The Ersuic languages (, ''Ersu''; also called Duoxu or Erhsu) are a
Qiangic language cluster of the
Sino-Tibetan language family
Sino-Tibetan (also referred to as Trans-Himalayan) is a language family, family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European languages, Indo-European in number of native speakers. Around 1.4 billion people speak a Sino-Tibetan languag ...
. Ersu languages are spoken by about 20,000 people in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
as reported by
.
(alternatively Menia or Menya) is reported to be related, but it is not known how it fits in.
Ersuic speakers live in the western part of China's
Sichuan
Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...
province (several counties within the
Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, often shortened to Ganzi Prefecture, is an autonomous prefecture in the western arm of Sichuan province, China bordering Yunnan to the south, the Tibet Autonomous Region to the west, and Gansu to the north ...
,
Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture
Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture (Nuosu language, Northern Yi: /nɛ˨˩ʂa˧/) is an autonomous prefecture occupying much of the southern extremity of Sichuan province, People's Republic of China. Its seat is Xichang. Liangshan covers an area o ...
, and the
prefecture-level city
A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province of China, province and above a Counties of the People's Republic of China, county in China's ...
of
Ya'an
Ya'an ( zh, s=雅安, p=Yǎ'ān, w=Ya-an) is a prefecture-level city in the western part of Sichuan province, China, located just below the Tibetan Plateau. The city is home to Sichuan Agricultural University, the only Project 211, 211 Project ...
).
[ Most of them are classified by the Chinese government as members of the Tibetan ethnic group,][ although some also are registered as ]Han Chinese
The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...
.[ Older adults mostly use Ersu, but younger people also use ]Chinese
Chinese may refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China.
**'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...
or Yi.
The Ersu Shaba script of the ''shābā'' religious books is a pictograph
A pictogram (also pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto) is a graphical symbol that conveys meaning through its visual resemblance to a physical object. Pictograms are used in systems of writing and visual communication. A pictography is a wri ...
ic system of proto-writing
Proto-writing consists of visible marks communication, communicating limited information. Such systems emerged from earlier traditions of symbol systems in the early Neolithic, as early as the 7th millennium BC in History of China, China a ...
. The system, in which the color of the characters has an effect on the meaning, was inspired by Chinese writing and was created in the 11th century.
Languages
There are three Ersuic languages.
* Ersu 尔苏 (Eastern Ersu) – 13,000 speakers
* Lizu 傈苏, 里汝, 吕苏 (Western Ersu) – 4,000 speakers; 7,000 speakers
* Tosu 多续 (Central Ersu) – 3,000 speakers; almost none remaining
classifies Ersu languages as follows, with defining innovations given in parentheses.
;Proto-Ersuic
* Tosu
* Ersu (''ja''- adjective prefix)
**Hanyuan 汉源
**Zeluo 则落 / Qingshui 清水 (*ui- > ri-, *tɕ- > ts-, etc.)
* Lizu (*j- > ɲ-, *Ke > Kɯ, *riu > ri)
**Mianning 冕宁 (alveopalatal split)
**Central (*st- > k-, *HC- > C-)
***Naiqu 乃渠
***Kala 卡拉 (from )
***Kala 卡拉 (from )
Grammar
Ersu is a subject–object–verb language. It has three tones.
Further reading
*
References
Works cited
*
*
*
*
External links
* ELAR archive o
Ersu language documentation materials
* List of Proto-Ersuic reconstructions (Wiktionary)
{{Na-Qiangic languages
Qiangic languages
Endangered Sino-Tibetan languages
Languages of Sichuan