Nasu language


The Nasu language, also known as the Eastern Yi language or Naisu, Luquan Yi, Wuding Yi, Guizhou Yi, Weining Yi, Guangxi Yi or Longlin Yi, is a Loloish language spoken by the Yi people of China. Nasu and Wusa are two of six Yi languages recognized by the Government of China. Unlike most written Yi languages, Nasu uses the Pollard script. A distinct form of the Yi script was traditionally used for Wusa, though few can still read it.
The Nasu language is also known as the Black Yi language, but this name is no longer used.

Names

According to the Guizhou Ethnic Gazetteer, Yi autonyms include Nasu 哪苏, Tusu 兔苏, Lagou 腊勾, Guo 果, and so forth.
Most of Yi people of the Luquan area do not have the autonym Luoluo and Nasu means "black", hence the Black Yi, though Black Yi is an aristocratic caste distinction among the Yi People, and Black Yi Script was a Latin script for Yi introduced by missionaries.

Classification

Chen (1985)

Chen, et al. recognizes 3 major varieties of Eastern Yi that are spoken in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, namely Dianqian 滇黔, Pan 盘县, and Diandongbei 滇东北. Autonyms include ', ', ', and '.
In his description of the Yi script, Huáng Jiànmíng holds that the Nasu variety of the Yi script is used by the groups speaking languages of the Nasu language cluster of Northern Yi in south-eastern Sìchuān, eastern Yúnnán, Gùizhōu, as well as in Guǎngxī. He distinguishes two sub-groups. Nasu proper used in Wuding, Luquan, and the suburbs of Kunming, and Wusa used in Guizhou and the bordering areas of Eastern Yunnan.

Bradley (1997)

David Bradley distinguishes three main dialects of Nasu:
  • Southeastern : 150,000 speakers in southwestern Guizhou
  • Northeastern : 300,000 speakers, comprising most of the other Nasu speakers of Guizhou, and some in extreme northeastern Yunnan and southeastern Sichuan
  • *Shuixi subdialect 水西土语
  • *Wusa subdialect 乌撒土语
  • *Mangbu subdialect 芒部土语
  • *Wumeng subdialect 乌蒙土语
  • Western : 250,000 speakers all in north-central Yunnan; Black and Red subdialects

    Lama (2012)

Lama determined that Nasu is more closely related to Gepo than it is to the others:
  • Nesu
  • *Panxian : North and South dialects
  • *Shuixi Nesu
  • *Nesu proper
  • **Wumeng
  • **Mangbu
  • **Wusa
  • Nasu
  • *Nasu proper
  • *Gepo : 100,000 speakers

    Chen (2010)

Phonology

Consonants

There is distinction between tight-throat vowels and lax-throat vowels.
  • Sounds are heard as syllabic consonants when following alveolar sounds, and as syllabic retroflex when following retroflex sounds.
  • The phonetic sounds of the rhoticized vowels are mainly heard as more back.

    Tones

3 tones occur as follows:
NamePitchSymbol
High55
Mid33
Low 21