Maonan language

Maonan
Maonan
Native to	China
Region	Northern Guangxi, Southern Guizhou
Ethnicity	107,000 (2000)
Native speakers	30,000 (2005)
Language family	Kra–Dai Kam–Sui Maonan; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mmd
Glottolog	maon1241
ELP	Maonan
	Maonan is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

The Maonan language (Chinese: 毛南语; pinyin: Máonán yǔ) is a Kam–Sui language spoken mainly in China by the Maonan people, specifically in northern Guangxi and southern Guizhou.^[1]^: 33^[3] Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County, Hechi, northern Guangxi, holds a concentrated number of speakers.^[1]

Demographics

Approximately half of all Maonan people are capable of speaking Maonan. In addition to this, many Maonan also speak Chinese or a Zhuang language. About 1/3 of all people who self-identify as Maonan are concentrated in the southern Guizhou province. They speak a mutually unintelligible dialect commonly called Yanghuang, which is more commonly known as the Then language in Western literature. The Maonan do not have a writing system.

Other than Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County in Guangxi, Maonan is also spoken in the following locations.^[3]

Phonology

Maonan is a tonal language with 8 tones (Lu 2008:90–91),^[1] featuring an SVO clause construction (Lu 2008:169).^[1] (See Proto-Tai language#Tones for an explanation of the tone numbers.) For example:

ex:

man²

3SG

na⁴

eat

kʰaːu³

wine

"S/He drinks wine."

ex:

man²

3SG

paːi¹

go

hɯ¹

market

"S/He goes to the market."

Syntax

Maonan displays a head-first modification structure, i.e. the modifier occurring after the word being modified (Lu 2008:170).^[1] For example:

ex:

kʰaːu³

wine

ɦu⁴ljaːŋ⁴

broomcorn

"broomcorn wine"

ex:

mu⁵

pig

laːu⁴

big

"big pig"

ex:

nok⁷

bird

vin¹

fly

"flying bird"

Occasionally, a head-final modification structure is also possible with the involvement of a possessive particle (P.P.) ti⁵. For example:

ex:

jaːn¹

house/family

ndaːu¹

1PL

ti⁵

POSS.PTCL

bo⁴

buffalo

"Our family's buffalo"

(cf. the more common bo⁴ jaːn¹ ndaːu¹) (Lu 2008:173-174).^[1]

Writing system

The Maonan writing system was established in 2010. It is based on 26 Latin letters to facilitate standard keyboard input.^[4] The letters z, j, x, s, h are attached to the end of each syllable as tonal markers, representing tones 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 respectively. The first tone is not written. Syllables ending in -b, -d, -g, -p, -t, -k do not distinguish tone either. The writing system is being used among a limited number of Maonan intellectuals.^[5] For example:

ex:

Writing:

IPA:

Gloss:

Hez

ɦe²

1SG

suen

suːn¹

teach

ngz

ŋ²

2SG

nhieij

ˀnjai³

buy

hux

ɦu⁴

rice

gangs

kaːŋ⁵

stitch

deih

dai⁶

bag

tuet

tuːt⁷'

take off

mad

maːt⁸'

sock

Meaning: "I teach you (how) to buy rice, stitch bags and take off (your) socks."

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Lu, Tian Qiao (2008). A Grammar of Maonan. Boca Raton, Florida: Universal Publishers. ISBN 978-1-59942-971-7.
^ ^a ^b Maonan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b Guangxi Minority Languages Orthography Committee. 2008. Vocabularies of Guangxi ethnic languages [广西民族语言方音词汇]. Beijing: Nationalities Publishing House [民族出版社].
^ Maonan website: http://maonan.org/wenzi/HagLeaMauhnanh.asp?boardid=24
^ Maonan website: http://maonan.org/wenzi/shengdiao.asp

External links

Maonan.info by Lu Tianqiao

[Lu-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Lu, Tian Qiao (2008). A Grammar of Maonan. Boca Raton, Florida: Universal Publishers. ISBN 978-1-59942-971-7.

[e18-2] Maonan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[gx-3] Guangxi Minority Languages Orthography Committee. 2008. Vocabularies of Guangxi ethnic languages [广西民族语言方音词汇]. Beijing: Nationalities Publishing House [民族出版社].

[4] Maonan website: http://maonan.org/wenzi/HagLeaMauhnanh.asp?boardid=24

[5] Maonan website: http://maonan.org/wenzi/shengdiao.asp

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