Bala language (China)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bala | |
|---|---|
| bani | |
| Native to | northeastern China |
| Region | Heilongjiang Province and Jilin Province |
| Ethnicity | Bala |
| Extinct | 1982 |
| sometimes transcribed with Chinese characters | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | bala1242 |
The Bala language (Chinese: 巴拉語; pinyin: Bālāyǔ) is a possibly extinct Tungusic language that was spoken in and around the Zhangguangcai Range of Heilongjiang Province, Northeastern China. No standard orthography exists for the language, although manuscripts have occasionally recorded Bala words using Chinese characters.[1]
Bala clearly belongs to the Jurchenic language subgroup of Southern Tungusic languages, but its exact position within Jurchenic remains to be determined. Bala is more closely related to Jurchen than it is to Manchu and retains many archaic features. It reportedly became extinct in 1982, but it is unknown whether there could be rememberers of the language still alive today.[1][2]
In addition to influences from Northeastern Mandarin and Manchu, Bala may also have been influenced by Southern Nanai languages such as Kilen.[3]