Lhao Vo language explained

Lhao Vo
Also Known As:	Maru
States:	Myanmar, China
Date:	1997
Ref:	e18
Script:	Latin
Familycolor:	Sino-Tibetan
Fam2:	(Tibeto-Burman)
Fam3:	Lolo–Burmese
Fam4:	Burmish
Fam5:	Maruic
Iso3:	mhx
Glotto:	maru1249
Glottorefname:	Maru

Lhao Vo, also known as Maru (မရူ) and Langsu, is a Burmish language spoken in Burma and by a few thousand speakers in China.

Distribution

Dai Qingxia (2005:3) reports 5,600 Langsu speakers in China. Many thousands more are dispersed across the eastern edge of Kachin State, Myanmar.

• Luxi City

Yingpan Township (ယင်းဖန်မြို့နယ်, 营盘乡)

• Lianghe County

Mengyang Township (မယ်ညန့်နယ်, 养乡)

• Longchuan County

Bangwai Township (ဖန်ဝိုင်မြို့နယ်, 邦外乡) and Jingkan Township (ကျင်ခန်မြို့နယ်, 景坎乡)

The Langsu people call themselves pronounced as /lɔ̃³¹vɔ³¹/ (Chinese: Lang'e 浪峨)

Varieties

The standard Lhaovo dialect is that of the Dago’ (pronounced as /tăkoʔ/) hill area, on the east side of N'Mai River valley in Kachin State.

Sawada (2017) lists the following patois (subvarieties) of Lhaovo.^[1]

• Gyanno’ (autonym: pronounced as /kjɛn35 noʔ21 /): spoken in the west side of the N'Mai River in Sawlaw Township.
• Tho’lhang (autonym: pronounced as /tʰaʔ21 lo̰22/): spoken in Htawlang and a few other villages in northern Sawlaw Township.
• Lakin (autonym: pronounced as /lăkɛ̰22/): spoken in Lakin village, northern Sawlaw Township.
• Lhangsu (autonym: pronounced as /la̰ŋ53 su53/; not the same as Langsu 浪速 of Yunnan): spoken in the area between Hkrang Hka and Sanin Hka, which are two tributaries of the Mali Hka. It is spoken in Sumprabum Township, including in the villages of Hausa: Hting Tsa, N-gawk Hkyet, and Hausa: Ma Awng.

Langsong

The Langsong (浪宋) are found in Zaoyang (早阳)^[2] in Yunlong County (in the Chinese province of Yunnan) as well as in Baocun (表村),^[3] Laomo (老末), and Sancha (三岔).^{[4] [5]} They reportedly speak a highly endangered language that may be possibly related to Langsu.

Phonology

Consonants

Lhao Vo has the following consonant sounds:^[6]

		Labial		Dental/ Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		plain	pal.				plain	pal.
Plosive	voiceless	p	pʲ	t			k	kʲ	(ʔ)
	aspirated	pʰ	pʰʲ	tʰ			kʰ	kʰʲ
Affricate	voiceless			t͡s̪	t͡ʃ
	aspirated			t͡s̪ʰ	t͡ʃʰ
Fricative	voiceless	f		s̪	ʃ		x
	voiced	v					ɣ		ɦ
Nasal		m	mʲ	n		ɲ	ŋ
Tap				ɾ
Approximant				l		j

• Sounds /p, t, k, ʔ, m, n, ŋ, j/ can all be heard in final position.
• /ʔ/ is only written in final position.

Vowels

There is a distinction among creaky vowel sounds:

	Front				Central		Back
	plain		creaky		plain	creaky	plain	creaky
Close	i		ḭ				u	ṵ
Mid	e	ø	ḛ	ø̰			o	o̰
Open					a	a̰
Diphthong					au	a̰ṵ

• /i, ḭ/ can also range to [ɪ, ɪ̰].
• Vowels /e, o/ when preceding a word-final /-ŋ/ can also be heard as nasalized [ẽ, õ].

