| Macro-Bai | |
|---|---|
| (tentative) | |
| Geographic distribution | Guizhou, China |
| Linguistic classification | Sino-Tibetan
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | macr1275 |
The Macro-Bai or simply Bai languages (Chinese: 白语支) are a putative group of Sino-Tibetan languages proposed in 2010 by the linguist Zhengzhang, who argued that Bai and Caijia are sister languages. In contrast, Sagart (2011) argues that Caijia and the Waxiang language of northwestern Hunan constitute an early split off from Old Chinese. Additionally, Longjia and Luren are two extinct languages of western Guizhou closely related to Caijia (Guizhou 1984).
Languages
The languages are:
Hölzl (2021) shows that Caijia, Longjia, and Luren are all closely related to each other as part of a linguistic group that he calls Ta–Li or Cai–Long.
Bai has over a million speakers, but Longjia and Luren may both be extinct, while Caijia is highly endangered with approximately 1,000 speakers. The Qixingmin people of Weining County, Guizhou may have also spoken a Macro-Bai language, but currently speak Luoji.
Similarities among Old Chinese, Waxiang, Caijia, and Bai have been pointed out by Wu & Shen (2010). Gong Xun (2015) notes that Bai has both a Sino-Bai vocabulary layer and a non-Sinitic vocabulary layer, which may be Qiangic. Gong also suggested that the Old Chinese layer in Bai is more similar to early 3rd-century central varieties of Old Chinese in Ji, Yan, Si, and Yu that display the phonological innovation from Old Chinese *l̥ˤ- > *xˤ-, than to the eastern Old Chinese varieties (i.e. Qingzhou and Xuzhou, etc.) that later impacted Middle Chinese, which show OC *l̥ˤ- > *tʰˤ- > MC th-. This east-west dialectal division in Old Chinese has also been noted by Baxter & Sagart (2014:113-114).
See also
References
- ^ Zhèngzhāng Shàngfāng . 2010. Càijiāhuà Báiyǔ guānxì jí cígēn bǐjiào . In Pān Wǔyún and Shěn Zhōngwěi (eds.). Yánjūzhī Lè, The Joy of Research , II, 389–400. Shanghai: Shanghai Educational Publishing House.
- Sagart, Laurent. 2011. Classifying Chinese dialects/Sinitic languages on shared innovations. Talk given at Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l’Asie orientale, Norgent sur Marne.
- Guizhou provincial ethnic classification commission, linguistic division . 1982. The language of the Caijia . m.s.
- ^ Guizhou provincial ethnic classification commission . 1984. Report on ethnic classification issues of the Nanlong people (Nanjing-Longjia) . m.s.
- Guizhou Province Gazetteer: Ethnic Gazetteer (2002). Guiyang: Guizhou Ethnic Publishing House .
- "白族家园-讲义寨". 222.210.17.136. 2011-01-28. Archived from the original on 2014-10-17. Retrieved 2013-11-27.
- ^ Hölzl, Andreas. 2021. Longjia (China) - Language Contexts. Language Documentation and Description 20, 13-34.
- Wu Yunji, Shen Ruiqing . 2010. An Investigative Report of Waxianghua of Guzhang County, Xiangxi Prefecture . Shanghai Educational Press .
- Gong Xun (2015). How Old is the Chinese in Bái? Reexamining Sino-Bái under the Baxter-Sagart reconstruction Archived 2021-03-05 at the Wayback Machine. Paper presented at the Recent Advances in Old Chinese Historical Phonology workshop, SOAS, London.
- Baxter, William H.; Sagart, Laurent (2014), Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-994537-5.
| Sino-Tibetan branches | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Himalayas (Himachal, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Sikkim) |
|  | |||
| Eastern Himalayas (Tibet, Bhutan, Arunachal) | |||||
| Myanmar and Indo- Burmese border |
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| East and Southeast Asia |
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| Dubious (possible isolates) (Arunachal) |
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| Proposed groupings | |||||
| Proto-languages | |||||
| Italics indicates single languages that are also considered to be separate branches. | |||||