Kam–Sui languages

The Kam–Sui languages (Chinese: 侗水語支; pinyin: Dòng-Shǔi) are a branch of the Kra–Dai languages spoken by the Kam–Sui peoples. They are spoken mainly in eastern Guizhou, western Hunan, and northern Guangxi in southern China. Small pockets of Kam–Sui speakers are also found in northern Vietnam and Laos.[2]

Kam–Sui
Dong–Shui
Geographic
distribution		eastern Guizhou, western Hunan, and northern Guangxi
Linguistic classificationKra–Dai
  • Kam–Sui
Proto-languageProto-Kam–Sui
Glottologkams1241[1]

Classification

The Kam–Sui branch includes about a dozen languages. Solnit (1988)[3] considers Lakkia and Biao languages to be sister branches of Kam–Sui, rather than part of Kam–Sui itself.

The best known Kam–Sui languages are Dong (Kam), with over a million speakers, Mulam, Maonan, and Sui. Other Kam–Sui languages include Ai-Cham, Mak, and Tʻen, and Chadong, which is the most recently discovered Kam–Sui language. Yang (2000) considers Ai-Cham and Mak to be dialects of a single language.[4]

Graham Thurgood (1988) presents the following tentative classification for the Kam–Sui branch.[5] Chadong, a language that has been described only recently by Chinese linguist Jinfang Li, is also included below. It is most closely related to Maonan.[6] Cao Miao and Naxi Yao, which are closely related to Southern Dong, have also been added from Shi (2015).[7]

Kam–Sui 
 
 

Mulam

 
 

Kam (Dong), Cao Miao, Naxi Yao

 
 
 
 

Then

 
 
 
 

Maonan

 
 

Chadong[6]

 
 
 

Sui

 
 
 

Mak

 
 

Ai-Cham[8]

 
 
 
 
 

Demographics

Nearly all speakers of Kam–Sui languages originate in the Qiandongnan (Dong) and Qiannan (Sui, Then, Mak, Ai-Cham) Prefectures of Guizhou, as well as the prefecture-level cities of Hechi (Mulam and Maonan) and Guilin (Chadong) in northern Guangxi. Many Kam–Sui speakers have also migrated to farther urban areas such as Guangzhou.

Small groups of Kam and Sui speakers also reside in Tuyên Quang Province, Vietnam, in the villages of Đồng Mộc and Hồng Quang, respectively.

By language

By location

(Listed counterclockwise: east to north to west to south)

By population

There is a total of about 2 million Kam–Sui speakers.

The four largest Kam–Sui ethnic groups, the Dong, Shui, Mulao, and Maonan, are officially recognized by the Chinese government. Non-recognized Kam–Sui ethnic groups (Chadong, Then, Mak, Ai-Cham) who can still speak their own languages number less than 50,000.

  1. Dong: about 1,500,000 speakers; 1.7 million in 1995
  2. Sui: 300,000 speakers
  3. Mulam: 86,000 speakers (ethnic population: 200,000)
  4. Maonan: 30,000 speakers (ethnic population: 100,000)
  5. Chadong: 20,000 speakers
  6. Then: 15,000 speakers
  7. Mak: 10,000 speakers
  8. Ai-Cham: 2,700 speakers

Other languages
See also: List of unrecognized ethnic groups of Guizhou

The following language varieties are closely related to, or part of, Southern Dong.

  • Mjuniang 谬娘 or Cao Miao 草苗 (ISO 639-3: cov): 60,000 (1991) in Liping, Tongdao, and Sanjiang; closely related to Dong.[7][9] Speakers are classified as ethnic Miao.
  • Naxi Yao 那溪瑶 (autonym: mu2 ɲiu1) is spoken by 2,500 people in Naxi Township 那溪瑶族乡, Dongkou County, Hunan Province, China.[7]
  • Diao 调 (刁人): 2,000 (1999) in southeastern Guizhou around Liping and Congjiang; may speak Chinese or Dong.[10] Speakers are classified as ethnic Dong. Diao (tjau13) is a Cao Miao subgroup according to Shi (2015:43).[11]

The Sanqiao language (Qiaohua 锹话) is a mixed language of Miao, Dong, and Chinese origins.[12] Sanqiao 三锹 (三橇) is spoken by 5,000 people (1999) in Liping and Jinping counties, Guizhou.[13][12] Speakers are classified as either ethnic Miao or Dong.[14]

The following peoples may also speak Kam–Sui languages.[15]

  • Xialusi 下路司: 3,000 (1999) in southeastern Guizhou; classified as Dong, but their linguistic affiliation is unknown (possibly Kam-Sui).[16] Speakers are classified as ethnic Dong.
  • Shui of Yunnan: 6,800 (1990) in Huangnihe 黃泥河 and Gugan 古敢水族乡,[17] Fuyuan County, Yunnan; 490 (1990) in Dahe and Long'an of Yiliang County.[18] In Gugan, there is a village cluster known as the "Five Shui Villages" 水五寨,[19] consisting of Buzhang 补掌,[20] Dongla 咚喇,[21] Reshui 热水,[22] Dazhai 大寨,[23] and Duzhang 都章.[24] It is still spoken in Xinbao Village 新堡村, Laochang Township 老厂乡, Fuyuan County, Yunnan.[25][26] Also in Dacunzi 大村子, Geyi Township 格宜镇, Xuanwei City.[27][28] However, these are actually all Northern Tai languages (Bouyei) according to Hsiu (2013).[29]

There are also some languages in southeastern Guizhou, northern Guangxi, and southwestern Hunan that have been influenced by Kam–Sui languages, such as Suantang 酸汤 and Tongdao Pinghua, a Pinghua lect spoken in Tongdao Dong Autonomous County, Hunan.[30] Kam-Sui languages are also in contact with Suantang 酸汤, a Sinitic language spoken by about 80,000 ethnic Miao in Baibu 白布, Dihu 地湖, Dabaozi 大堡子, and Sanqiao 三锹 in Tianzhu, Huitong, and Jing counties (Chen Qiguang 2013:35).[31] Suantang is very similar to New Xiang (新湘语), but is unintelligible with Southwestern Mandarin.

