintelligible with the more widely spoken Nong Zhuang,

, and Dai Zhuang languages.

Distribution

Min Zhuang is spoken by about 2,600 people in 11 villages. With the exception of Shangmabu (上麻布), all of the following villages are purely made up of Min Zhuang speakers. *Guixun-Anhe (贵训-安哈) *Sankeshu (三颗数) *Xionggu (雄估) *Shangmabu (上麻布) - mixed with Nong Zhuang speakers *Tianfang (田房) *Getao (戈桃) *Gezao (戈造) *Gecai (戈才) *Bagan (叭干) *Na'en (那恩) *Longnong (龙弄) Johnson (2011b) reports that Min Zhuang is also likely to be spoken in southwestern

Notes

References

* Johnson, Eric C. 2011a.
The Southern Zhuang Languages of Yunnan Province's Wenshan Prefecture from a Sociolinguistic Perspective
" orking paper S.l.: s.n. 49 pages. * Johnson, Eric C. 2011b.
A Lexical and Phonological Comparison of the Central Taic Languages of Wenshan Prefecture, China: Getting More Out of Language Survey Wordlists Than Just Lexical Similarity Percentages.
SIL Electronic Working Papers 2011-005: 170. * Kullavanijaya, Pranee and L-Thongkum, Theraphan. 1998. "Linguistic criteria for determining Tai ethnic groups: case studies on Central and south-western Tais." Proceedings fthe International Conference on Tai Studies, July 29–31, 1998, Bangkok. {{Tai-Kadai languages Tai languages