Ai-Cham (
autonym
Autonym may refer to:
* Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym
* Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name
See also
* Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...
: '; ) is a
Kam–Sui language spoken mainly in Diwo 地莪 and Boyao 播尧 Townships, Jialiang District,
Libo County
Libo County () is a county of southern Guizhou province, China, bordering Guangxi to the south. It is under the administration of the Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.
Geography
The county is located in the remote southeastern corner ...
,
Qiannan Prefecture,
Guizhou
Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to the ...
,
China. Alternative names for the language are Jiamuhua, Jinhua and Atsam.
Fang-Kuei Li first distinguished the language in 1943. Nearby languages include
Bouyei and
Mak. However, Yang (2000) considers Ai-Cham and Mak to be different dialects of an identical language.
Ai-Cham has six tones. Regarded of speaker's nationality, they are being subsumed under "Bouyei" nationality (same with speakers of Mak language).
The mythical patriarch and hero of the Ai-Cham people is the
demigod
A demigod or demigoddess is a part-human and part-divine offspring of a deity and a human, or a human or non-human creature that is accorded divine status after death, or someone who has attained the "divine spark" ( spiritual enlightenment). A ...
Wu Sangui, who is celebrated during the Ai-Cham New Year.
[Lin, Shi and Cui Jianxin. 1988. "An investigation of the Ai-Cham language." In Jerold A. Edmondson and David B. Solnit (eds.), Comparative Kadai: Linguistic studies beyond Tai, 59-85. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics, 86. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.]
References
* Edmondson, J. A., & Solnit, D. B. (1988). ''Comparative Kadai: linguistic studies beyond Tai''. Summer Institute of Linguistics publications in linguistics, no. 86.
rlington, Tex. Summer Institute of Linguistics. .
Kam–Sui languages
Languages of China
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