Paha language

Paha or Baha (autonym: [pāhā]) is a Kra language spoken in northern Guangnan County, Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan. The two villages are located near the border with Longlin County, Guangxi. Paha is often considered to be part of the Buyang dialect cluster and is the most divergent form. Although listed in Ethnologue as Baha Buyang (ISO 639-3: yha), Thai linguist Weera Ostapirat considers Paha to be a separate language.[3]

Paha
RegionChina
Native speakers
600 (2007)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3yha
Glottologbaha1256[2]

Demographics

Within Guangnan County (广南县), Yunnan, the Paha language is spoken in the two villages of Yangliancun (央连村)[4] (from Zhuang jaaŋ˨˦ lɛŋ˧˩ "lonely Buyang [village]") in Dixu Township (底圩乡) and Anshecun (安舍村)[5] in Bada Township 八达乡. While Yanglian has around 500 Paha speakers, Anshe only has about 100 speakers left. Paha speakers are shifting rapidly to Zhuang and Southwestern Mandarin, particularly in Anshe village. Many Buyang men in Yanglian village are also married to Zhuang women.[6]

Phonology

Consonants

Paha Buyang has the following consonants.[7]

Labial Coronal Postalveolar Velar Uvular Glottal
plain pal. bilab. plain bilab. plain bilab. plain bilab. plain bilab.
Nasal voiceless aspirated m̥ʰ n̥ʰ ɲ̊ʰ ŋ̊ʰ
voiced mmʲmᵝ n ɲ ŋŋᵝ
Plosive plain voiceless ppʲpᵝ ttᵝ tʃtʃᵝ kkᵝ qqᵝ ʔ
voiceless aspirated pʰpʲʰpᵝʰ tʰ tʃʰ kʰkᵝʰ qʰ
plain voiced bbʲbᵝ d ɡɡᵝ
voiced aspirated bʱbʲʱ dʱ ɡʱ
Fricative voiceless fɸ
β		 θθᵝ ʃʃᵝ χ h
voiced ððᵝ ɣ
Approximant voiceless ȷ̊
voiced jɥ
Laterals voiceless ɬ
voiced l

Vowels

Paha Buyang has the following vowels.[7]

frontcentralback
unrounded		back
rounded
High iɯu
Hi-Mid eəo
Lo-Mid ɛɔ
Low a

The three high vowels and the low vowel can be long.

Tones

Grammar

Unlike the Buyang dialects of Langjia, Ecun, and Yalang, Paha negatives (such as pi45) precede the verb, whereas the Buyang dialects always place negatives at the end of a sentence. This phenomenon in Paha is probably due to Chinese influence.[8]

gollark: #include <stdio.h>printf("NO! STOP! YOU'LL RUIN THE STUPIDITY!");
gollark: !interpret WHY
gollark: Wait, someone used it in a serious context? Oh no.
gollark: And it's really completely arbitrary to say "Machine code has performance. Lambda calculus doesn't". Machine code on its own doesn't. Machine code as implemented by whatever processor does.
gollark: No, C is a language specified on its own which doesn't have to be compiled to machine code.

References
  1. Paha at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Baha Buyang". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Ostapirat, Weera. 2000. 'Proto-Kra', LTBA 23.1:1-251
  4. http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=213502
  5. http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=266267
  6. Li Jinfang and Luo Yongxian. The Buyang language of South China: grammatical notes, glossary, texts and translations. Pacific Linguistics Publishers, Australian National University, 2010.
  7. Li, J., & Luo, Y. (2006). Notes on Paha Buyang. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, Vol. 29, No. 1, p. 1-40.
  8. 李锦芳/Li, Jinfang and 周国炎/Guoyan Zhou. 仡央语言探索/Geyang yu yan tan suo. Beijing, China: 中央民族大学出版社/Zhong yang min zu da xue chu ban she, 1999.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.