Kam–Sui languages

The Kam–Sui languages (Chinese: 侗水語支; pinyin: Dòng-Shǔi) are a branch of the Kra–Dai 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.^[1]

Kam–Sui
侗水語支 Dong–Shui
Geographic distribution	eastern Guizhou, western Hunan, and northern Guangxi
Linguistic classification	Kra–Dai Kam–Tai ? Kam–Sui
Proto-language	Proto-Kam–Sui
Language codes
Glottolog	kams1241

Classification

The Kam–Sui branch includes about a dozen languages. Solnit (1988)^[2] considers Lakkia and Biao languages to be sister branches of Kam–Sui, rather than part of Kam–Sui itself.

The best 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 Tʻen, 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]

Thurgood (1988)

Graham Thurgood (1988) presents the following tentative classification for the Kam–Sui branch.^[4] Chadong, a language that has been described only recently by Chinese linguist Jinfang Li, is also included below. It is most closely related to Maonan.^[5] Cao Miao and Naxi Yao, which are closely related to Southern Dong, have also been added from Shi (2015).^[6]

Kam–Sui	Mulam Kam (Dong), Cao Miao, Naxi Yao Then Maonan Chadong[5] Sui Mak Ai-Cham[7]

Norquest (2021)

Peter Norquest (2021:234) presents another classification for the Kam–Sui branch.^[8]

• Kam-–ui
  • Mulam
  • Northern Kam–Sui
    • Kam
    • Macro-Sui
      • T'en
      • Greater Sui
        • Sui
        • Para-Sui
          • Chadong
          • Maonan
          • Ai-Cham/Mak
            • Ai-Cham
            • Mak

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

Population distribution of the Dong and other Kam-Sui ethnic groups in China

• Mulam 佬 – Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County 罗城仫佬族自治县, Hechi, northern Guangxi; Qiandongnan Prefecture, southeastern Guizhou
• Dong 侗 – Qiandongnan Prefecture, southeastern Guizhou
• Then 佯僙/佯爷 – Pingtang County 平塘县, Qiannan Prefecture, southern Guizhou
• Maonan 毛南 – Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County 环江毛南族自治县, Hechi, northern Guangxi
• Chadong 茶洞 – Chadong Township, Lingui County 临桂县, Guilin, northeastern Guangxi
• Sui 水 – Sandu Shui Autonomous County 黔南布依族苗族自治州, Qiannan Prefecture, southern Guizhou
• Mak (Mojia) 莫 – Libo County 荔波县, Qiannan Prefecture, southern Guizhou
• Ai-Cham 锦 – Libo County 荔波县, Qiannan Prefecture, southern Guizhou

By location

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

• Guizhou
  • Qiandongnan – Dong; 1,500,000 speakers
  • Qiannan
    • Sandu County – Sui; 300,000 speakers
    • Pingtang County – Then; 15,000 speakers
    • Libo County – Mak and Ai-Cham; 10,000 and 2,700 speakers
• Guangxi
  • Hechi
    • Luocheng County – Mulam; 86,000 speakers
    • Huanjiang County – Maonan; 30,000 speakers
  • Guilin (Lingui County) – Chadong; 20,000 speakers

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

Main article: List of unrecognized ethnic groups of Guizhou

The following language varieties are closely related to, or part of, Southern Dong.

• Mjuniang 谬娘 or Cao Miao 草苗 (ISO 639-3: cov): 60,000 (1991) in Liping, Tongdao, and Sanjiang; closely related to Dong.^[6][9] Speakers are classified as ethnic Miao.
• Naxi Yao 那溪瑶 (autonym: mu2 ɲiu1) is spoken by 2,500 people in Naxi Township 那溪瑶族乡, Dongkou County, Hunan Province, China.^[6]
• Diao 调 (刁人): 2,000 (1999) in southeastern Guizhou around Liping and Congjiang; may speak Chinese or Dong.^[10] Speakers are classified as ethnic Dong. Diao (tjau13) is a Cao Miao subgroup according to Shi (2015:43).^[6]

The following peoples may also speak Kam–Sui languages.^[11]

