Bolyu language explained

Bolyu
Pronunciation:pronounced as /pɔ33 lju13/
States:China
Region:Longlin County, Guangxi
Ethnicity:Bolyu (2007)
Speakers:500
Date:2007
Ref:e18
Familycolor:Austroasiatic
Fam2:Pakanic
Iso3:ply
Glotto:boly1239
Glottorefname:Bolyu

The Bolyu language (autonym: pronounced as /pɔ33 lju13/; ; also known as Paliu, Palyu, or Lai 俫语, 徕语) is an Austroasiatic language of the Pakanic branch.

Classification

Bolyu is related to the Bugan language, forming the Pakanic branch along with it. In 1984, Bolyu was first studied by Liang Min of the Nationalities Research Institute in Beijing. Liang was the first to suggest a Mon–Khmer affiliation of Bolyu, which was later confirmed by Western linguists such as Paul K. Benedict, Paul Sidwell, and Jerold A. Edmondson. However, the place of the Pakanic branch within the Mon–Khmer family is uncertain. Sidwell (1995) suggests that the Pakanic branch may be an Eastern Mon–Khmer branch, thus making it most closely related to the Vietic branch. However, Gérard Diffloth classifies Pakanic as Northern Mon–Khmer, making it most closely related to the Palaungic branch.[1] Paul Sidwell later classified Bolyu and Bugan together as forming a separate Pakanic branch within Austroasiatic, while Mang is excluded as yet another separate branch of Austroasiatic.[2]

Distribution

Bolyu speakers are found in the following locations in southern China.[3]

Li (1999) documents the Bolyu variety of Muzitun 亩子屯, Xinhe Village 新合村, Changfa Township 长发乡, Longlin County, Guangxi.

In the following villages, only elderly speakers of Bolyu remain.

1,400 Bolyu reside in Guangxi, and over 1,000 in Yunnan.

Phonology

Bolyu is a monosyllabic tonal language like the surrounding Tai–Kadai, Hmong-Mien and even Vietic languages. Unlike Bugan, Bolyu does not have a tense–lax voice quality distinction.

Initial consonants

LabialAlveolarAlveolo-
palatal
VelarUvularGlottal
plain pal. vel.plain pal.sib.plain pal. lab.plain pal.
Nasalpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Plosive/Affricatevoicelesspronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
aspiratedpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
prenasalizedpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Fricativepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Approximantpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Bolyu allows for a large variety of consonant clusters, and has eight possible consonantal finals: -p, -t, -k, -m, -n, -ŋ, -w, -j.

Vowels

FrontCentralBack
Closepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Close-midpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Open-midpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Openpronounced as /link/
There are seven vowels in Bolyu: pronounced as //a, e, ə, i, o, ɔ, u//.

Tones

Bolyu has a total of six tones.

Bolyu tones
Tone number Tone letter !Pitch value
1 ˥ 55
2 ˧ 33
3 ˩ 11
4 ˥˧ 53
5 ˧˩ 31
6 ˩˧ 13

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Van Driem . George . 2007 . Austroasiatic Phylogeny and the Austroasiatic Homeland in Light of Recent Population Genetic Studies . dead . Mon-Khmer Studies . en . 37 . 1–14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110809095425/http://www.lc.mahidol.ac.th/Documents/Publication/MKS/37/vandriem2007austroasiatic.pdf . 2011-08-09 . 2011-02-26.
  2. Sidwell, Paul. 2015. "Austroasiatic classification." In Jenny, Mathias and Paul Sidwell, eds (2015). The Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages. Leiden: Brill.
  3. 俫语使用人口稳定增长原因探究
  4. Book: Guangxi Minority Languages Orthography Committee . Guǎngxī mínzú yǔyán fāng yīn cíhuì . 2008 . Minzu chubanshe . Beijing . zh . zh:广西民族语言方音词汇 . Vocabularies of Guangxi Ethnic Languages.