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The Zhuang languages (; autonym: , pre-1982: , Sawndip: 話僮, from ''vah'', 'language' and ''Cuengh'', 'Zhuang'; ) are any of more than a dozen Tai languages spoken by the
Zhuang people The Zhuang (; ; za, Bouxcuengh, italic=yes; ) are a Tai-speaking ethnic group who mostly live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China. Some also live in the Yunnan, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Hunan provinces. They form one of th ...
of Southern
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 ...
in the province of
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 ...
and adjacent parts of Yunnan and Guangdong. The Zhuang languages do not form a monophyletic linguistic unit, as northern and southern Zhuang languages are more closely related to other Tai languages than to each other. Northern Zhuang languages form a dialect continuum with Northern Tai varieties across the provincial border in Guizhou, which are designated as Bouyei, whereas Southern Zhuang languages form another dialect continuum with Central Tai varieties such as Nung,
Tay Tay may refer to: People and languages * Tay (name), including lists of people with the given name, surname and nickname * Tay people, an ethnic group of Vietnam ** Tày language *Atayal language, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan (ISO 639 ...
and Caolan in Vietnam.
Standard Zhuang Standard Zhuang (autonym: , , (pre-1982: ; Sawndip: ); ) is the official standardized form of the Zhuang languages, which are a branch of the Northern Tai languages. Its pronunciation is based on that of the Yongbei Zhuang dialect of Shuangq ...
is based on the Northern Zhuang dialect of Wuming. The Tai languages are believed to have been originally spoken in what is now southern China, with speakers of the Southwestern Tai languages (which include
Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...
, Lao and Shan) having emigrated in the face of Chinese expansion. Noting that both the Zhuang and Thai peoples have the same exonym for the Vietnamese, ''kɛɛuA1'', from the Chinese commandery of Jiaozhi in northern Vietnam, Jerold A. Edmondson posited that the split between Zhuang and the Southwestern Tai languages happened no earlier than the founding of Jiaozhi in 112 BC. He also argues that the departure of the
Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...
from southern China must predate the 5th century AD, when the Tai who remained in China began to take family names.