• Xialusi 下路司: 3,000 (1999) in southeastern Guizhou; classified as Dong, but their linguistic affiliation is unknown (possibly Kam-Sui).^[12] Speakers are classified as ethnic Dong.
• Shui of Yunnan: 6,800 (1990) in Huangnihe 黃泥河 and Gugan 古敢水族乡,^[13] Fuyuan County, Yunnan; 490 (1990) in Dahe and Long'an of Yiliang County.^[14] In Gugan, there is a village cluster known as the "Five Shui Villages" 水五寨,^[15] consisting of Buzhang 补掌,^[16] Dongla 咚喇,^[17] Reshui 热水,^[18] Dazhai 大寨,^[19] and Duzhang 都章.^[20] It is still spoken in Xinbao Village 新堡村, Laochang Township 老厂乡, Fuyuan County, Yunnan.^[21][22] Also in Dacunzi 大村子, Geyi Township 格宜镇, Xuanwei City.^[23][24] However, these are actually all Northern Tai languages (Bouyei) according to Hsiu (2013).^[25]

There are also some languages in southeastern Guizhou, northern Guangxi, and southwestern Hunan that have been influenced by Kam–Sui languages, such as Suantang 酸汤 and Tongdao Pinghua, a Pinghua lect spoken in Tongdao Dong Autonomous County, Hunan.^[26] Kam–Sui languages are also in contact with Suantang 酸汤, a Sinitic language spoken by about 80,000 ethnic Miao in Baibu 白布, Dihu 地湖, Dabaozi 大堡子, and Sanqiao 三锹 in Tianzhu, Huitong, and Jing counties (Chen Qiguang 2013:35).^[27] Suantang is very similar to New Xiang (新湘语), but is unintelligible with Southwestern Mandarin.

Reconstruction

Main article: Proto-Kam–Sui language

The Proto-Kam–Sui language is the reconstructed ancestor of the Kam–Sui languages.

See also

• Hunan Kam-Sui languages comparative vocabulary list (Wiktionary)