When preceding a final glide /-j/, each vowel has the following allophones:

Phoneme	Allophones
/aj/	[aɪ̆], [ɛ]
/auj/	[auɪ̆], [ɔɪ̆]
/uj/	[uɪ̆], [ʉ], [ʉɪ̆]
/ej/	[əɪ̆]

Tones

Lhao Vo has three lexical tones: high, low and falling. Low tone may be a different analysis of creaky vowels. In Latin script, falling tone is unmarked, e.g. (lo) etc.; low tone is (lo꞉) etc., and high tone is (loˮ) etc. (or (lobʼ) etc. with a final b, d, g). Final glottal stop is written (lo,) etc. in falling tone, (lo;) etc. in low tone, and (loʼ) in high tone.^[7]

Further reading

• Book: Dai, Qingxia 戴慶廈 . Làngsùyǔ yánjiū . 2005 . Minzu chubanshe . 9787105068159 . Beijing . zh . zh:浪速语研究 . Study of the Maru Language.
• Book: Dai, Qingxia 戴庆厦 . Piànmǎ Cháshānrén jí qí yǔyán . 2010 . Shangwu yinshuguan . Beijing . zh . zh:片马茶山人及其语言 . The Chashan People of Pianma and Their Language.
• Web site: Hill . Nathan . Cooper . Douglas . 2020 . A Machine Readable Collection of Lexical Data on the Burmish Languages . Zenodo . en . Data Set . 10.5281/zenodo.3759030 . free.
• Book: [[Yabu Shirō]] 藪司郎 . Historical and Cultural Studies in Burma . 1988 . Institute of Asian Studies, Sophia University . Yoshiaki Ishizawa . Tokyo . 65-132 . A Preliminary Report on the Study of the Maru, Lashi and Atsi Languages of Burma.

External links

• Consonant Ear Training and Tones
• Maru fieldwork of John Okell from 1969
• Lhaovo language site

Notes and References

1. Sawada . Hideo . 2017 . Two Undescribed Dialects of Northern Burmish Sub-branch: Gyannoʔ and Thoʔlhang . Presented at ICSTLL 50, Beijing, China . en.
2. Web site: Yúnlóng Xiàn Miáowěi Lìsùzú Xiāng Zǎoyáng . zh:云龙县苗尾傈僳族乡早阳 . Zaoyang, Miaowei Lisu Ethnic Township, Yunlong County . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20180504231255/http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vdefault.aspx?departmentid=60920 . 2018-05-04 . ynszxc.gov.cn . zh.
3. Web site: Yúnlóng Xiàn Miáowěi Lìsùzú Xiāng Biǎocūn Biǎocūn . zh:云龙县苗尾傈僳族乡表村表村 . Baocun, Baocun, Miaowei Lisu Township, Yunlong County . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20161010042953/http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=37739 . 2016-10-10 . ynszxc.gov.cn . zh.
4. Web site: Yúnlóng Xiàn Miáowěi Lìsùzú Xiāng Biǎocūn Sānchà . zh:云龙县苗尾傈僳族乡表村三岔 . Sancha, Baocun, Miaowei Lisu Township, Yunlong County . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20180504225903/http://www.ynszxc.gov.cn/villagePage/vIndex.aspx?departmentid=37740 . 2018-05-04 . ynszxc.gov.cn . zh.
5. Book: Zhongguo shao shu minzu shehui lishi diaocha ziliao congkan xiuding bianji weiyuanhui . Jǐngpǒzú shèhuì lìshǐ diàochá . 2009 . Minzu chubanshe . Beijing . 57 . zh . zh:景颇族社会历史调查 . Zhongguo shao shu minzu shehui lishi diaocha ziliao congkan xiuding bianji weiyuanhui 中国少数民族社会历史调查资料丛刊修订编辑委员会.
6. Book: Hideo, Sawada . Outline of Phonology of Lhaovo (Maru) of Kachin State . Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies . 1999 . In Linguistic & Anthropological Study of the Shan Culture Area, report of research project, Grant-in-Aid for International Scientific Research (Field Research) . 97-147.
7. Web site: Lhaovo . Kachin Portal Site.