Surveys

Zhāng Jūnrú's (张均如) ''Zhuàngyǔ Fāngyán Yánjiù'' (壮语方言研究 Study of Zhuang dialects is the most detailed study of Zhuang dialectology published to date. It reports survey work carried out in the 1950s, and includes a 1465-word list covering 36 varieties of Zhuang. For the list of the 36 Zhuang variants below from Zhang (1999), the name of the region (usually county) is given first, followed by the specific village. The phylogenetic position of each variant follows that of Pittayaporn (2009) (see '' Tai languages#Pittayaporn (2009)''). # Wuming – Shuāngqiáo 双桥 – Subgroup M #
Hengxian Hengzhou (), formerly, Heng County or Hengxian (; Standard Zhuang: ) is a county-level city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, with a perman ...
– Nàxù 那旭 – Subgroup N # Yongning (North) – Wǔtáng 五塘 – Subgroup N # Pingguo – Xīnxū 新圩 – Subgroup N #
Tiandong Tiandong County(, za, Denzdungh Yen) is a county of Guangxi, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Baise. Demographics Tiandong's population was 411,500(2010). 85.22% of the people belong to the Zhuang ethnic grou ...
– Héhéng 合恒 – Subgroup N # Tianlin – Lìzhōu 利周 – Subgroup N # Lingyue – Sìchéng 泗城 – Subgroup N #
Guangnan Guangnan County (; Zhuang languages, Zhuang: ) is located in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, China. The seat of Guangnan, known today as Liancheng (), was the heart of the Gouding Kingdom () that lasted approximat ...
(Shā people 沙族) – Zhěméng Township 者孟乡 – Subgroup N # Qiubei – Gēhán Township 戈寒乡 – Subgroup N # Liujiang – Bǎipéng 百朋 – Subgroup N # Yishan – Luòdōng 洛东 – Subgroup N # Huanjiang – Chéngguǎn 城管 – Subgroup N # Rong'an – Ānzì 安治 – Subgroup N # Longsheng – Rìxīn 日新 – Subgroup N # Hechi – Sānqū 三区 – Subgroup N # Nandan – Mémá 么麻 – Subgroup N #
Donglan Donglan County (, Zhuang: ) is a county of northwest Guangxi, China. It is under the administration of Hechi City. Donglan County has given its name to the Donglan golden-line barbel (''Sinocyclocheilus donglanensis''), a small fish that is only ...
– Chéngxiāng 城厢 – Subgroup N # Du'an – Liùlǐ 六里 – Subgroup N # Shanglin – Dàfēng 大丰 – Subgroup N # Laibin – Sìjiǎo 寺脚 – Subgroup N # Guigang – Shānběi 山北 – Subgroup N # Lianshan – Xiǎosānjiāng 小三江 – Subgroup N # Qinzhou – Nàhé Township 那河乡 – Subgroup I # Yongning (South) – Xiàfāng Township 下枋乡 – Subgroup M # Long'an – Xiǎolín Township 小林乡 – Subgroup M # Fusui (Central) – Dàtáng Township 大塘乡 – Subgroup M # Shangsi – Jiàodīng Township 叫丁乡 – Subgroup C # Chongzuo – Fùlù Township 福鹿乡 – Subgroup C # Ningming – Fēnghuáng Township 凤璜乡 – Subgroup B #
Longzhou Longzhou County Zhuang: ''Lungzcouh Yen'') is a county of southwestern Guangxi, China, bordering Cao Bằng province, Vietnam. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Chongzuo. Longzhou lies in a circular valley at ...
– Bīnqiáo Township 彬桥乡 – Subgroup F # Daxin – Hòuyì Township 后益乡 – Subgroup H # Debao – Yuándì'èrqū 原第二区 – Subgroup L # Jingxi – Xīnhé Township 新和乡 – Subgroup L #
Guangnan Guangnan County (; Zhuang languages, Zhuang: ) is located in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, China. The seat of Guangnan, known today as Liancheng (), was the heart of the Gouding Kingdom () that lasted approximat ...
(Nóng people 侬族) – Xiǎoguǎngnán Township 小广南乡 – Subgroup L # Yanshan (Nóng people 侬族) – Kuāxī Township 夸西乡 – Subgroup L # Wenma (Tǔ people 土族) – Hēimò Township 黑末乡大寨, Dàzhài – Subgroup P


Varieties

The Zhuang language (or language group) has been divided by Chinese linguists into northern and southern "dialects" (fāngyán 方言 in Chinese), each of which has been divided into a number of vernacular varieties (known as ''tǔyǔ'' 土语 in Chinese) by Chinese linguists (Zhang & Wei 1997; Zhang 1999:29-30).Zhang Yuansheng and Wei Xingyun. 1997. "Regional variants and vernaculars in Zhuang." In Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit (eds.), ''Comparative Kadai: The Tai branch'', 77–96. Publications in Linguistics, 124. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. . The Wuming dialect of Yongbei Zhuang, classified within the "Northern Zhuang dialect," is considered to be the " standard" or
prestige dialect Prestige refers to a good reputation or high esteem; in earlier usage, ''prestige'' meant "showiness". (19th c.) Prestige may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Films * ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnett ...
of Zhuang, developed by the government for certain official usages. Although Southern Zhuang varieties have aspirated stops, Northern Zhuang varieties lack them. There are over 60 distinct tonal systems with 5–11 tones depending on the variety. Zhang (1999) identified 13 Zhuang varieties. Later research by the Summer Institute of Linguistics has indicated that some of these are themselves multiple languages that are not
mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
without previous exposure on the part of speakers, resulting in 16 separate ISO 639-3 codes.


