Bumang () is a tonal
Austroasiatic language of
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
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
. It is spoken by about 200 people in Manzhang (曼仗), Mengla District (勐拉地区),
Jinping County,
Honghe Prefecture. The existence of Bumang was only recently documented by Chinese linguist Dao Jie in the mid-2000s. It is closely related to
Kháng.
Classification
Jerold A. Edmondson (2010) considers Bumang and the closely related
Kháng language to be
Khmuic languages
The Khmuic languages are a branch of the Austroasiatic languages spoken mostly in northern Laos, as well as in neighboring northern Vietnam and southern Yunnan, China. Khmu is the only widely spoken language in the group.
Homeland
Paul Sidwe ...
based on lexical evidence, while Dao Jie (刀洁, 2007) proposes that Bumang may be a
Palaungic language.
Although Bumang and
Mang have similar names and are both spoken in
Honghe Prefecture of
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 ...
Province in China, they are not closely related and do not appear to be in the same branch together.
Whereas Edmondson considers Bumang to likely be a Khmuic language, Mang is not one, and is more closely related to the
Bolyu and
Bugan languages of southern China.
Population
The Bumang autonym is '.
In China, the Bumang are classified as part of the
Dai nationality. Bumang speakers are surrounded by speakers of White Tai (
Tai Don), Black Tai (
Tai Dam
The Tai Dam ( Tai Dam: , lo, ໄຕດຳ, th, ไทดำ) are an ethnic minority predominantly from China, northwest Vietnam, Laos, Thailand. They are part of the Tai peoples and ethnically similar to the Thai from Thailand, the Lao fro ...
), and Pu'er Dai. Bumang women's clothing is identical to that of the
Kháng,
Ksingmul, White Tai, and Black Tai.
Within Manzhang (曼仗), Mengla District (勐拉地区), Bumang is spoken in Shangmanzhang (上曼仗, with 22 households; known in the Bumang language as ') and Xiamanzhang (下曼仗, with 49 households). Shangmanzhang (上曼仗) is located in Tiantou Village (田头村), Mengla Township (勐拉乡), while Xiamanzhang (下曼仗) is situated on a state-run rubber plantation (国营橡胶农场).
The Bumang are descended from
Kháng people who had immigrated from Vietnam in the 1800s.
Phonology
Like
Kháng, Bumang is a tonal language.
References
Works cited
*
*
External links
Bumang numerals at Lingweb.eva.mpg.deISO 639-3 Registration Authority Request for New Language Code Element in ISO 639-3 (change request number: 2012-048)ISO 639-3 Registration Authority Request for Change to ISO 639-3 Language Code (change request number: 2012-048)
{{Austroasiatic languages
Khmuic languages
Mangic languages
Languages of Yunnan
Tonal languages