Sanie and Language Loss in China*

Sanie and language loss in China* DAVID BRADLEY Abstract Most of the many languages spoken by the large and widely distributed Yi nationality in China are endangered. One such is Sanie, spoken by about 8,000 people from a group of over 17,000 near Kunming in Yunnan. In surveying the area around Kuming, we located Sanie and a number of other undescribed and in most cases unreported endangered languages. Sanie is remarkable in that in some dialects it preserves velar plus /w/ clusters which have been simplified in all other closely related languages. Such a cluster is found in the group name; this gives us a clearer understanding of the original autonym for the Yi languages as a whole. Therefore, the new name Ngwi for this group of languages is proposed, with etymological justi- fications. Sanie also has a large range of internal di¤erences, suggesting that processes of change are speeded up during the process of language death. However it is shown to be a typical Eastern Yi language, like several of the other endangered languages spoken around Kunming including Sa- mataw and Samei. 1. The Yi nationality1 The Yi are one of China’s 55 minority nationalities, with a population of nearly eight million. They live in the southwest of the country; especially in Yunnan, southwestern Sichuan and western Guizhou Provinces, with a few also in western Guangxi. There are a couple of groups within Yi in south central Yunnan who also spread into northern Vietnam, and one into northeastern Laos. They are extremely heterogeneous but classified together by the Chinese. There are very great internal linguistic and cul- tural di¤erences, approximately similar in degree to those among the Romance languages if not greater. For more details about their internal classification and structure, see Bradley (1979, 1991, 1996b, 2001b). For maps of their distribution, see Bradley (1994, 2001a). 0165–2516/05/0173–0159 Int’l. J. Soc. Lang. 173 (2005), pp. 159–176 6 Walter de Gruyter 160 D. Bradley The usual Chinese linguistic classi®cation of the Yi divides them into six subgroups. This includes Eastern or Nasu, Northern or Nosu and Southern or Nisu; these three form a closely related cluster. Southeastern, Central and Western Yi are more closely related to the languages of other nationalities such as Lisu and Lahu than to the Nasu/Nosu/Nisu cluster. Even within a subgroup such as Eastern Yi there are substantial internal linguistic diërences, often preventing mutual intelligibility. Bradley (1987, 1996b, 2001a) discuss the o½cial policy for standard languages within the Yi nationality. Brie¯y, in Sichuan the Nosu variety called Shengza as spoken at Xide County has been chosen as the standard, and a new syllabary was approved in 1978 that is derived from 829 of the traditional Nosu characters, plus one diacritic. This means that all speakers of other subvarieties of Northern Yi within Sichuan and in northwestern Yunnan must learn the standard dialect in order to become literate. Fortunately, most of them speak more or less closely related types of Northern Yi. In Guizhou, the characters of the Nasu in Bijie County have been chosen as standard, but Yi in each area use their own local pronunciation; all Yi in Guizhou speak fairly similar Eastern Yi subvarieties. There are so few Yi in Guangxi that there is no policy, but some speak a variety of Nasu and use Eastern Yi characters, while others speak quite diërent varieties and use characters more similar to South- eastern Yi. In Yunnan, all six major types of Yi are spoken. In 1983 the provincial Nationalities Commission set up a committee with representatives of Eastern or Nasu, Northern or Nosu, Southern or Nisu, and Sani rep- resenting Southeastern Yi to create a compromise orthography; Central and Western Yi had no traditional writing systems. Between 1983 and 1985, this committee worked to create a compromise writing system, Yunnan guifan Yiwen `Reformed Yunnan Yi Script', initially 1600 characters, later expanded to 2300, and this was approved by a conference in 1986 and by the provincial government in early 1987. It uses all of the very few characters that are shared by the four written traditions, those somewhat more numerous ones which are shared by three or two traditions, and then further characters from any one of the four. Of course this means that it is no one's own writing system. As in Guizhou, speakers of each variety of Yi are intended to use their own pronunciation. However, many people literate in one of the three main local traditions, Nasu, Nisu and Sani, dislike this compromise orthography. Local govern- ments of Autonomous Counties where one of these three groups prepon- derates still use their original orthography: Sani in Shilin Yi Autonomous County, Nasu in Luquan Yi and