Jino language explained

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.

Varieties

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]

Classification

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]

History

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.

Geographic distribution

Jino is spoken in Jinuo Township (Jinuo Mountain), located in Jinghong City of the Sipsongpanna Dai autonomous prefecture of Yunnan province, China.

Tonemes

There are five tonemes in Buyuan Jino. Gai believes that the function of tonemes are distinguishing lexical meanings and grammatical meanings.[12]

  1. pronounced as //˥// (high level tone, 55): it tends to phonetically shorten vowels
  2. pronounced as //˦// (mid level tone, 44): lower than 55, though still high
  3. pronounced as //˧˩// (low falling tone, 31)
  4. pronounced as //˧˥// (rising tone, 35)
  5. pronounced as //˥˧// (high falling tone, 53)

pronounced as //˥˧// (53) tone is considered difficult to distinguish when listening to a native speaker.

Writing system

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.

References

Notes and References

  1. Web site: People Group Profiles . 2017-05-01 . Asia Harvest . en.
  2. Web site: Moseley . Christopher . 2012 . Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger . UNESCO . en.
  3. Hayashi . Norihiko . 2013 . A Sketch of Buyuan Jino Tones and Their Development . Annals of Foreign Studies . en . 83 . 19–34.
  4. News: Jinuo, Buyuan . Ethnologue . 2017-03-09.
  5. Web site: Buyuan Jinuo . 2017-03-08 . Endangered Languages . en.
  6. Web site: Jino . 2017-03-09 . Glottolog . en.
  7. Web site: 2016 . Hammarström . Harald . Jino . . Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History . Jena . en . Forkel . Robert . Haspelmath . Martin . Bank . Sebastian.
  8. Book: Bradley, David . Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages . 2007 . Routledge . Moseley . Christopher . London . 349–424 . en . East and Southeast Asia.
  9. Satterthwaite-Phillips . Damian . Phylogenetic Inference of the Tibeto-Burman Languages or on the Usefulness of Lexicostatistics (and "Megalo"-Comparison) for the Subgrouping of Tibeto-Burman . 2011 . Ph.D. . Stanford University . en.
  10. Book: Yuming, Li . The Language Situation in China . Wei . Li . 2013 . Walter de Gruyter . 978-1-61451-253-0 . Berlin . en.
  11. Book: Minahan, James B. . Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia . 2014 . ABC-CLIO . 978-1-61069-018-8 . Santa Barbara, California . en.
  12. Book: Gai, Xingzhi 盖兴之 . Jīnuòyǔ jiǎnzhì . 1986 . Minzu chubanshe . Beijing . zh . zh:基诺语简志 . A Brief Description of the Jinuo Language.
  13. Book: Arcones, Pedro Ceinos . China's Last But One Matriarchy: The Jino of Yunnan . 2013 . Papers of the White Dragon . Kunming . en.