Gyami

Last updated
Gyámi
RegionSichuan
Extinct not attested since the 19th century [1]
Language codes
ISO 639-2 none
ISO 639-3
Glottolog None

The Gyami (Tibetan : རྒྱ་མི, THL : Gyami, "Han Chinese") were a Han people of Sichuan at the foot of the Tibetan Plateau who were reported by Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1874.

According to Hodgson, who thought the Gyami descended from a Chinese military outpost, the Chinese considered the Gyami to be Qiangic speakers, suggesting that they did not recognize them as Han Chinese and that they did not use Chinese characters. Victor H. Mair notes that what little is recorded of their speech indicates a degree of assimilation to local languages, but that it is clearly a variety of Mandarin.

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References

  1. Mair, Victor H. (May 1990). "Two Non-Tetragraphic Northern Sinitic Languages a. Implications of the Soviet Dungan Script for Chinese Language Reform b. Who Were the Gyámi?" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers (18).