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The Bouyei language is a language spoken by the Bouyei ethnic group of Southern Guizhou Province, China. Classified as a member of the Northern Tai group in the Tai language branch of the Tai–Kadai language family, the language has over 2.5 million native speakers and is also used by the Giay people in some parts of Vietnam. There are native speakers living in France or the United States as well, which emigrated from China or Vietnam. About 98% of the native speakers are in China.
Gelao is a Kra language in the Kra–Dai language family. It is spoken by the Gelao people in southern China and northern Vietnam. Despite an ethnic population of 580,000, only a few thousand still speak Gelao in China. Estimates run from 3,000 in China by Li in 1999, of which 500 are monolinguals, to 7,900 by Edmondson in 2008. Edmondson (2002) estimates that the three Gelao varieties of Vietnam have only about 350 speakers altogether.
A number of ethnic groups of the People's Republic of China are not officially recognized. Taken together, these groups would constitute the twentieth most populous ethnic group of China. Some scholars have estimated that there are over 200 distinct ethnic groups that inhabit China, compared to 56 groups are officially recognized. There are in addition small distinct ethnic groups that have been classified as part of larger ethnic groups that are officially recognized. Some groups, like the Hui of Xinjiang with the Hui of Fujian, are geographically and culturally separate, except for the shared belief of Islam. Han Chinese, being the world's largest ethnic group, has a large diversity within it, such as in Gansu, whose Han individuals may have genetic traits from the assimilated Tangut civilization. Although they are indigenous to Hainan island and do not speak a Chinese language, the Limgao (Ong-Be) people near the capital are counted as Han Chinese.
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The Mak language is a Kam–Sui language spoken in Libo County, Qiannan Prefecture, Guizhou, China. It is spoken mainly in the four townships of Yangfeng, Fangcun (方村), Jialiang (甲良), and Diwo (地莪) in Jialiang District (甲良), Libo County. Mak speakers can also be found in Dushan County. Mak is spoken alongside Ai-Cham and Bouyei. The Mak, also called Mojia (莫家) in Chinese, are officially classified as Bouyei by the Chinese government.
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The Biao language is a Kra–Dai language spoken in southwestern Huaiji County and Fengkai County, Zhaoqing, Guangdong. Autonyms are and.
The Bolyu language is an Austroasiatic language of the Pakanic branch. The Bolyu are among the unrecognized ethnic groups of China.
Li Jinfang is a Chinese linguist at Minzu University in Beijing, China. Li, an ethnic Zhuang, is a leading specialist in the Kra-Dai languages of southern China, especially the Kra (Geyang) branch. Li's doctoral dissertation focused on the Buyang language, and was published as Studies on the Buyang Language in 1999.
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References
- ↑ Ai-Cham at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ↑ 杨通银 / Yang Tongyin. 莫语研究 / Mo yu yan jiu (A Study of Mak). Beijing: 中央民族大学出版社 / Zhong yang min zu da xue chu ban she, 2000.
- ↑ Lin, Shi and Cui Jianxin. 1988. "An investigation of the Ai-Cham language." In Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit (eds.), Comparative Kadai: Linguistic studies beyond Tai, 59-85. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics, 86. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
- Edmondson, J. A., & Solnit, D. B. (1988). Comparative Kadai: linguistic studies beyond Tai. Summer Institute of Linguistics publications in linguistics, no. 86. [Arlington, Tex.]: Summer Institute of Linguistics. ISBN 0-88312-066-6.
- Zhou, Guoyan 周国炎 (2013). Zhōngguó xīnán mínzú zájū dìqū yǔyán guānxì yǔduō yǔ héxié yánjiū: Yǐ Diān Qián Guì pílín mínzú zájū dìqū wèi yánjiū gè'àn中国西南民族杂居地区语言关系与多语和谐研究：以滇黔桂毗邻民族杂居地区为研究个案 (in Chinese). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe. ISBN 978-7-5161-1985-3.