Kam–Sui languages

Kam–Sui
Dong–Shui
Geographic
distribution:
eastern Guizhou, western Hunan, and northern Guangxi
Linguistic classification:

Tai–Kadai

  • Northern
    • Lakkja–Kam?
      • Kam–Sui
Glottolog: kams1241[1]

The Kam–Sui languages (Chinese: 侗水語支; pinyin: Dòng-Shǔi) are a branch of the Tai–Kadai languages spoken by the Kam–Sui peoples. They are spoken mainly in eastern Guizhou, western Hunan, and northern Guangxi in southern China. Small pockets of Kam–Sui speakers are also found in northern Vietnam and Laos.[2]

Classification

Kam–Sui includes a dozen languages. The Lakkja and Biao languages are sometimes separated out as a sister branch to Kam–Sui within a "Be–Kam–Tai" branch of Kradai, but this is not well supported. Otherwise the languages are not subclassified.

The better known Kam–Sui languages are Dong (Kam), with over a million speakers, Mulam, Maonan, and Sui. Other Kam–Sui languages include Ai-Cham, Mak, and T’en, and Chadong, which is the most recently discovered Kam–Sui language. Yang (2000) considers Ai-Cham and Mak to be dialects of a single language.[3]

Graham Thurgood (1988) presents the following tentative classification for the Kam–Sui branch.[4] Chadong, a language which has only been recently described by Chinese linguist Jinfang Li, is also included below. It is most closely related to Maonan.[5]

Kam–Sui 


Mulam



Kam (Dong)





Then





Maonan



Chadong[5]




Sui




Mak



Ai-Cham[6]






Biao and Lakkja, which are of uncertain classification, may be the closest relatives of the Kam–Sui branch; Biao may even be a divergent Kam–Sui language.

Demographics

Nearly all speakers of Kam–Sui languages originate in the Qiandongnan (Dong) and Qiannan (Sui, Then, Mak, Ai-Cham) Prefectures of Guizhou, as well as the prefecture-level cities of Hechi (Mulam and Maonan) and Guilin (Chadong) in northern Guangxi. Many Kam–Sui speakers have also migrated to farther urban areas such as Guangzhou.

Small groups of Kam and Sui speakers also reside in Tuyên Quang Province, Vietnam, in the villages of Đồng Mộc and Hồng Quang, respectively.

By language

By location

(Listed counterclockwise: east to north to west to south)

By population

There is a total of about 2 million Kam–Sui speakers.

The four largest Kam–Sui ethnic groups, the Dong, Shui, Mulao, and Maonan, are officially recognized by the Chinese government. Non-recognized Kam–Sui ethnic groups (Chadong, Then, Mak, Ai-Cham) who can still speak their own languages number less than 50,000.

  1. Dong: about 1,500,000 speakers; 1.7 million in 1995
  2. Sui: 300,000 speakers
  3. Mulam: 86,000 speakers (ethnic population: 200,000)
  4. Maonan: 30,000 speakers (ethnic population: 100,000)
  5. Chadong: 20,000 speakers
  6. Then: 15,000 speakers
  7. Mak: 10,000 speakers
  8. Ai-Cham: 2,700 speakers

Other languages

The following peoples may also speak Kam–Sui languages.[7]

The Sanqiao are distributed in the following locations of Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou.[28]

Cao Miao locations include:[29]

Reconstruction

A preliminary of reconstruction of Proto-Kam–Sui had been undertaken by Graham Thurgood.[4] Another reconstruction of Proto-Kam-Sui, mostly based on Thurgood's reconstruction, was accomplished by Ilia Peiros, as part of his reconstruction of Tai-Kadai, which he accomplished without taking the Kra languages in account.[31]

See also

References

  1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Kam–Sui". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  2. http://ling.uta.edu/~jerry/research/map.html
  3. 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.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Thurgood, Graham. 1988. "Notes on the reconstruction of Proto-Kam–Sui." In Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit (eds.), Comparative Kadai: Linguistic studies beyond Tai, 179-218. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics, 86. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Li, Jinfang. 2008. "Chadong, a Newly-Discovered Kam–Sui Language in Northern Guangxi." In Diller, Anthony, Jerold A. Edmondson, & Yongxian Luo, ed. The Tai–Kadai languages, 596-620. New York: Routledge.
  6. 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.
  7. http://asiaharvest.org/index.php/people-group-profiles/china/
  8. http://asiaharvest.org/wp-content/themes/asia/docs/people-groups/China/chinaPeoples/M/Mjuniang.pdf
  9. http://asiaharvest.org/wp-content/themes/asia/docs/people-groups/China/chinaPeoples/D/Diao.pdf
  10. http://asiaharvest.org/wp-content/themes/asia/docs/people-groups/China/chinaPeoples/S/Sanqiao.pdf
  11. http://www.zghuamiao.com/nd.jsp?id=180
  12. http://asiaharvest.org/wp-content/themes/asia/docs/people-groups/China/chinaPeoples/X/Xialusi.pdf
  13. Chen, Qiguang [陈其光] (2013). Miao and Yao language [苗瑶语文]. Beijing: China Minzu University Press.
  14. http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vindex.aspx?departmentid=69626&classid=727585
  15. http://asiaharvest.org/wp-content/themes/asia/docs/people-groups/China/chinaPeoples/S/ShuiYunnan.pdf
  16. http://file.lw23.com/5/54/542/5426d856-8bbb-4108-a310-96caa7bace36.pdf
  17. http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=69611
  18. http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vindex.aspx?departmentid=69619&classid=727513
  19. http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=69618
  20. http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=69621
  21. http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=69609
  22. Hai Zuoliang [海佐良] (2006). 云南水族语言最后的余音. 《今日民族》2006年第04期.
  23. http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=92314
  24. http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=34677
  25. 曲靖民族源流概述
  26. Hsiu, Andrew. 2013. “Shui” varieties of western Guizhou and Yunnan.
  27. http://asiaharvest.org/wp-content/themes/asia/docs/people-groups/Laos/Tayten.jpg
  28. 邓刚. 三锹人与清水江中下游的山地开发——以黔东南锦屏县岑梧村为. http://www.docin.com/p-361267415.html
  29. http://www.caomiao.net/
  30. http://comonca.org.cn/lh/doc/A13.pdf
  31. Peiros, Ilia, 1998. "Comparative Linguistics in Southeast Asia", Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.

Further reading

External links