Zhuang languages


The Zhuang languages are more than a dozen Tai languages spoken by the Zhuang people of Southern China in the province of Guangxi 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 and Caolan in Vietnam. Standard Zhuang 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, Lao and Shan having emigrated south 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 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 Zhuàngyǔ Fāngyán Yánjiù 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, the name of the region is given first, followed by the specific village. The phylogenetic position of each variant follows that of Pittayaporn .
  1. Wuming – Shuāngqiáo 雙橋 – Subgroup M
  2. Hengxian – Nàxù 那旭 – Subgroup N
  3. Yongning – Wǔtáng 五塘 – Subgroup N
  4. Pingguo – Xīnxū 新圩 – Subgroup N
  5. Tiandong – Héhéng 合恒 – Subgroup N
  6. Tianlin – Lìzhōu 利周 – Subgroup N
  7. Lingyue – Sìchéng 泗城 – Subgroup N
  8. Guangnan – Zhěméng Township 者孟鄉 – Subgroup N
  9. Qiubei – Gēhán Township 戈寒鄉 – Subgroup N
  10. Liujiang – Bǎipéng 百朋 – Subgroup N
  11. Yishan – Luòdōng 洛東 – Subgroup N
  12. Huanjiang – Chéngguǎn 城管 – Subgroup N
  13. Rong'an – Ānzì 安治 – Subgroup N
  14. Longsheng – Rìxīn 日新 – Subgroup N
  15. Hechi – Sānqū 三區 – Subgroup N
  16. Nandan – Méma 麼麻 – Subgroup N
  17. Donglan – Chéngxiāng 城廂 – Subgroup N
  18. Du'an – Liùlǐ 六里 – Subgroup N
  19. Shanglin – Dàfēng 大豐 – Subgroup N
  20. Laibin – Sìjiǎo 寺腳 – Subgroup N
  21. Guigang – Shānběi 山北 – Subgroup N
  22. Lianshan – Xiǎosānjiāng 小三江 – Subgroup N
  23. Qinzhou – Nàhé Township 那河鄉 – Subgroup I
  24. Yongning – Xiàfāng Township 下枋鄉 – Subgroup M
  25. Long'an – Xiǎolín Township 小林鄉 – Subgroup M
  26. Fusui – Dàtáng Township 大塘鄉 – Subgroup M
  27. Shangsi – Jiàodīng Township 叫丁鄉 – Subgroup C
  28. Chongzuo – Fùlù Township 福鹿鄉 – Subgroup C
  29. Ningming – Fēnghuáng Township 鳳璜鄉 – Subgroup B
  30. Longzhou – Bīnqiáo Township 彬橋鄉 – Subgroup F
  31. Daxin – Hòuyì Township 後益鄉 – Subgroup H
  32. Debao – Yuándì'èrqū 原第二區 – Subgroup L
  33. Jingxi – Xīnhé Township 新和鄉 – Subgroup L
  34. Guangnan – Xiǎoguǎngnán Township 小廣南鄉 – Subgroup L
  35. Yanshan – Kuāxī Township 誇西鄉 – Subgroup L
  36. Wenma – Hēimò Township 黑末鄉大寨, Dàzhài – Subgroup P

    Varieties

The Zhuang language has been divided by Chinese linguists into northern and southern "dialects", each of which has been divided into a number of vernacular varieties by Chinese linguists. The Wuming dialect of Yongbei Zhuang, classified within the "Northern Zhuang dialect", is considered to be the "standard" or prestige dialect 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 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 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 :
In east-central Guangxi, there are isolated pockets of Northern Zhuang speakers in Zhongshan, Pingle, Zhaoping, Mengshan, and Hezhou counties. These include the following varieties named after administrative villages that are documented by Wei.
  • Lugang Village 蘆崗村, Etang Town 鵝塘鎮, Pinggui District 平桂區, He County 賀縣
  • Qishan Village 啟善村, Yuantou Town 源頭鎮, Pingle County
  • Xiping Village 西坪村, Zouma Township 走馬鄉, Zhaoping County
  • Xie Village 謝村, Xinxu Town 新圩鎮, Mengshan County
  • Nitang Village 坭塘村, Yuantou Town 源頭鎮, Pingle County
  • Linyan Village 林岩村, Qingtang Town 清塘鎮, Zhongshan County

    Southern Zhuang

Southern Zhuang dialects are spoken south of the Yong River, with 4,232,000 speakers :
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. The Nùng An language has a mixture of Northern and Central Tai features.

Recently described varieties

Johnson distinguishes four distinct Zhuang languages in Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan: Nong Zhuang, Yei Zhuang, Dai Zhuang, and Min Zhuang, all of which are Southern Zhuang varieties except for Yei Zhuang, which is Northern Zhuang. Min Zhuang is a recently discovered Southern Zhuang variety that has never been described previous to Johnson.
Pyang Zhuang and Myang Zhuang are recently described Southern Zhuang languages spoken in Debao County, Guangxi, China.

Writing systems

The Zhuang languages have been written in the ancient sawndip script for over a thousand years, possibly preceded by the sawgoek script. Sawndip is based on Chinese characters, similar to Vietnamese chữ Nôm. Some sawndip logograms were directly borrowed from Han characters, whereas others were created locally from components of Chinese characters. It has been used for writing songs, and more recently in public communications encouraging people to follow official family planning policy.
There has also been the occasional use of a number of other scripts, including pictographic proto-writing.
In 1957, a hybrid script based on the Latin script and expanded with Cyrillic- and IPA-derived letters was introduced to write Standard Zhuang. In 1982, it was updated to use only Latin letters. These are referred to as the "old" and "new" Zhuang, respectively. Bouyei is written in Latin script.

1957 Alphabet

Consonants

B b D d G g C c By by Ƃ ƃ Ƌ ƌ Gv gv Y y Gy gy
M m N n Ŋ ŋ Ny ny My my F f S s H h Ŋv ŋv
V v L l R r

Vowels

A a I i U u E e O o Ɵ ɵ Ə ə Ɯ ɯ

Tone letters

ƨ Ɜ ɜ Ч ч Ƽ ƽ Ƅ ƅ

1982 Alphabet

Consonants

B b D d G g C c By by Mb mb Nd nd Gv gv Y y
Gy gy M m N n Ng ng Ny ny My my F f S s H h
Ngv ngv V v L l R r

Vowels

A a I i U u E e O o Oe oe Ae ae W w

Tone letters

Z z J j X x Q q H h