| Jino | |
| Also Known As: | Jinuo, Buyuan Jino, Youle Jino, 基諾語補遠方言 |
| Nativename: | Jinuo |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /jiu/ or pronounced as /jiu/ |
| Region: | Sipsongpanna, Dai autonomous prefecture of southern Yunnan (People's Republic of China) |
| Ethnicity: | Jino |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Tibeto-Burman |
| Fam3: | Lolo–Burmese |
| Fam4: | Loloish |
| Fam5: | Southern |
| Dia1: | Youle Jino |
| Dia2: | Buyuan Jino |
| Lc1: | jiu |
| Ld1: | Youle Jinuo |
| Lc2: | jiy |
| Ld2: | Buyuan Jinuo |
| Glotto: | youl1235 |
| Glottorefname: | Youle Jinuo |
The Jino language (Jinuo 基諾語; autonyms: pronounced as /tɕy˦no˦/, pronounced as /ki˦ɲo˦/) constitutes a pair of Loloish language varieties spoken by the Jino people of Yunnan, China.
In total, there are about 28,320 Jinuo people living in China.[1] A total of 70–80% of Jinuo people can speak either of the Jino varieties fluently.[2] The Jino language constitutes the two subdialects of Youle Jino and Buyuan Jinuo,[3] and they are not mutually intelligible.
Buyuan Jino is spoken by 21,000 people;[4] most of the speakers are monolingual, which means they only speak Buyuan Jino.[5] There is no official written form. Most Jino people also speak one of the Tai languages or Chinese. The ISO 639-3 code for the Jino varieties are "jiu" for Youle Jino and "jiy" for Buyuan Jino. The Glottocodes for the Jino varieties are "youl1235" for Youle Jino[6] and "buyu1238" for Buyuan Jino.[7]
The exact classification of Jino within the Loloish branch of Sino-Tibetan language family remains uncertain. Jino is classified as a Southern Loloish (Hanoish) language by Ziwo Lama (2012), but as a Central Loloish language by Bradley (2007).[8] Jino is also classified as a Southern Loloish language in Satterthwaite-Phillips' (2011) computational phylogenetic analysis of the Lolo-Burmese languages.[9]
The use of Jino is rapidly declining: in the 1980s, 70–80% of the Jino people used Jino; in 2000, less than 50% of the population could speak Jino.[10]
The Jino people were recognized by the state council on 6 June 1979 as the last recognized minority nationality in China.
Historically, the Jino people were organized as a matriarchal culture, and “Jino” means “descending from the uncle,” and it refers to the importance of mother’s brother in matriarchal societies.[11]
From a language aspect, Jino is similar to other languages under the branch of the Tibeto-Burman languages, because the Jino people moved from the northwest of Yunnan province to the territories they are at now, but the timing and routes of this migration remain uncertain.
Jino is spoken in Jinuo Township (Jinuo Mountain), located in Jinghong City of the Sipsongpanna Dai autonomous prefecture of Yunnan province, China.
There are five tonemes in Buyuan Jino. Gai believes that the function of tonemes are distinguishing lexical meanings and grammatical meanings.[12]
pronounced as //˥˧// (53) tone is considered difficult to distinguish when listening to a native speaker.
Jino does not have an official writing system, but it developed several systems of signs to cover communication in different situations.[13] The Jino used engraved wooden or bamboo boards to record debts between villages.