Northern Zhuang

Northern Zhuang comprises dialects north of the Yong River, with 8,572,200 speakers ( prior to 2007): * Guibei 桂北 (1,290,000 speakers): Luocheng, Huanjiang, Rongshui, Rong'an, Sanjiang, Yongfu, Longsheng, Hechi, Nandan, Tian'e,
Donglan Donglan County (, Zhuang: ) is a county of northwest Guangxi, China. It is under the administration of Hechi City. Donglan County has given its name to the Donglan golden-line barbel (''Sinocyclocheilus donglanensis''), a small fish that is only ...
() * Liujiang 柳江 (1,297,000 speakers): Liujiang, North Laibin, Yishan,
Liucheng Liucheng County (; Standard Zhuang: ) is under the administration of Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. It covers a land area of and had a permanent population of 353,796 . Located north of Liuzhou's city proper, it borders the pre ...
, Xincheng () * Hongshui He 红水河 (2,823,000 speakers): South Laibin, Du'an, Mashan, Shilong,
Guixian Guigang (; Zhuang: ''Gveigangj'') is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangxi in the People's Republic of China. Prior to 1988, it was known as Gui County or Guixian (). Geography and climate Guigang is located in eastern Guangxi. It is locate ...
, Luzhai,
Lipu LIPU, the Lega italiana protezione uccelli (En. “Italian League for Bird Protection”) is an Italian charitable organisation, founded in 1965 and devoted to the protection of the country's wildlife with a particular focus on birds. It has a memb ...
, Yangshuo. Castro and Hansen (2010) distinguished three mutually unintelligible varieties: Central Hongshuihe (), Eastern Hongshuihe () and Liuqian (). * Yongbei 邕北 (1,448,000 speakers): North Yongning, '' Wuming'' (prestige dialect), Binyang,
Hengxian Hengzhou (), formerly, Heng County or Hengxian (; Standard Zhuang: ) is a county-level city of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, with a perman ...
, Pingguo () * Youjiang 右江 (732,000 speakers):
Tiandong Tiandong County(, za, Denzdungh Yen) is a county of Guangxi, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Baise. Demographics Tiandong's population was 411,500(2010). 85.22% of the people belong to the Zhuang ethnic grou ...
,
Tianyang Tianyang District (; Standard Zhuang: ; Youjiang Zhuang: ) is a district in western Guangxi, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Baise. History Tianyang County was formed in 1935 by combining Fengyi County () and ...
, and parts of the Baise City area; all along the Youjiang River basin area () * Guibian 桂边 ( Yei Zhuang; 827,000 speakers): Fengshan,
Lingyun Lingyun County () is a county in the northwest of Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous ...
, Tianlin, Longlin, North
Guangnan Guangnan County (; Zhuang languages, Zhuang: ) is located in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, China. The seat of Guangnan, known today as Liancheng (), was the heart of the Gouding Kingdom () that lasted approximat ...
( Yunnan) () * Qiubei 丘北 ( Yei Zhuang; 122,000 speakers): Qiubei area ( Yunnan) () * Lianshan 连山 (33,200 speakers): Lianshan ( Guangdong), North
Huaiji Huaiji County () is a county of western Guangdong province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of Zhaoqing City. Administrative divisions Climate References Zhaoqing County-level divisions of Guangdong { ...
( Guangdong) ()


Southern Zhuang

Southern Zhuang dialects are spoken south of the Yong River, with 4,232,000 speakers ( prior to 2007): * Yongnan 邕南 (1,466,000 speakers): South Yongning, Central and North Fusui, Long'an, Jinzhou, Shangse, Chongzuo areas () * Zuojiang 左江 (1,384,000 speakers):
Longzhou Longzhou County Zhuang: ''Lungzcouh Yen'') is a county of southwestern Guangxi, China, bordering Cao Bằng province, Vietnam. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Chongzuo. Longzhou lies in a circular valley at ...
(Longjin), Daxin, Tiandeng, Ningming; Zuojiang River basin area () * Dejing 得靖 (979,000 speakers): Jingxi, Debao, Mubian, Napo. Jackson, Jackson and Lau (2012) distinguished two mutually unintelligible varieties: Yang Zhuang () and Min Zhuang () * Yanguang 砚广 ( Nong Zhuang; 308,000 speakers): South
Guangnan Guangnan County (; Zhuang languages, Zhuang: ) is located in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, China. The seat of Guangnan, known today as Liancheng (), was the heart of the Gouding Kingdom () that lasted approximat ...
( Yunnan), Yanshan area () * Wenma 文麻 (
Dai Zhuang Dai Zhuang or Thu Lao is a Tai language spoken in Yunnan, China and northern Vietnam. In China is it spoken in Yanshan, Wenshan, Maguan, Malipo, Guangnan counties of Wenshan Prefecture. It is also spoken in Honghe Prefecture. The largest concentr ...
; 95,000 speakers): Wenshan ( Yunnan), Malipo, Guibian () The Tày and Nùng language complex in Vietnam is also considered one of the varieties of Central Tai and shares a high mutual intelligibility with Wenshan Dai and other Southern Zhuang dialects in
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 ...
. The Nùng An language has a mixture of Northern and Central Tai features.


