The Chadong language (also called Chaodong, ) is a Kam–Sui language spoken mainly in Chadong Township, Lingui County, Guilin, northeastern

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It is most closely related to the Maonan language. Chadong has only been recently described by Chinese linguist

Jinfang Li Li Jinfang (; born October 1963 in Tianlin County, GuangxiLi Jinfang ��锦芳 2006. Studies on endangered languages in the Southwest China ��南地区濒危语言调查研究 Beijing: Minzu University.) is a Chinese linguist at Minzu University ...

in the 1990s and 2000s. Speakers are classified by the Chinese government as ethnic Han.

History

According to inscriptions from the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

, Chadong speakers originally came from Qingyuanfu, Nandan,

, which is located further to the west. They were originally sent to the Guilin area during the

Yuan Dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...

in order to suppress local Zhuang and Yao rebellions.

Genetics

Qiongying Deng and Chuan-Chao Wang et al. (2013) have reported that most of the patrilineal and matrilineal gene pools of Chadong are characteristic lineages of southern China. Some ancient Southeast Asian lineages (Y chromosome haplogroups C and D, mtDNA haplogroups M*, M33, M74, and R*) were also identified in Chadong. Chadong shows patterns of the Y chromosome and mtDNA diversities similar to other southern populations, especially Kam-Sui populations, which was actually in accordance with linguistic classification. However, the origin of Chadong seems to be much more complex. Recent gene flow from Sino-Tibetan populations is detected in the patrilineal side of Chadong, such as Y chromosome haplogroups O3a1c-002611, O3a2c1*-M134, and O3a2c1a-M117, probably through the expansion and dispersal of Han Chinese. From the matrilineal aspect, most mtDNA haplogroups of Chadong also clustered together with Hmong-Mien, and obvious gene flow from Tibeto-Burman populations to Chadong was also observed in haplogroup F1a. Taken together, the origin of Chadong are mainly results of an admixture between surrounding populations with the indigenous Kam-Sui populations. Within the Kam-Sui populations, Chadong is more closely related to Mulam than to Maonan, especially from the matrilineal side.

Distribution

In Liangjiang, the Chadong language is less conservative due to influences from Zhuang,

Pinghua Pinghua (; Yale romanization of Cantonese, Yale: ''Pìhng Wá''; sometimes disambiguated as /) is a pair of Sinitic languages spoken mainly in parts of the Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with some speakers in Hunan province. Pinghua ...

(Liangjiang Pinghua 两江平话 dialect), and

Southwestern Mandarin Southwestern Mandarin (), also known as Upper Yangtze Mandarin (), is a Mandarin Chinese language spoken in much of Southwest China, including in Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Guizhou, most parts of Hubei, the northwestern part of Hunan, the northe ...

(Diller, et al. 2008). Chadong is spoken by 18,000 people in 98 villages, while there are 104 ethnic Chadong villages with 20,547 people as of 2000 (Li et al. 2012). *Chadong 茶洞乡, Lingui County *Liangjiang 两江镇, Lingui County *Longjiang 龙江乡, Yongfu County

References

*Li Rulong ��如龙 Hou Xiaoying ��小英 Lin Tiansong ��天送 Qin Kai ��恺 2012. ''A study of Chadong'' ��洞语研究 Beijing: Ethnic Publishing House. .

External links

Chadong word list from the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
{{Tai-Kadai languages Languages of China Kam–Sui languages Guangxi