A sociolinguistic survey of Kua-nsi and related Yi varieties in Heqing county, Yunnan province, China Andy Castro Brian Crook Royce Flaming In cooperation with Heqing County Minority and Religious Affairs Bureau January 2010 SIL Electronic Survey Report 2010-001, March 2010 Copyright © 2009 Andy Castro, Brian Crook, Royce Flaming, and SIL International All rights reserved 云南省大理白族自治州鹤庆县 彝族夸恩斯支系及相关支系社会语言学方言调查 康蔼德 (英) (Andy Castro) 郭百忍 (加) (Brian Crook) 傅睿杰 (美) (Royce Flaming) 姜 春 (译) 合作单位 鹤庆县民族宗教事务局 世界少数民族语文研究院东亚部 2010 年 1 月 2 Contents Abstract...................................................................................................................................................... 5 1 Acknowledgements............................................................................................................................. 6 2 Introduction........................................................................................................................................ 6 2.1 General overview.................................................................................................................. 6 2.2 The Kua-nsi........................................................................................................................... 8 2.3 Other Yi groups in Heqing.................................................................................................... 9 2.4 Linguistic classification....................................................................................................... 10 2.5 Other languages spoken in Heqing ..................................................................................... 12 3 Survey objectives.............................................................................................................................. 12 4 Methodology .................................................................................................................................... 13 4.1 Site selection....................................................................................................................... 13 4.2 Tools................................................................................................................................... 14 4.2.1 Interview schedules.................................................................................................... 16 4.2.2 Wordlists .................................................................................................................... 17 4.2.3 Recorded Text Testing (RTT) for Yi varieties ............................................................. 19 4.2.4 RTTs for testing bilingualism in Bai ........................................................................... 21 5 Research results................................................................................................................................ 22 5.1 Demographic information................................................................................................... 22 5.2 Folk history of the Heqing Yi.............................................................................................. 25 5.3 Heqing Yi dialect variation................................................................................................. 27 5.3.1 Lexical similarity........................................................................................................ 27 5.3.2 Levenshtein distance .................................................................................................. 30 5.3.3 RTT results................................................................................................................. 31 5.3.4 Reported intelligibility ............................................................................................... 33 5.3.5 Dialect variation conclusions ..................................................................................... 34 5.4 Language vitality ................................................................................................................ 35 5.4.1 Multilingualism .......................................................................................................... 35 5.4.2 In the home................................................................................................................ 35 5.4.3 At the market ............................................................................................................. 35 5.4.4 In school..................................................................................................................... 36 5.4.5 In government............................................................................................................ 36 5.4.6 Intermarriage ............................................................................................................. 37 5.4.7 Language vitality conclusions .................................................................................... 37 5.5 Cultural vitality .................................................................................................................. 38 5.5.1 The Kua-nsi ................................................................................................................ 38 5.5.2 The Sonaga................................................................................................................. 39 5.5.3 The Zibusi of Daqing.................................................................................................. 40 5.5.4 The Laizisi of Moguang .............................................................................................. 40 5.5.5 Summary of cultural vitality ...................................................................................... 40 6 Conclusions and recommendations................................................................................................... 40 3 Appendix A: Administrative units in Chinese ......................................................................................... 36 Appendix B: RTT texts ............................................................................................................................. 37 Appendix C: RTT participant screening questions.................................................................................... 44 Appendix D: RTT participant data ........................................................................................................... 45 Appendix E: Group interview schedule .................................................................................................... 45 Appendix F: Village leader interview schedule ........................................................................................ 49 Appendix G: Wordlists ............................................................................................................................. 52 References................................................................................................................................................ 75 4 Abstract The purpose of this survey was to make an initial sociolinguistic documentation of Kua-nsi (跨恩斯话) and related Yi (Ngwi) varieties of northern Heqing county (鹤庆县), Yunnan province, and to make a preliminary evaluation of levels of inter-comprehension and lexical similarity. Five different language varieties were documented: Kua-nsi (跨恩斯话), Kuamasi (跨玛斯话), Laizisi (莱兹斯话), Zibusi (子逋斯话), and Sonaga (锁内嘎话). Based on an initial evaluation, the authors believe that none of these varieties are mutually intelligible to a high degree. Based on both lexical similarity scores and Levenshtein distance analysis, the closest known Yi variety to Kua-nsi is Talu (他留话), spoken in Yongsheng county (永胜县). All of these varieties exhibit typical features of other Central Ngwi languages, such as Lalo (拉罗话) and Lolo (倮倮话). They are all threatened speech varieties. Kua-nsi, with over 5,000 speakers, and Sonaga, with over 2,000 speakers, can be said to have the highest linguistic and cultural vitality. 5 1 Acknowledgements The authors would like to express their gratitude to Jiao Xiongcai of the Heqing County Minority and Religious Affairs Bureau and Duan Desan of the Heqing Cultural Centre. Our fieldwork would not have been possible without them. They were enthusiastic about the survey from the beginning and provided much essential support and encouragement. They also provided us with people to accompany us during field research and arranged for us to meet people from whom we collected the data. The authors would also like to personally thank Zi Haiwei, from San’gezhuang village, Liuhe township, Heqing, who accompanied us on trips and was faithful in translating back and forth between Bai, Kua-nsi and Chinese. He also assisted with the transcription of the wordlists. We are also grateful for the enthusiastic help of all the villagers in Heqing whom we interviewed. They were tireless helpers who enabled our research to be completed in an efficient and timely manner. 2 Introduction 2.1 General overview The Yi are one of the largest minority groups in China, with a total population of over 5.4 million.1 They are scattered over a huge area of south west China, primarily in Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces. The Yi are one of the most diverse ethnic minority groups in China. There are numerous branches of the Yi, each with their own customs, traditional dress, and language.2 Heqing county, the location of our study, is situated in north-east Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan