| Longjia | |
|---|---|
| Songnibao | |
| suŋ55 ni55 mpau21 | |
| Pronunciation | [suŋ˥ni˥mpau˨˩] |
| Native to | China |
| Region | Guizhou |
| Ethnicity | Longjia |
| Extinct | possibly by 2011[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | long1417 |
Longjia (autonym:suŋ55ni55mpau21) is aSino-Tibetan language ofGuizhou, China related toCaijia andLuren.[2] Longjia may already be extinct (Zhao 2011).
TheLongjia people now speakSouthwestern Mandarin, though they used to speak their own language, and have had a long presence in westernGuizhou. According to theGuizhou Ethnic Gazetteer (2002),[5] the Longjia language was spoken inDafang County,Qianxi County (Zhongping District 中坪区; Xinfacun 新发村 of Pojiao District 坡脚区), andPuding County (Jiangyizhai 讲义寨 of Baiyan Township 白岩乡). It is reportedly most similar toCaijia,[5] and has manyOld Chinese loanwords.[6]
Guizhou (1984)[3] shows that Longjia is closely related toCaijia andLuren. However, the classification of Caijia within Sino-Tibetan is uncertain. Zhengzhang (2010)[7] suggests thatCaijia andBai aresister languages, whileSagart argues that Caijia is Sinitic and a close relative ofWaxiang.[8]
The following dialects of Longjia have been described.
The following comparative word list of three Longjia dialects is from Guizhou (1984:2-3).[3] Guizhou (1984) notes that the dialect of Jiangyizhai 讲义寨 (Puding County) is divergent, while the dialects of Pojiao 坡脚 (Dafang County) and Huaxi 花溪 (Qianxi County) are more closely related to each other.
| English gloss | Chinese gloss | Pojiao 坡脚 | Huaxi 花溪 | Jiangyizhai 讲义寨 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cattle | 牛 | ŋau55 | ŋau55 | ŋau35 |
| to eat | 吃 | ua31 | ua31 | ua31 |
| dog | 狗 | kuɛ33 | kuɛ33 | kuɛ53 |
| pig | 猪 | lɛ55 | lɛ55 | lɛ35 |
| chicken | 鸡 | kɛ55 | kɛ55 | kɛ55 |
| rice (crop) | 稻谷 | mɛ31 | mɛ31 | mai31 |
| water | 水 | ɕi31 | ɕe31 | se31 |
| big | 大 | la55 | la55 | lɛ31 |
| two | 二 | ta31 | ta31 | to33 |
| four | 四 | sɿ55 | si55 | so55 |
| meat | 肉 | ȵi31 | ȵi31 | ȵi31;ntɕi31 |
ThePuding County Almanac (1999) reports that the Longjia language (autonym:Songnibao 松泥保) has 38 onsets and 22 rimes (8 simple, 14 complex). TheBijie County Almanac (1996:143) reports that there are many prenasalized onsets. In Dafang County, the autonym isSonglibao 松立保.[6]
The most extensive lexical data of Longjia can be found in Zhang & Li (1982).[11]
The Nanjing people (南京人) have usually been classified with theLongjia people, and claim to be descendants of soldiers from theNanjing area who had intermarried with the local Longjia in Guizhou.[1] Their language is known asNanjinghua (南京话; "Nanjing speech"), which is probably now functionally extinct.[12]
In Jianxinhe village 建新河村, Kunzhai Township 昆寨乡,Nayong County, Guizhou Province, the phrasesuo55 mu33 ‘eat rice’ was elicited from an elderly rememberer of Nanjinghua.[12] Assuo55 is derived fromProto-Tibeto-Burman *dzya ‘to eat’, this points to Nanjinghua having anSVO word order likeCaijia, Longjia,Bai, andSinitic languages.[12]
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. | |||||