References

1. "Map & Language Descriptions". Lesser Known Indigenous Languages of Northern Vietnam. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2010-12-02.
2. Solnit, David B. (1988). "The Position of Lakkia Within Kadai". In Edmondson, Jerold A.; Solnit, David B. (eds.). Comparative Kadai: Linguistic Studies Beyond Tai. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics 86. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. pp. 219–238.
3. Yang, Tongyin 杨通银 (2000). Mò yǔ yánjiū 莫语研究 [A Study of Mak] (in Chinese). Beijing: Zhongyang minzu daxue chubanshe. ISBN 978-7-81056-427-4.
4. Thurgood (1988)
5. Li, Jinfang (2008). "Chadong, a Newly-Discovered Kam–Sui Language in Northern Guangxi". In Diller, Anthony; Edmondson, Jerold A.; Luo, Yongxian (eds.). The Tai–Kadai Languages. New York: Routledge. pp. 596–620.
6. Shi, Lin 石林 (2015). Xiāng-Qián-Guì biānqū de sān gè zúqún fāngyán dǎo 湘黔桂边区的三个族群方言岛 [Three Language Varieties of the Hunan-Guizhou-Guangxi Border Region] (in Chinese). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe. ISBN 978-7-5161-6494-5.
7. Lin, Shi; Cui, Jianxin (1988). "An Investigation of the Ai-Cham Language". In Edmondson, Jerold A.; Solnit, David B. (eds.). Comparative Kadai: Linguistic Studies Beyond Tai. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics 86. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. pp. 59–85.
8. Norquest, Peter (2021). "Classification of (Tai-)Kadai/Kra-Dai languages". The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia. De Gruyter. pp. 225–246. doi:10.1515/9783110558142-013. ISBN 9783110558142. S2CID 238672319.
9. "Mjuniang" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-08-31 – via Asia Harvest.
10. "Diao" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-08-31 – via Asia Harvest.
11. "China". Asia Harvest. Archived from the original on 2013-08-01. Retrieved 2013-07-19.
12. "Xialusi" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-08-31 – via Asia Harvest.
13. "Fùyuán Xiàn Gǔgǎn Shuǐzú Xiāng Gǔgǎn Cūnwěihuì" 富源县古敢水族乡古敢村委会 [Gugan Village Committee, Gugan Shui Ethnic Township, Fuyuan County]. ynszxc.net (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-12-30. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
14. "Shui, Yunnan" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-08-31 – via Asia Harvest.
15. http://file.lw23.com/5/54/542/5426d856-8bbb-4108-a310-96caa7bace36.pdf ^{[bare URL PDF]}
16. "Fùyuán Xiàn Gǔgǎn Shuǐzú Xiāng Bǔzhǎng Cūnwěihuì Bǔzhǎng Cūn" 富源县古敢水族乡补掌村委会补掌村 [Buzhang Village, Buzhang Village Committee, Gugan Shui Ethnic Township, Fuyuan County]. ynszxc.net (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-12-30. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
17. "Fùyuán Xiàn Gǔgǎn Shuǐzú Xiāng Bǔzhǎng Cūnwěihuì Dōnglǎ Cūn" 富源县古敢水族乡补掌村委会咚喇村 [Dongla Village, Buzhang Village Committee, Gugan Shui Ethnic Township, Fuyuan County]. ynszxc.net (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-12-30. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
18. "Fùyuán Xiàn Gǔgǎn Shuǐzú Xiāng Bǔzhǎng Cūnwěihuì Rèshuǐlǎozhài Cūn" 富源县古敢水族乡补掌村委会热水老寨村 [Reshuilaozhai Village, Buzhang Village Committee, Gugan Shui Ethnic Township, Fuyuan County]. ynszxc.net (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-12-30. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
19. "Fùyuán Xiàn Gǔgǎn Shuǐzú Xiāng Bǔzhǎng Cūnwěihuì Dàzhài Cūn" 富源县古敢水族乡补掌村委会大寨村 [Dazhai Village, Buzhang Village Committee, Gugan Shui Ethnic Township, Fuyuan County]. ynszxc.net (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-12-30. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
20. "Fùyuán Xiàn Gǔgǎn Shuǐzú Xiāng Bǔzhǎng Cūnwěihuì Dōuzhāng Cūn" 富源县古敢水族乡补掌村委会都章村 [Duzhang Village, Buzhang Village Committee, Gugan Shui Ethnic Township, Fuyuan County]. ynszxc.net (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-12-30. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
21. Hai, Zuoliang 海佐良 (2006). "Yúnnán shuǐzú yǔyán zuìhòu de yúyīn" 云南水族语言最后的余音. Jīnrì mínzú 今日民族 (in Chinese). 2006 (4): 32–33. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
22. "Fùyuán Xiàn Lǎochǎng Xiāng Xīnbǎo Cūnwěihuì Lèé Cūn" 富源县老厂乡新堡村委会乐额村 [Le'e Village, Xinbao Village Committee, Laochang Township, Fuyuan County]. ynszxc.net (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-12-30. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
23. "Xuānwēi Shì Géyí Zhèn Dàpíng Cūnwěihuì Dàcūnzi Cūn" 宣威市格宜镇大坪村委会大村子村 [Dacunzi Village, Daping Village Committee, Geyi Town, Xuanwei City]. ynszxc.net (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-12-30. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
24. "Qūjìng mínzú yuánliú gàishù" 曲靖民族源流概述 (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2021-08-30. Retrieved 2013-03-08 – via Baidu.
25. Hsiu, Andrew (2013). ""Shui" Varieties of Western Guizhou and Yunnan". doi:10.5281/zenodo.1133488. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
26. Peng, Jianguo 彭建国; He, Yuna 何妤娜 (2010). "Húnán Tōngdào dòngzú "Běndìhuà" de yǔyīn xìtǒng jí qí guīshǔ" 湖南通道侗族“本地话”的语音系统及其归属 [The Phonetic System and Belongingness of "Bendihua" of Tongdao]. Yúnmèng xué kān / Journal of Yunmeng (in Chinese). 31 (4): 138–141. Archived from the original on 2021-08-30 – via Baidu.
27. Chen, Qiguang 陈其光 (2013). Miáo Yáo yǔwén 苗瑶语文 [Miao and Yao Language] (in Chinese). Beijing: Zhongyang minzu daxue chubanshe.

Further reading

• Diller, Anthony; Edmondson, Jerold A.; Luo, Yongxian, eds. (2014) [First published 2005]. The Tai-Kadai Languages. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-700-71457-5.
• Edmondson, Jerold A.; Solnit, David B., eds. (1988). Comparative Kadai: Linguistic Studies Beyond Tai. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics 86. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. ISBN 0-88312-066-6.
• Peiros, Ilia (1998). Comparative Linguistics in Southeast Asia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/PL-C142. hdl:1885/146631. ISBN 0-85883-489-8.
• Thurgood, Graham (1988). "Notes on the Reconstruction of Proto-Kam–Sui". In Edmondson, Jerold A.; Solnit, David B. (eds.). Comparative Kadai: Linguistic Studies Beyond Tai. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics 86. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. pp. 179–218.

External links

• ABVD: Proto-Kam–Sui word list