Kathu language explained
| Kathu |
| Also Known As: | Thou |
| States: | China |
| Region: | Guangnan County |
| Ethnicity: | Yi |
| Speakers: | 5,000 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Lolo-Burmese |
| Fam3: | Mondzish |
| Dia1: | Kathu |
| Dia2: | Thou |
| Iso3: | ykt |
| Glotto: | kath1251 |
| Glottorefname: | Thou-Kathu |
Kathu is a Lolo-Burmese language of Balong (坝聋), Nanping Township (南屏镇), Guangnan County, Yunnan, China.[1] The Kathu are locally known as the White Yi (白彝). Wu Zili (2004) estimates that Kathu has a total of more than 7,000 speakers in Guangnan County (including in Dayashao 大牙少[2]), as well as in Jinping County, Yunnan. Ethnologue mentions a possible presence in Guangxi Province.
A related variety is known as Thou.
Kathu-Thou is notable for having initial consonant clusters, which within the Lolo-Burmese branch are also found in Written Burmese (Old Burmese) and Jinuo (Hsiu 2014:66). Wu (2004) lists the onset clusters pl, pʰl, bl, ml, kl, kʰl, gl, ql, qʰl, ɢl, ŋl.
Varieties
Hsiu (2014:65) identifies two varieties, both spoken in Nanping Township (南屏镇).
- Kathu (autonym: pronounced as /ka33 θu33/), spoken in Anwang village 安王村
- Thou (autonym: pronounced as /θou̯53/), spoken in Balong village 坝聋村
Classification
Kathu vocabulary is largely similar to those of other Mondzish languages. However, there are various words that do not appear to be of Lolo-Burmese origin, and are derived from an unknown Tibeto-Burman branch (Hsiu 2014).[3] Hsiu (2014) suggests that Kathu could be added to George van Driem's list of Trans-Himalayan "fallen leaves."
Bradley (1997)[4] classified Kathu as a Northern Loloish language, while Bradley (2007)[5] classified it as a Southeastern Loloish language. However, Pelkey (2011:458)[6] notes that Kathu and Mo'ang are not Southeastern Loloish languages.
See also
- Kathu word list (Wiktionary)
References
- Wu Zili [武自立]. 2004. "Gasu language [嘎僳话]". In Studies on selected languages of Yunnan [云南特殊语言研究], 486-513. Kunming: Yunnan People's Press [云南民族出版社].
Further reading
- Hsiu, Andrew. 2014. "Mondzish: a new subgroup of Lolo-Burmese ". In Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Chinese Languages and Linguistics (IsCLL-14). Taipei: Academia Sinica.
- Wu Zili [武自立]. 1994. A preliminary study of the Gasu language of Guangnan County, Yunnan Province [云南省广南县嘎苏话初探]. Minzu Yuwen 2. http://wuxizazhi.cnki.net/Search/MZYW402.006.html
- Wu Zili [武自立]. 2004. "Gasu language [嘎僳话]". In Studies on selected languages of Yunnan [云南特殊语言研究], 486-513. Kunming: Yunnan People's Press [云南民族出版社].
Notes and References
- Web site: Archived copy . 2018-12-30 . 2018-12-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181230185756/http://www.ynszxc.net/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=229605 . dead .
- Web site: Archived copy . 2015-09-10 . 2017-09-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170914083027/http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=229567 . dead .
- Hsiu, Andrew. 2014. "Mondzish: a new subgroup of Lolo-Burmese ". In Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Chinese Languages and Linguistics (IsCLL-14). Taipei: Academia Sinica.
- Bradley, David. 1997. "Tibeto-Burman languages and classification". In Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayas, Papers in South East Asian linguistics. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
- Bradley, David. 2007. East and Southeast Asia. In Moseley, Christopher (ed.), Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages, 349-424. London & New York: Routledge.
- Pelkey, Jamin. 2011. Dialectology as Dialectic: Interpreting Phula Variation. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
