Zhuang language

Information about Zhuang language

Zhuang (Sawcuengh)
Spoken in:China
Region:
Total speakers:14 million
Ranking:
Genetic classification:
Official status
Official language of:
Regulated by:
Language codes
ISO 639-1za
ISO 639-2zha
SIL
See also: Language – List of languages


The Zhuang language (autonym: Cuengh or Cueŋь; Chinese: 壮语; Pinyin: Zhuàngyǔ) is used by the Zhuang people in the People's Republic of China. Most speakers live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Zhuang, which belongs to the Tai language group, is an official language in that region.

Standardized Zhuang is based on the dialect of Wuming County (武鸣县). Buyei, considered a separate language in China, 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
124rising
231low falling
355high level
442falling
535high rising
633mid level


It has two (high and low) in closed syllables.

Writing systems

Enlarge picture
books of Zhuang language


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 1986 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 1986 reform.

Consonants
1957 1986 1957 1986 1957 1986 1957 1986 1957 1986
B bB bƂ ƃMb mbM mM mF fF fVV
D dD dƋ ƌNd ndN nN nS sS sL lL l
G gG gGv gvGv gvŊ ŋNg ngH hH hR rR r
C cC cY yY yNv nyNy nyŊv ŋvNgv ngv
By byBy byGy gyGy gyMy myMy my
Vowels
1957 1986 1957 1986 1957 1986
A aA aE eE eƏ əAE ae
I iI iO oO oƜ ɯW w
Tones
Tone 1957 1986
1 Not indicated
2 Ƨ ƨZ z
3 З зJ j
4 Ч чX x
5 Ƽ ƽQ q
6 Ƅ ƅH h


Enlarge picture
A 1980 Chinese 10 Yuan bill bears the 1957 Zhuang text: Cuŋƅgoƨ Yinƨminƨ Yinƨhaŋƨ cib mənƨ.

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).

External links

Footnotes

1. ^ 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.

See also

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China (Traditional Chinese:
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This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use. Languages are listed for secondary locations only when spoken by more than 1% of the population.
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A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language. As with biological families, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics.
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This is a list of bodies that regulate standard languages.

Afrikaans Die Taalkommissie, South Africa
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ISO 639 is the set of international standards that lists short codes for language names.

ISO 639 consists of different parts, of which two parts have been approved and a third part that is in the final approval (FDIS) stage. The other parts are works in progress.
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Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles in
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See Language (journal) for the linguistics journal.


A language is a system of symbols and the rules used to manipulate them. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon.
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lists of languages:
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Chinese or the Sinitic language(s) (汉语/漢語, Pinyin: Hànyǔ; 华语/華語, Huáyǔ; or 中文, Zhōngwén) can be considered a language or language family.
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  • **
Pinyin, more formally called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: 汉语拼音; Traditional Chinese: 漢語拼音
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Zhuang (in the Zhuang language: Bouчcueŋь/Bouxcuengh; Simplified Chinese: 壮族; Traditional Chinese: 壯族; Pinyin:
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Anthem
March of the Volunteers (义勇军进行曲)
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Tai languages are a subgroup of the Tai-Kadai language family. The Tai languages include the most widely spoken of the Tai-Kadai languages, including Thai, the national language of Thailand, Lao or Laotian, the national language of Laos, Myanmar's Shan language, and Zhuang, a major
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An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in the countries, states, and other territories. It is typically the language used in a nation's legislative bodies, though the law in many nations requires that government documents be produced in other
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Buyei (also spelled Puyi, Bouyei and Buyi; self called: Buxqyaix, IPA: [pu ʔjai
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贵州省
Guìzhōu Shěng
Abbreviations: 黔 or ?  (Pinyin: Qián or Guì)

Origin of name 贵 guì - Gui Mountains
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A dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater.
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A Tonal language is a language that uses tone to distinguish words. Tone is a phonological trait common to many languages around the world (though rare in Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, and the Pacific). Chinese is perhaps the most well-known of such languages.
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For the computer operating system, see .
A syllable (Ancient Greek: συλλαβή) is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds.
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logogram, or logograph, is a single grapheme which represents a word or a morpheme (a meaningful unit of language). This stands in contrast to other writing systems, such as syllabaries, abugidas, abjads, and alphabets, where each symbol (letter) primarily represents a sound
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Zhuang logograms or sawndip is a logogram created as a derivative characters of Han characters and used by Zhuang in Guangxi, China. In Chinese, it is called 古壮字 gǔ Zhuàngzì or
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Written Chinese
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
1954 1955 1956 - 1957 - 1958 1959 1960

Year 1957 (MCMLVII
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Latin alphabet
Child systems Numerous: see Alphabets derived from the Latin
Sister systems Cyrillic
Coptic
Armenian
Runic/Futhark
Unicode range See Latin characters in Unicode
ISO 15924 Latn

Note
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1950s  1960s  1970s  - 1980s -  1990s  2000s  2010s
1983 1984 1985 - 1986 - 1987 1988 1989

Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI
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consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. The word consonant
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vowel is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by an open configuration of the vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, which are characterized by a constriction or closure at one or more points along the
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Zhuang (in the Zhuang language: Bouчcueŋь/Bouxcuengh; Simplified Chinese: 壮族; Traditional Chinese: 壯族; Pinyin:
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