Zhuang language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Zhuang | ||
|---|---|---|
| Vahcuengh | ||
| Spoken in | China | |
| Total speakers | 14 million | |
| Language family | Kradai | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | za | |
| ISO 639-2 | zha | |
| ISO 639-3 | variously: zha – Zhuang (generic) zch – Central Hongshuihe Zhuang zhd – Dai Zhuang zeh – Eastern Hongshuihe Zhuang zgb – Guibei Zhuang zgn – Guibian Zhuang zln – Lianshan Zhuang zlj – Liujiang Zhuang zlq – Liuqian Zhuang zgm – Minz Zhuang zhn – Nong Zhuang zqe – Qiubei Zhuang zyg – Yang Zhuang zyb – Yongbei Zhuang zyn – Yongnan Zhuang zyj – Youjiang Zhuang zzj – Zuojiang Zhuang |
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| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
The Zhuang language (autonym: Vahcuengh("Vah" means language and "Cuengh" means Zhuang) or Cueŋь; Chinese: 壮语; pinyin: Zhuàngyǔ) is a language from the Tai language group used by the Zhuang people. Most speakers live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region within the People's Republic of China, where it is an official language.
Standardized Zhuang is based on the dialect of Wuming County (武鸣县). Buyei is actually just a slightly different standard form of Zhuang, used across the province border in Guizhou. There is a dialect continuum between Zhuang and Buyei.
Zhuang is a tonal language. It has six tones in open syllables:
| Number | Contour | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ˨˦ | rising |
| 2 | ˧˩ | low falling |
| 3 | ˥ | high level |
| 4 | ˦˨ | falling |
| 5 | ˧˥ | high rising |
| 6 | ˧ | mid level |
It has two (high and low) in closed syllables.
Contents |
[edit] Writing systems
Zhuang has been written with logographs called sawndip, some are borrowed directly from Han characters adopted to this language, and some original characters made up by using the similar manner of construction, for more than a thousand years, rather like Vietnamese Chữ nôm. Sawndip are used for writing songs about every aspect of life, including in more recent times encouraging people to follow official family planning policy.
In 1957, in the People's Republic of China, a Latin alphabet with some special letters was introduced to write the new standardised Zhuang language. A spelling reform in 1982 replaced these special letters with regular letters of the Latin alphabet to facilitate printing and the use of computers.[1]
The tables below compare spelling before and after the 1982 reform.
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[edit] Bibliography
- Wéi Qìngwěn 韦庆稳, Tán Guóshēng 覃国生: Zhuàngyǔ jiǎnzhì 壮语简志 (Beijing, Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族出版社 1980).
- Tán Xiǎoháng 覃晓航: Xiàndài Zhuàngyǔ 现代壮语 (Beijing, Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族出版社 1995).
- Tán Guóshēng 覃国生: Zhuàngyǔ fāngyán gàilùn 壮语方言概论 (Nanning, Guǎngxī mínzú chūbǎnshè 广西民族出版社 1996).
- Liáng Tíngwàng 梁庭望 (ed.): Gǔ Zhuàngzì wénxiàn xuǎnzhù 古壮字文献选注 (Tiānjīn gǔjí chūbǎnshè 天津古籍出版社 1992).
- Zhāng Yuánshēng 张元生: Zhuàngzú rénmín de wénhuà yíchǎn – fāngkuài Zhuàngzì 壮族人民的文化遗产——方块壮字. In: Zhōngguó mínzú gǔ wénzì yánjiū 中国民族古文字研究 (Beijing, Zhōngguó shèhuì kēxué chūbǎnshè 中国社会科学出版社 1984).
- Lín Fāng 林方: Tán lìyòng gǔ Zhuàngzì yánjiū Guǎngxī Yuèyǔ fāngyán 谈利用古壮字研究广西粤语方言. In: Mínzú yǔwén 民族语文 2004.3:16–26.
- Gǔ Zhuàngzì zìdiǎn 古壮字字典 (Nanning, Guǎngxī mínzú chūbǎnshè 广西民族出版社 1989). Dictionary of old Zhuang characters; contains 4,900 entries and more than 10,000 characters.
- Zhuàng-Hàn cíhuì 壮汉词汇 (Nanning, Guǎngxī mínzú chūbǎnshè广西民族出版社 1984).
[edit] See also
 |
Look up Category:Zhuang language in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Minglang Zhou: Multilingualism in China: the politics of writing reforms for minority languages 1949-2002 (Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter 2003), ISBN 3-11-017896-6, p. 251–258.
[edit] External links
- Unicode Latin Extended-B code chart specifies the Unicode characters to be used for the Zhuang special letters
- Zhuang language & alphabet, Omniglot
- Introduction to sawndip, mentions both ancient and modern usages, at the Chinese Academy of Social Science in Beijing
- The prospects for the long-term survival of Non-Han minority languages in the south of China
