The Pakanic languages constitute a branch of two
Austroasiatic languages
The Austroasiatic languages ( ) are a large language family spoken throughout Mainland Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. These languages are natively spoken by the majority of the population in Vietnam and Cambodia, and by minority popu ...
,
Bolyu and
Bugan. They are spoken in
Guangxi
Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...
and
Yunnan
Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
provinces of southern China.
Mang was formerly included, but is now considered by
Paul Sidwell to form its own separate branch within Austroasiatic.
[Sidwell, Paul. (2021)]
''Austroasiatic Dispersal: the AA "Water-World" Extended''SEALS 2021
Video)
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Classification
Jenny & Sidwell (2015) consider Pakanic to be an independent branch of Austroasiatic.
Various classifications had previously been proposed for individual Pakanic languages. In 1990, Paul K. Benedict argued that Bolyu constitutes a separate Mon-Khmer branch. Edmondson & Gregerson (1996) listed many phonological and lexical similarities shared by Bolyu and Vietic languages. However, Gérard Diffloth later suggested that Pakanic (i.e., Bolyu and Bugan) shares an affinity with Palaungic languages and was part of a wider Northern Mon-Khmer group.
''Mangic'' proposal
''Mangic'', a proposed language grouping that includes Mang as a sister to Pakanic within a unified subgroup of Austroasiatic, is recognized by Ilia Peiros (2004) and Sidwell's earlier classifications. Nguyen Van Loi also classified Mang within the Samtau group of Waic with Palaungic, although he later classified Mang as a sister of Waic (Sidwell 2009:133).
Reconstruction
Proto-Pakanic, the proto-language
In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unatte ...
ancestral to Bolyu and Bugan but not Mang, was reconstructed by Andrew Hsiu (2016).Guizhou
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and were in close contact with Gelao. Hsiu (2017) also notes that Pakanic languages display loanword influence from Kra languages, and have also influenced Kra languages.
See also
* Mang language, formerly considered to be closely related
References
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Further reading
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External links
Mang vocabulary from SEAlang
Bolyu vocabulary from SEAlang
RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage)
Pakanic languages in RWAAI Digital Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palyu Languages