The Maonan language () is a Kam–Sui language spoken mainly 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 ...

by the

Maonan people The Maonan people (; Maonan: ''Anan'', literally "local people") are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. There are a total of 101,192 Maonan as of 2010, mostly living in northern Guangxi and so ...

, specifically in northern

Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...

and southern

Guizhou ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_map = Guizhou in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_alt = Map showing the location of Guizhou Province , map_caption = Map s ...

. Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County,

Hechi Hechi ( zh, c=河池) is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China, bordering Guizhou to the north. The actual inner city itself is referred as Jinchengjiang ( zh, c=金城江). ...

, northern

, holds a concentrated number of speakers.Lu, Tian Qiao (2008). ''A Grammar of Maonan''. Boca Raton, Florida: Universal Publishers. .

Demographics

Approximately half of all Maonan people are capable of speaking Maonan. In addition to this, many Maonan also speak Chinese or a

Zhuang language The Zhuang languages (; autonym: , , pre-1982: , Sawndip: 話僮, from ''vah'', 'language' and ''Cuengh'', 'Zhuang'; ) are the more than a dozen Tai languages spoken by the Zhuang people of Southern China in the province of Guangxi and adjacen ...

. About 1/3 of all people who self-identify as Maonan are concentrated in the southern

province. They speak a mutually unintelligible dialect commonly called ''Yanghuang'', which is more commonly known as the

Then language The Then language (also known as Yánghuáng 佯僙语 in Chinese; alternate spellings: Tʻen and Ten) is a Kam–Sui language spoken in Pingtang and Huishui counties, southern Guizhou. It is spoken by the Yanghuang 佯僙 people, many of who ...

in Western literature. The Maonan do not have a writing system. Other than Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County in

, Maonan is also spoken in the following locations.Guangxi Minority Languages Orthography Committee. 2008. ''Vocabularies of Guangxi ethnic languages ��西民族语言方音词汇'. Beijing: Nationalities Publishing House ��族出版社 *

Nandan County Nandan (, ) is a county of Hechi City, in the northwest of Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South ...

* Du'an Yao Autonomous County,

* Yizhou,

Libo County Libo County () is a county of southern Guizhou province, China, bordering Guangxi to the south. It is under the administration of the Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. Geography The county is located in the remote southeastern corner o ...

Pingtang County Pingtang County () is a county in the Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou province, China, bordering Guangxi to the south. It is a high mountain valley and is inhabited mainly by members of the Buyei and Miao ethnic minoritie ...

Phonology

Maonan is a tonal language with 8 tones (Lu 2008:90–91), featuring an SVO clause construction (Lu 2008:169). (See Proto-Tai language#Tones for an explanation of the tone numbers.) For example:

Syntax

Maonan displays a head-first modification structure, i.e. the modifier occurring after the word being modified (Lu 2008:170). For example: Occasionally, a head-final modification structure is also possible with the involvement of a possessive particle (P.P.) ''ti⁵''. For example: (cf. the more common ''bo⁴ jaːn¹ ndaːu¹)'' (Lu 2008:173-174).

Writing system

The Maonan writing system was established in 2010. It is based on 26 Latin letters to facilitate standard keyboard input. The letters ''z, j, x, s, h'' are attached to the end of each syllable as tonal markers, representing tones 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 respectively. The first tone is not written. Syllables ending in -b, -d, -g, -p, -t, -k do not distinguish tone either. The writing system is being used among a limited number of Maonan intellectuals.Maonan website: http://maonan.org/wenzi/shengdiao.asp For example:

References

External links

Maonan.info by Lu Tianqiao
{{Tai-Kadai languages Languages of Guangxi Kam–Sui languages