Bit language

Bit
Native to Laos, China
Native speakers
 2,200  (1994–2005)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 bgk
Glottolog bitt1240[2]

Bit (Khabit, Psing, Buxing) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by around 1,500 people in Phongsaly Province, northern Laos and in Mengla County, China. There are thought to be about another 500 speakers over the border in Yunnan Province, China. It has been classified as Palaungic, Khmuic, and as Mangic.

Names

In China, the Buxing people (布兴, 布幸, or 布醒; IPA: [puʃiŋ]) are also called Kami 佧米人 or Kabi 佧比人 (IPA: [khabit]) (Gao 2004).

Yan & Zhou (2012:157) list the following names for Khabit.

The Khabit name for Khmu is ta mɔi.

Classification

Paul Sidwell (2014)[3] and Svantesson (1990) classify Bit as Palaungic. It is most closely related to Kháng and Quang Lam.

Distribution

Laos

In Laos, Bit is spoken by 2,000 people in the following villages (Gao 2004). The speakers call themselves "Laubit."

Kingsada (1999) covers the Khabit (khaa bet) language of Nale village, Bun Neua District, Phongsaly Province, Laos.[4]

China

In Mengla County, Yunnan, China, Bit (Buxing) is spoken by 539 people as of 2000, in the following villages (Gao 2004).

References

  1. ↑ Bit at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Bit". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ Sidwell, Paul. 2014. "Khmuic classification and homeland". Mon-Khmer Studies 43.1:47-56
  4. ↑ Kingsadā, Thō̜ngphet, and Tadahiko Shintani. 1999 Basic Vocabularies of the Languages Spoken in Phongxaly, Lao P.D.R. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
  5. ↑ http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=160513
  6. ↑ http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=203717