Reconstruction

The Proto-Kam–Sui language is the reconstructed ancestor of the Kam–Sui languages.

gollark: I think a better solution would be a gender-neutral singular pronoun which you can actually distinguish from a plural one, but nobody seems to want that.
gollark: I think the whole they-singular thing is kind of inelegant, but a workable solution at least.
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gollark: Wow, the SE "apology" hit 1121 downvotes now!
gollark: Reddit is down. Mankind appears to be doomed.

See also

References
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kam–Sui". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. http://ling.uta.edu/~jerry/research/map.html
  3. Solnit, David B. 1988. "The position of Lakkia within Kadai." In Comparative Kadai: Linguistic studies beyond Tai, Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit (eds.). pages 219-238. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics 86. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
  4. 杨通银 / Yang Tongyin. 莫语研究 / Mo yu yan jiu (A Study of Mak). Beijing: 中央民族大学出版社 / Zhong yang min zu da xue chu ban she, 2000.
  5. Thurgood, Graham. 1988. "Notes on the reconstruction of Proto-Kam–Sui." In Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit (eds.), Comparative Kadai: Linguistic studies beyond Tai, 179-218. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics, 86. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
  6. Li, Jinfang. 2008. "Chadong, a Newly-Discovered Kam–Sui Language in Northern Guangxi." In Diller, Anthony, Jerold A. Edmondson, & Yongxian Luo, ed. The Tai–Kadai languages, 596-620. New York: Routledge.
  7. Shi Lin [石林]. 2015. Three language varieties of the Hunan-Guizhou-Guangxi border region [湘黔桂边区的三个族群方言岛]. Beijing: China Social Sciences Academy Press [中国社会科学出版社]. ISBN 9787516164945
  8. Lin, Shi and Cui Jianxin. 1988. "An investigation of the Ai-Cham language." In Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit (eds.), Comparative Kadai: Linguistic studies beyond Tai, 59-85. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics, 86. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
  9. http://asiaharvest.org/wp-content/themes/asia/docs/people-groups/China/chinaPeoples/M/Mjuniang.pdf
  10. http://asiaharvest.org/wp-content/themes/asia/docs/people-groups/China/chinaPeoples/D/Diao.pdf
  11. Shi Lin [石林]. 2015. Three language varieties of the Hunan-Guizhou-Guangxi border region [湘黔桂边区的三个族群方言岛]. Beijing: China Social Sciences Academy Press [中国社会科学出版社]. ISBN 9787516164945
  12. http://www.zghuamiao.com/nd.jsp?id=180
  13. http://asiaharvest.org/wp-content/themes/asia/docs/people-groups/China/chinaPeoples/S/Sanqiao.pdf
  14. 吴安毕, 柯震豪. 贵州待识别民族人口的初步分析.
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-08-01. Retrieved 2013-07-19.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. http://asiaharvest.org/wp-content/themes/asia/docs/people-groups/China/chinaPeoples/X/Xialusi.pdf
  17. http://www.ynszxc.net/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=69595
  18. http://asiaharvest.org/wp-content/themes/asia/docs/people-groups/China/chinaPeoples/S/ShuiYunnan.pdf
  19. http://file.lw23.com/5/54/542/5426d856-8bbb-4108-a310-96caa7bace36.pdf
  20. http://www.ynszxc.net/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=69611
  21. http://www.ynszxc.net/villagePage/vindex.aspx?departmentid=69619&classid=727513
  22. http://www.ynszxc.net/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=69618
  23. http://www.ynszxc.net/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=69621
  24. http://www.ynszxc.net/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=69609
  25. Hai Zuoliang [海佐良] (2006). 云南水族语言最后的余音. 《今日民族》2006年第04期.
  26. http://www.ynszxc.net/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=92314
  27. http://www.ynszxc.net/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=34677
  28. 曲靖民族源流概述
  29. Hsiu, Andrew. 2013. “Shui” varieties of western Guizhou and Yunnan.
  30. Peng Jianguo [彭建国]. 2010. 湖南通道侗族“本地话”的语音系统及其归属. Journal of Yunmeng 云梦学刊, Vol. 31, No. 4.
  31. Chen, Qiguang [陈其光] (2013). Miao and Yao language [苗瑶语文]. Beijing: China Minzu University Press.

Further reading
  • Tai–Kadai Languages. (2007). Curzon Pr. ISBN 978-0-7007-1457-5
  • Diller, A. (2005). The Tai–Kadai languages. London [etc.]: Routledge. ISBN 0-7007-1457-X
  • Edmondson, J. A., & Solnit, D. B. (1988). Comparative Kadai: linguistic studies beyond Tai. Summer Institute of Linguistics publications in linguistics, no. 86. [Arlington, Tex.]: Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 0-88312-066-6
  • Peiros, Ilia. 1998. "Comparative Linguistics in Southeast Asia". Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
  • Thurgood, Graham. 1988. "Notes on the reconstruction of Proto-Kam–Sui." In Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit (eds.), Comparative Kadai: Linguistic studies beyond Tai, 179–218. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics, 86. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
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