Miao Autonomous County, and Nisu in Sanie and language loss in China 161 various areas of Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Xinping Yi and Dai Autonomous County and so on. However, the government of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture in north central Yunnan has im- plemented the reformed script, and it is used in the Yi areas around Kunming, such as in some of the villages we have surveyed. Because o½cial Chinese policy accords recognition only to these few ``standard'' varieties of Yi, almost all the other languages and dialects within Yi are endangered and many are in the process of disappearing. For general details about the endangerment of languages within the Yi nationality, see Bradley (1996a, 1998) and Bradley and Bradley (2002). In this article, the situation of one such group, the Sanie, is discussed in its sociolinguistic context. Before that, some general background will be given. 2. The survey From 1997 to 1999, we surveyed ®ve districts and counties around Kunming City: Guandu District to the east, Xishan District to the west, Fumin County to the northwest, Anning County to the southwest, and Jinning County to the south. Partial surveys of two additional counties, Songming County and Yiliang County to the northeast, and some trial observations in Luquan Yi and Miao Autonomous County to the north and Shilin Yi Autonomous County further east were also carried out. For additional details, see Bradley et al. (1999) and Bradley and Bradley (2002). In the core ®ve areas, we located eight distinct speech varieties within the Yi nationality. This included one Northern Yi speech variety, a group calling themselves Nisu and locally called Huang Yi `Yellow Yi', who migrated from Sichuan and are found in four villages in northwestern Fumin County and one village in northwestern Anning County. This speech variety is similar to the Sondi subvernacular of Northern Yi as widely spoken in parts of Sichuan; it is moribund in Anning and endangered in Fumin, but well-maintained in Sichuan. Even Sondi is not very well described, and of course this Huang Yi subvariety was completely undescribed prior to our study. Also located was one Central Yi group, the Miqie, who are scattered over a very wide area from northwest Fumin, southeast Anning and northwest Jinning counties, across Chuxiong Prefecture and further southwest. In two villages in Anning and Jinning, this language is extinct or moribund, but in northern Fumin County and nearby in Luquan, Wuding and Lufeng counties there is a large cluster of villages where it 162 D. Bradley survives better. Five of these are in Fumin. This language was completely undescribed prior to our survey. The Southern Yi group in southwestern Jinning County call theselves Nasu, and speak a variety quite close to the more usual Nisu speech further south in Yuxi City, Honghe Prefecture, eastern Simao Prefecture and into Vietnam. In the area surveyed, Nasu is spoken in three villages at the extreme south of Anning County, and especially in 33 villages in southwestern Jinning County. In some villages in south central Jinning, the language is extinct or moribund, while in others further west, and in some parts of the northern counties of Yuxi City, it is well-preserved. While Nisu as spoken further south is fairly well-documented, this Nasu variety of Nisu was unknown prior to our survey. It is quite distinct from the Eastern Yi Nasu; our survey was the ®rst to document the exact boundary between Eastern and Southern Yi, which runs across southern Yimen, Anning, Jinning and Chenggong Counties. The Eastern subgroup is the most numerous and diverse Yi subgroup in the Kunming area, with ®ve main languages: Nasu, Gepo, Samei, Sa- mataw and Sanie. The Nasu speak varieties quite similar to the main Nasu variety of Luquan and Wuding counties further north. Gao (1958) brie¯y described one such variety, from the western part of Xishan Dis- trict west of the Pudu River. It is also found scattered over most of Fumin County closer to the main concentration to the north in Luquan and Wuding counties, and scattered further south in western Anning County, with one village furthest south in central Jinning County. Of the total of 43 villages in the area surveyed, 25 are in Fumin, 12 in Xishan, 5 in Anning and one in Jinning. While the Nasu language is more or less endangered in quite a few of the villages closest to Kunming, it is well- maintained in core areas further north, and relatively well-described. In the Kunming area, they are called Hei Yi `Black Yi' in Chinese, though this name is applied to many other Yi groups elsewhere. In the extreme northeast of Fumin County there are six villages of Gepo, who call themselves [k¿ªÁ]; the second syllable of the Chinese name is the su½x for `man'.

Load more