Maonan language
The Maonan language (Chinese: 毛南语; pinyin: Máonán yǔ) is a Kam–Sui language spoken mainly in China by the Maonan people, specifically in northern Guangxi and southern Guizhou.[1]: 33 [3] Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County, Hechi, northern Guangxi, holds a concentrated number of speakers.[1] DemographicsApproximately half of all Maonan people are capable of speaking Maonan. In addition to this, many Maonan also speak Chinese or a Zhuang language. About 1/3 of all people who self-identify as Maonan are concentrated in the southern Guizhou province. They speak a mutually unintelligible dialect commonly called Yanghuang, which is more commonly known as the Then language in Western literature. The Maonan do not have a writing system. Other than Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County in Guangxi, Maonan is also spoken in the following locations.[3]
PhonologyMaonan is a tonal language with 8 tones (Lu 2008:90–91),[1] featuring an SVO clause construction (Lu 2008:169).[1] (See Proto-Tai language#Tones for an explanation of the tone numbers.) For example: ex: man2 3SG na4 eat kʰaːu3 wine "S/He drinks wine." ex: man2 3SG paːi1 go hɯ1 market "S/He goes to the market." SyntaxMaonan displays a head-first modification structure, i.e. the modifier occurring after the word being modified (Lu 2008:170).[1] For example: ex: kʰaːu3 wine ɦu4ljaːŋ4 broomcorn "broomcorn wine" ex: mu5 pig laːu4 big "big pig" ex: nok7 bird vin1 fly "flying bird" Occasionally, a head-final modification structure is also possible with the involvement of a possessive particle (P.P.) ti5. For example: ex: jaːn1 house/family ndaːu1 1PL ti5 POSS.PTCL bo4 buffalo "Our family's buffalo" (cf. the more common bo4 jaːn1 ndaːu1) (Lu 2008:173-174).[1] Writing systemThe Maonan writing system was established in 2010. It is based on 26 Latin letters to facilitate standard keyboard input.[4] The letters z, j, x, s, h are attached to the end of each syllable as tonal markers, representing tones 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 respectively. The first tone is not written. Syllables ending in -b, -d, -g, -p, -t, -k do not distinguish tone either. The writing system is being used among a limited number of Maonan intellectuals.[5] For example: ex: Writing: IPA: Gloss: Hez ɦe² 1SG suen suːn¹ teach ngz ŋ² 2SG nhieij ˀnjai³ buy hux ɦu⁴ rice gangs kaːŋ⁵ stitch deih dai⁶ bag tuet tuːt⁷' take off mad maːt⁸' sock Meaning: "I teach you (how) to buy rice, stitch bags and take off (your) socks." See alsoFurther reading
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