Lolopo (autonyms: ', '; ; Central Yi) is a
Loloish language
The Loloish languages, also known as Yi (like the Yi people) and occasionally Ngwi or Nisoic, are a family of 50–100 Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily in the Yunnan province of Southwestern China. They are most closely related to Bur ...
spoken by half a million
Yi people
The Yi or Nuosu people (Nuosu language, Nuosu: , ; see also #Names and subgroups, § Names and subgroups) are an ethnic group in South China, southern China. Numbering nine million people, they are the seventh largest of the 55 Ethnic minorit ...
of
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 ...
. Chinese speakers call it Central Yi, as the name Lolopo does not exist in Chinese. It is one of the six
Yi languages recognized by the government of China.
Distribution
The Lolo language is mainly spoken in central
Yunnan
Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
. It is also spoken in
Laos
Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...
.
In Laos, Lolo is spoken in three villages of
Phongsaly Province
Phongsaly province ( Lao ຜົ້ງສາລີ), also spelled ''Phôngsali'', is a province of Laos in the extreme north of the country. The capital of the province is the city of Phôngsali. Phongsaly is between Yunnan (China), and Điệ ...
. An alternative spelling of Lolopo is Lolopho.
Names
Lolo speakers are referred to by a variety of exonyms. Below is a list of exonyms followed by their respective autonyms and demographics.
[Yang, Cathryn. 2011. ''Assessment of the Lolo languages: Current understanding and recommended next steps''. m.s.]
*
Mili: ' (spoken by about 12,000 people in
Jingdong County
Jingdong Yi Autonomous County (; ) is an autonomous county in southern Yunnan Province, China. It is the northernmost county-level division of the prefecture-level city of Pu'er. Jingdong borders Nanhua County, Chuxiong City and Shuangbai Cou ...
). Also called ''Alie''.
*Enipu 厄尼蒲 (' 'water buffalo people', an offensive exonym used by
Lalo speakers): ' (spoken in
Nanjian County). Spoken by nearly 20,000 people in Weishan County (Qinghua Township) and Nanjian County (in Wuliang, Xiaowandong, and Langcang townships)
*Tu 土 (Tuzu 土族): ' (spoken by nearly 10,000 people in southern
Xiangyun County)
*Qiangyi 羌夷: ' (spoken by nearly 15,000 people in northern and central
Xiangyun County)
*Eastern Lalu: ' (spoken by nearly 20,000 people in
Xinping County and
Zhenyuan County). The Xinping dialect is documented in Wang (2020). In Xinping County, there are about 3,000 ethnic "Lalu" (腊鲁; i.e., Lolopo) in Malutang 马鹿塘 and Mowei 磨味 villages, located in Jianxing Township 建兴乡.
*Lolo (of northeastern
Binchuan County): '
*Xiangtang 香堂 (spoken in
Zhenkang County
Zhenkang County () is located in western Yunnan province, China, bordering Burma's Shan State to the west. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Lincang.
Ethnic groups
Ethnic Bulang are found in the following villages i ...
). Widespread distribution in Jinggu, Zhenyuan, Pu'er, Jiangcheng, Mengla, Jinghong, and Zhenkang counties, with perhaps under 80,000 speakers.
*Lolo (of
Nanhua County): '
*Lolo (of
Yao'an County): '
*Wotizo: ' (Yang 2010:7)
Classification
Yang (2011) proposes this tentative internal classification of Lolo.
*Southern Lolo (?)
**Western Lolo (Southern Lolopo in ''
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' 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 comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...
''
[)
**Xiangtang
**Jingdong Lolo (Mili)
*Southern Dali Lolo (Enipu)
*Nanhua Lolo
**Eastern Lalu
**Tu
*Binchuan Lolo (?)
*Yao'an Lolo (Qiangyi) (?)
The ''Chuxiong Prefecture Ethnic Gazetteer'' (2013:364) lists the following cognacy percentages between Lolopo 罗罗濮 and other Yi languages in Chuxiong Prefecture.
* Ache 阿车: 74.86% (211/282)
* Chesu 车苏: 55% (155/282)
* Luowu 罗武: 75.89% (214/282)
* Shansu 山苏: 78.4% (221/282)
* Lipo 里濮: 93.36% (253/271)
]
Phonology
Consonants
* before stops and fricatives are heard as syllabic sounds , , and .
* is also heard in free variation as a voiced lateral fricative .
Vowels
There is distinction between tight-throat vowels and lax-throat (plain) vowels.
* Sounds are pronounced as syllabic consonants when following alveolar sibilants, and as when following in a low tone syllable.
* Sounds are heard as syllabic consonants when following alveolar sibilants.
* Sounds are heard as central sounds when following alveolar consonants.
* is heard as open-mid following alveolar plosives , a palatal fricative , and within palatalized diphthongs .
Tones
References
External links
* An audio recording of a word list in Lolopo is archived with Kaipuleohone
{{Lolo-Burmese languages
Loloish languages