The Xiandao language (Xiandao: ''Chintau'' ; ) is an endangered Burmish language spoken by the Xiandao people who live at the border area between

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

and

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ...

, China. It is closely related to the Achang language and is considered by many scholars to be an Achang

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that ...

, due to similarities in syntax and

vocabulary A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...

. This is one way in which Xiandao can be described. The second is as an independent language due to the social and cultural differences between the Xiandao and

Achang people The Achang (), also known as the Ngac'ang (their own name) is an ethnic group.They are one of tibeto burman language speaking people. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They also live ...

Classification

Xiandao is a minority language spoken in

Yingjiang County Yingjiang County (; th, เมืองหล้า) is a county in Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan province, China, bordering Burma's Kachin State to the west. Geography Yingjiang county has a border of with Kachin State, Myanmar in the west. T ...

Yunnan Province Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

, China near the border of

. Despite technically being in China, the language emerged from Burmish languages and has few Sinitic qualities. It is a part of the Burmish Tibeto-Burmese language family. The Xiandao people were included in China's unclassified national minority category until 1980 when they became classified as a part of the Achang nationality. Generally, Xiandao is considered to be a dialect of

Achang The Achang (), also known as the Ngac'ang (their own name) is an ethnic group.They are one of tibeto burman language speaking people. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They also live ...

. However, the Xiandao community considers themselves separate from the Achang people.

History

This group was previously located in the mountains of the China-Myanmar border. In 1958, the Chinese government assisted six families in moving down from the harsh mountainous region to the nearby village of Meng'er. The government helped move the remaining ten families to Mangmian village in 1998. The Xiandao community is considered to be one of the poorest and most primitive groups in Yingjiang County. The members of this group traditionally relied on making bamboo cushions and wage labor for livelihood. The Xiandao community in Mangmian has been primarily

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

since 1993. A church was built in 1995 and service is conducted in Jingpo. There is no Chinese historical record of the Xiandao people. According to local legend, the Xiandao were a group that were left behind when the rest of their group migrated to a new place. They realized that they were too far behind to catch up, and settled in Yingjiang. In the beginning, they had a large population that was decimated by

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) ce ...

epidemics. Due to linguistic similarities, it is believed that the Xiandao were originally a part of the Achang ethnic group living in Husa and Lasa. After long separation, they have developed a culture of their own, with differences in marriage tradition, religious practice, and customs. Because of their cultural differences, the Xiandao people believe that they are different from the Achang despite their official status.

Distribution

The language is distributed over two villages in Jiemao Township, Yingjiang County, Yunnan Province: * Mangmian * Meng'er

Status

The Xiandao language is currently endangered. All Xiandao speakers know

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standa ...

, and many also speak Jingpo. Most community members are bilingual or trilingual. Children attend a local semi-boarding school where they learn in Standard Chinese along with children of Dai, Jingpo, and

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...

descent. The language appears to be more well-kept in Mangmian than Meng'er.

Phonology

The Xiandao language consists of 40

initials In a written or published work, an initial capital, also referred to as a drop capital or simply an initial cap, initial, initcapital, initcap or init or a drop cap or drop, is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter, or a paragraph that ...

, 65 rimes, and 4 tones. It has three more initials than

. Due to the current lack of documentation of Xiandao, phonological information may be incomplete.

Consonants

There are 15

consonants In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced w ...

, a

voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative The voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ("c", plus the curl also found in its voiced counter ...

(sometimes used in oral languages), and a glottal stop present in Xiandao. The

plosives In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...

, , and all have aspirated

allophones In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...

and along with and �can all be combined with a

retroflex A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the ha ...

Devoicing In phonology, voicing (or sonorization) is a sound change where a voiceless consonant becomes voiced due to the influence of its phonological environment; shift in the opposite direction is referred to as devoicing or desonorization. Most comm ...

of consonants is also common. This non-exhaustive list does not include all possible sound variations of Xiandao consonants.

Vowels

The Xiandao language has approximately 8 vowels, 4 possible

diphthongs A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...

and one

triphthong In phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech a ...

: , , , and .

Tones

Xiandao has four tones: high level , high rising , low falling , and high falling . In non-IPA transcriptions, they are written as , , and , respectively. This system is shared with the Achang language.

Orthography

The Xiandao language does not have its own writing system, but rather relies on rich oral traditions such as storytelling, song, and word of mouth to communicate and keep traditions and practices alive. When the Xiandao need to read, they can read in Chinese or Jingpo.

Lexicon

Because of a lack of documentation and shared information of the Xiandao language, there are not many records of Xiandao words. A few commonly-used words are listed below. The Xiandao language has the ability to create compound words. As seen above, the word for “wolf” () is a combination of “mountain” () and “dog” ().

Loanwords

The Xiandao language borrows many words from its neighboring languages such as Achang, Dai, Jingpo, and Chinese. This is the case because the Xiandao language lacks words for abstracts like hope, fame, sorrow, as well as descriptions like careful, proud, and brave. Additionally, words for non-traditional tools like shovel, glue and drill are not present and must be borrowed.

References

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