Paha or Baha (

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

Kra language The Kra languages (also known as the Geyang 仡央 or Kadai languages) are a branch of the Kra–Dai language family spoken in southern China ( Guizhou, Guangxi, Yunnan) and in northern Vietnam (Hà Giang Province). Names The name ''Kra'' c ...

spoken in northern

Guangnan County Guangnan County (; Zhuang: ) is located in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan province, China. The seat of Guangnan, known today as Liancheng (), was the heart of the Gouding Kingdom () that lasted approximately 400 years, fr ...

, Wenshan Prefecture,

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 ...

. The two villages are located near the border with Longlin County,

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam ...

. Paha is often considered to be part of the Buyang dialect cluster and is the most divergent form. Although listed in

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ...

as Baha Buyang (ISO 639-3
yha
, Thai linguist Weera Ostapirat considers Paha to be a separate language.

Demographics

Within

(广南县),

, the Paha language is spoken in the two villages of Yangliancun (央连村) (from Zhuang ' "lonely Buyang illage) in Dixu Township (底圩乡) and Anshecun (安舍村) in Bada Township 八达乡. While Yanglian has around 500 Paha speakers, Anshe only has about 100 speakers left. Paha speakers are shifting rapidly to Zhuang 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 nort ...

, particularly in Anshe village. Many Buyang men in Yanglian village are also married to Zhuang women.

Phonology

Consonants

Paha Buyang has the following consonants.

Vowels

Paha Buyang has the following vowels. The three high vowels and the low vowel can be long.

Grammar

Unlike the Buyang dialects of Langjia, Ecun, and Yalang, Paha negatives (such as ) precede the verb, whereas the Buyang dialects always place negatives at the end of a sentence. This phenomenon in Paha is probably due to Chinese influence.

References

External links

ABVD: Paha word list
{{Tai-Kadai languages Kra languages Languages of Yunnan