Recently described varieties

Johnson (2011) distinguishes four distinct Zhuang languages in Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan: Nong Zhuang, Yei Zhuang,
Dai Zhuang Dai Zhuang or Thu Lao is a Tai language spoken in Yunnan, China and northern Vietnam. In China is it spoken in Yanshan, Wenshan, Maguan, Malipo, Guangnan counties of Wenshan Prefecture. It is also spoken in Honghe Prefecture. The largest concentr ...
, and Min Zhuang. Min Zhuang is a recently discovered variety that has never been described previous to Johnson (2011). (''See also Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture#Ethnic groups'') Pyang Zhuang and Myang Zhuang are recently described Central Tai languages spoken in Debao County, Guangxi, China.


Writing systems

The Zhuang languages have been written in the ancient Zhuang script, '' Sawndip'', for over a thousand years, and possibly ''
Sawgoek Sawgoek ("root script", IPA: ) or sawva ("insect script", ) was a mythological ancient script mentioned in the Zhuang creation epic '' Baeu Rodo'' ( modern Zhuang script: ''Baeuqroekdoz''). The primordial god Baeu Ro was said to have brought ''saw ...
'' previous to that. '' Sawndip'' is a Chinese character-based system of writing, similar to Vietnamese '' chữ nôm.'' Some ''Sawndip'' logograms were borrowed directly from Han characters, whereas others were original characters created from the components of Chinese characters. It is used for writing songs about every aspect of life, and in more recent times encouraging people to follow official family planning policy. There has also been the occasional use of a number of other scripts including pictographics proto-writing, such as in the example at right. In 1957, a Latin-based hybrid script expanded with Cyrillic- and IPA-derived letters was introduced for
Standard Zhuang Standard Zhuang (autonym: , , (pre-1982: ; Sawndip: ); ) is the official standardized form of the Zhuang languages, which are a branch of the Northern Tai languages. Its pronunciation is based on that of the Yongbei Zhuang dialect of Shuangq ...
, and in 1982 this was changed to Latin script; these are referred to as the old Zhuang and new Zhuang, respectively. Bouyei is written in Latin script.


See also

*
Languages of China There are several hundred languages in China. The predominant language is Standard Chinese, which is based on central Mandarin, but there are hundreds of related Chinese languages, collectively known as ''Hanyu'' (, 'Han language'), that are spo ...
*
Zhuang studies Zhuang studies (or Zhuangology; Standard Zhuang: Cuenghhag; ) is an interdisciplinary intellectual field concerned with the Zhuang people – their history, anthropology, religion, politics, Zhuang languages, languages, and literature. The maj ...


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * *


External links

* Kra-Dai Swadesh lists (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
Zhuang language & alphabet
Omniglot
The prospects for the long-term survival of Non-Han minority languages in the south of China

Field Notes on the Pronominal System of Zhuang
"A major case of language shift is occurring in which the use of Zhuang and other minority languages is restricted mainly to rural areas because Zhuang-speaking villages, like Jingxi, which develop into towns become more and more of Mandarin-speaking towns. Zhuang-speaking villages become non-Zhuang-speaking towns! And children of Zhuang-speaking parents in cities are likely not to speak Zhuang as a mother-tongue."
Map of Major Zhuang language groups
* Paradisec has an open acces
collection of Zhuang Mogong Texts from Bama and Tianyang

Sawcuengh People.com
Official Zhuang language version (
Standard Zhuang Standard Zhuang (autonym: , , (pre-1982: ; Sawndip: ); ) is the official standardized form of the Zhuang languages, which are a branch of the Northern Tai languages. Its pronunciation is based on that of the Yongbei Zhuang dialect of Shuangq ...
) of the ''
People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...
'' website {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhuang Language Languages of China Tai languages