Youjiang Zhuang
Language spoken in Tiandong County, China
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Youjiang Zhuang, named after the Youjiang River in Guangxi, China, is a Northern Tai or Zhuang Language spoken in Tiandong County, Tianyang District, and parts of the Youjiang District in Baise, Guangxi.
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Tai
- Northern Tai (Northern Zhuang)
- Youjiang Zhuang
- Northern Tai (Northern Zhuang)
History and classification
Native speakers refer to the language as Gangjdoj, which means "local language".
André-Georges Haudricourt in 1956 included the language of Tianzhou, the county seat of Tianyang, under Dioi, his name for Northern Zhuang.[2]
Based on data from the 1950s Guangxi Zhuang language survey, Tiandong, Tianyang and a suburb of Baise City were grouped together. This grouping was sometimes called Tianyangese (田阳音系). In the 1999 A Study of Zhuang Dialects this group was referred to as the Youjiang language (右江土语),[3] and in 2007 Youjiang Zhuang was added as a separate language to Ethnologue.[1]
Phonology
Youjiang Zhuang has 10 tones, and can be considered as having 20 initials and 83 finals, though some speakers pronounce the initials /ʔb/ and /ʔd/ as /m/ and /n/ respectively.[4]
Writing System
Youjiang Zhuang has two main writing systems, characters and romanization.[citation needed]
