| Zaiwa | |
|---|---|
| Tsaiwa, Tsaiva | |
| Pronunciation | [tsau³¹va⁵¹] |
| Native to | China,Burma |
Native speakers | 150,000 (2021)[1] |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
| Latin Fraser | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | atb |
| Glottolog | zaiw1241 |
Zaiwa (autonym:tsau³¹va⁵¹; 载瓦;Burmese: ဇိုင်ဝါး/အဇီး) is aBurmish language spoken in parts ofsouthwest China and easternBurma. There are around 100,000 speakers. It is also known asAtsi, its name inJingpo.Zaiwa may be spelled 'Tsaiva' or 'Tsaiwa', andAtsi may be spelled 'Aci', 'Aji', 'Atshi', 'Atzi' or 'Azi'. Other names include Atsi-Maru, Szi and Xiaoshanhua.[1]Pela (Bola), with 400 speakers, was once classified as a dialect. From the 1950s Zaiwa was written using the Roman script. A Gospel of Mark was published in Zaiwa in 1938 in theFraser alphabet and in 1951 in the Roman script.[2][3]
There are more than 70,000 Zaiwa speakers in Yunnan, China, including in:[4]
TheEthnologue lists Bengwa, Longzhun and Tingzhu as dialects.[citation needed]
In Myanmar, theSadon (Sadung) dialect is the standard variety.[5]
Zaiwa has the following consonant sounds:[6]
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | plain | sib. | plain | pal. | |||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | pʲ | t | t͡s̪ | t͡ʃ | k | kʲ |
| aspirated | pʰ | pʰʲ | tʰ | t͡s̪ʰ | t͡ʃʰ | kʰ | kʰʲ | |
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s̪ | ʃ | x | xʲ | ||
| voiced | v | ʒ | ||||||
| Nasal | m | mʲ | n | ŋ | ŋʲ | |||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||||
Zaiwa distinguishes between tense throat and lax throat vowel sounds:
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lax | tense | lax | tense | lax | tense | |
| Close | i | i | u | u | ||
| Mid | ɛ | ɛ | ə | ə | ɔ | ɔ |
| Open | a | a | ||||
| Syllabic | ɹ̩ | ɹ̩ | ||||
Zaiwa has five tones. Three of these five tones are in unchecked syllables and the remaining two are in checked syllables.[3] The tones are distinguished through a numbering system of one to five; one being the lowest pitch and five the highest pitch.[7]
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WesternHimalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand,Nepal,Sikkim) |
|  | |||
| EasternHimalayas (Tibet,Bhutan,Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
| ||||
| East andSoutheast Asia |
| ||||
| Dubious (possible isolates,Arunachal) |
| ||||
| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
