TheMak language (Chinese:莫语;autonym:ʔai3 maːk8)[2] is aKam–Sui language spoken inLibo County,Qiannan Prefecture,Guizhou,China. It is spoken mainly in the four townships of Yangfeng (羊/阳风乡, including Dali 大利村 and Xinchang 新场村 dialects[3]), Fangcun (方村), Jialiang (甲良), and Diwo (地莪) in Jialiang District (甲良),Libo County. Mak speakers can also be found inDushan County. Mak is spoken alongsideAi-Cham andBouyei.[4] The Mak, also called Mojia (莫家) in Chinese, are officially classified asBouyei by the Chinese government.[5]
Yang (2000) considersAi-Cham and Mak to be different dialects of the same language.
The Fangcun dialect was first studied byFang-Kuei Li in 1942, and the Yangfeng dialect was studied in the 1980s by Dabai Ni of theMinzu University of China.[4] Ni also noted that the Mak people only sing Bouyei folk songs, and that about 5,000 Mak people have shifted to the Bouyei language.
Wu et al. (2016) contains a 2,531-item word list of 5 Mak dialects. Wu et al. (2016) also has data tables comparing a few hundred words inBouyei,Sui, and Mak. The Mak dialects compared, each of which are spoken in their respective townships, are:[6]
^Ni, Dabai 倪大白 (2010).Dòng-Táiyǔ gàilùn侗台语概论 [An Introduction to Kam-Tai Languages] (in Chinese). Beijing Shi: Minzu chubanshe. p. 249.ISBN978-7-105-10582-3.
^abNi, Dabai (1988). "Yangfeng Mak of Libo County". In Edmondson, Jerold A.; Solnit, David B. (eds.).Comparative Kadai: Linguistic Studies Beyond Tai. Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. pp. 87–106.
^Wu Wenyi 伍文义; Wu Qilu 吴启禄; Long Jiangang 龙建刚 (2016).Guizhou Buyizu "Mojiahua" diaocha yanjiu 贵州布依族“莫家话”调查研究. Guiyang: Guizhou University Press 贵州大学出版社.ISBN9787811269796.OCLC1050889915.
Edmondson, Jerold A.; Solnit, David B., eds. (1988).Comparative Kadai: Linguistic Studies Beyond Tai. Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
Yang, Tongyin 杨通银 (2000).Mòyǔ yánjiū莫语研究 [A Study of Mak] (in Chinese). Beijing: Zhongyang minzu daxue chubanshe.
