Talk:Bai language
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[edit] Creating article
I have created the article based on those at zh: and fr: and my own reading. I will continue to add information from these sources and others, and add references. I didn't know what to do about classification in the language box, since it is unknown exactly what langugae family it belongs to. Also, I don't know how to display multiple ISO classifications in the language box (there should be 3).
[edit] borrowed from "Chinese", not "Mandarin"
Many minority languages in Yunnan have borrowed extensively from Mandarin, both from the new official standard and from the local "Xi-nan Guan-hua" (south-western Mandarin) but the reason there are doubts about Bai's affinity are due to a significant number of words in its vocabulary which look very Chinese, but appear to resemble some kind of Chinese spoken at least 1000, and in some cases over 2000 years ago, when there was no "Mandarin". Given this situation, it would be less misleading, and just as clear, to use "Chinese" instead of "Mandarin".Jakob37 00:33, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Some Bai scholars actually proposed a new Sino-Bai group within Sino-Tibetian Family. Consider the fact that the supposedly Classical Chinese loanwords are very ancient (Autumn-Spring Period, 770 - circa 400 BCE), and Yuannan is a long way from Northern China (Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shangdong, Hebei and Henan), this is a very interesting proposals.
Karolus 2007/2/6
