| Naxi | |
|---|---|
| Naqxi geezheeq | |
| Native to | South China |
| Region | Yunnan andSichuan |
| Ethnicity | Nakhi,Mosuo |
Native speakers | (350,000 cited 2000 census – 2010)[1] |
| Naxi script (Geba script orDongba augmented with Geba),Latin script,Fraser script Simplified Chinese (Rare) Traditional Chinese (Rare) | |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:nxq – Naxinru – Narua (Yongning Na) |
| Glottolog | naxi1245 Naxinaxi1246 additional bibliographyyong1270 Narua |
 Distribution of Naxi speakers[2] | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Naxi (Naxi pronunciation:[nɑ˨˩ɕi˧˧]), also known asNakhi,Nasi,Lomi,Moso, orMo-su, is aSino-Tibetan language or group of languages spoken by approximately 310,000Nakhi people, most of whom live in or aroundYulong Naxi Autonomous County in the province ofYunnan inSouth China.
It is commonly proposed in Chinese scholarship that the Naic languages areLolo-Burmese languages: for instance, Ziwo Lama (2012) classifies Naxi as part of a "Naxish" branch ofLoloish.
However, as early as 1975, Sino-Tibetan linguistDavid Bradley pointed out that Naxi does not partake in the shared innovations that defineLoloish.[3] Thurgood and La Polla (2003) state that "The position of Naxi ... is still unclear despite much speculation" and leave it unclassified within Sino-Tibetan.[4]Guillaume Jacques andAlexis Michaud (2011)[5] classify Naxi within theNaish lower-level subgroup of Sino-Tibetan; in turn, Naish is part ofNaic, itself part of a proposed "Na-Qiangic" branch.
Naxi in the broad sense (includingNa/Mosuo) was initially split by the linguists He Jiren and Jiang Zhuyi into two major clusters,Western Naxi andEastern Naxi.[6]
Western Naxi (纳西语西部方言) is fairly homogeneous. It is spoken mainly in Lijiang, Zhongdian (Shangri-La), Weixi and Yongsheng counties. Smaller populations of Western Naxi speakers are found in Heqing, Jianchuan, Lanping, Deqin, Gongshan, Ninglang (in Bapijiang village 坝皮匠村, Yongning Township 永宁乡) Muli (in Eya 俄亚), Yanbian (Daoju 道咀) and Tibet (in Mangkang 芒康). There over 240,000 speakers total. Western Naxi consists of the Dayan, Lijiangba and Baoshanzhou dialects (He and Jiang 1985: 752).
Eastern Naxi (纳西语东部方言), also known as'Na', 'Mosuo' or 'Narua', consists of several mutually unintelligible varieties. It is spoken mainly inNinglang,Yanyuan,Muli, andYanbian counties. Eastern Naxi is also spoken by smaller populations inYongsheng (in Zhangzidan 獐子旦), Weixi (in Qizong 其宗)[7] and Lijiang (in Hailong 海龙 and Fengke 奉科[8]) counties. There is a total of over 40,000 speakers (He and Jiang 1985: 754).
According to the 2000 Chinese census, 310,000 people speak Nakhi, and 100,000 of those aremonolingual. Approximately 170,000 speakChinese,Tibetan,Bai, orEnglish as asecond language. Most speakers live inYunnan, but some are inSichuan andTibet, and it is possible that some live in Northern Myanmar.
The language is commonly spoken among Nakhi people in everyday life and the language is in little danger of dying out soon, although the written literacy is still a rare skill. The language can be written in theGeba syllabary,Latin script orFraser alphabet, but they are rarely used in everyday life and few people are able to read Naxi. The 1932 Naxi Gospel of Mark was published by theBritish and Foreign Bible Society in theFraser alphabet.
The three most commondialects are Lijiang, Lapao, and Lutien. Lijiang, which is spoken in the western parts of the language's range, is the most uniform of the three and it is heavily influenced by Standard Chinese and Yunnanese dialects, proved by its huge volume of loan words from Chinese. The eastern dialects are much more native[clarification needed] and have many dialectal differences.
The alphabet used here is the 1957pinyin alphabet.[citation needed]
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Retroflex | Alveolo- Palatal | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | ||||||||
| Nasal | m⟨m⟩ | n⟨n⟩ | ɲ⟨ni⟩ | ŋ⟨ng⟩ | |||||
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p⟨b⟩ | t⟨d⟩ | ts⟨z⟩ | tʂ⟨zh⟩ | tɕ⟨j⟩ | c⟨?⟩ | k⟨g⟩ | ʔ |
| aspirated | pʰ⟨p⟩ | tʰ⟨t⟩ | tsʰ⟨c⟩ | tʂʰ⟨ch⟩ | tɕʰ⟨q⟩ | cʰ⟨?⟩ | kʰ⟨k⟩ | ||
| voiced | b⟨bb⟩ | d⟨dd⟩ | dz⟨zz⟩ | dʐ⟨rh⟩ | dʑ⟨jj⟩ | ɟ⟨?⟩ | ɡ⟨gg⟩ | ||
| prenasalized | ᵐb⟨nb⟩ | ⁿd⟨nd⟩ | ⁿdz⟨nz⟩ | ⁿdʐ⟨nr⟩ | ⁿdʑ⟨nj⟩ | ᶮɟ⟨?⟩ | ᵑɡ⟨mg⟩ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f⟨f⟩ | s⟨s⟩ | ʂ⟨sh⟩ | ɕ⟨x⟩ | x⟨h⟩ | |||
| voiced | v⟨v⟩ | z⟨ss⟩ | ʐ⟨r⟩ | ʑ⟨y⟩ | ɣ⟨w⟩ | ||||
| Vibrant | r⟨?⟩ | ||||||||
| Approximant | ɥ⟨iu⟩ | l⟨l⟩ | j⟨i⟩ | w⟨u⟩ | |||||
| Front | Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | y | ɯ | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | o | ||
| Open | a | ɑ | |||
| Syllabic | v̩ | ||||
In the Lijiang dialect, there are nine vowels as well as syllabic/v̩/:/i,e,a,ɑ,y,ɯ,ə,o,u/, writteni, ei, ai, a, iu, ee, e, o, u. There is also a final/əɹ/, writtener.
There are four tones: high level, mid-level, low level (or falling), and, in a few words, high rising. The tones are written-l, -, -q, -f.
Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WesternHimalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand,Nepal,Sikkim) |
|  | |||
| EasternHimalayas (Tibet,Bhutan,Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
| ||||
| East andSoutheast Asia |
| ||||
| Dubious (possible isolates,Arunachal) |
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| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
