| Longjia | |
| Nativename: | Uncoded languages: suŋ55 ni55 mpau21 |
| States: | China |
| Region: | Guizhou |
| Ethnicity: | Longjia |
| Speakers: | extinct? |
| Date: | 2011 |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Sinitic? |
| Fam3: | Macro-Bai? |
| Fam4: | Cai–Long[1] |
| Fam5: | Longjia–Luren?[2] |
| Iso3: | none |
| Glotto: | long1417 |
| Glottorefname: | Longjia |
| Also Known As: | Songnibao |
Longjia (autonym: pronounced as /suŋ55 ni55 mpau21/) is a Sino-Tibetan language of Guizhou, China related to Caijia and Luren.[3] Longjia may already be extinct (Zhao 2011).
The Longjia people now speak Southwestern Mandarin, though they used to speak their own language, and have had a long presence in western Guizhou. According to the Guizhou Ethnic Gazetteer (2002),[4] the Longjia language was spoken in Dafang County, Qianxi County (Zhongping District 中坪区; Xinfacun 新发村 of Pojiao District 坡脚区), and Puding County (Jiangyizhai 讲义寨 of Baiyan Township 白岩乡). It is reportedly most similar to Caijia,[4] and has many Old Chinese loanwords.[5]
See also: Macro-Bai languages. Guizhou (1984)[1] shows that Longjia is closely related to Caijia and Luren. However, the classification of Caijia within Sino-Tibetan is uncertain. Zhengzhang (2010)[6] suggests that Caijia and Bai are sister languages, while Sagart argues that Caijia is Sinitic and a close relative of Waxiang.[7]
The following dialects of Longjia have been described.
The following comparative word list of three Longjia dialects is from Guizhou (1984:2-3).[1] Guizhou (1984) notes that the dialect of Jiangyizhai 讲义寨 (Puding County) is divergent, while the dialects of Pojiao 坡脚 (Dafang County) and Huaxi 花溪 (Qianxi County) are more closely related to each other.
| English gloss | Chinese gloss | Pojiao 坡脚 | Huaxi 花溪 | Jiangyizhai 讲义寨 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cattle | 牛 | pronounced as /ŋau55/ | pronounced as /ŋau55/ | pronounced as /ŋau35/ | |
| to eat | 吃 | pronounced as /ua31/ | pronounced as /ua31/ | pronounced as /ua31/ | |
| dog | 狗 | pronounced as /kuɛ33/ | pronounced as /kuɛ33/ | pronounced as /kuɛ53/ | |
| pig | 猪 | pronounced as /lɛ55/ | pronounced as /lɛ55/ | pronounced as /lɛ35/ | |
| chicken | 鸡 | pronounced as /kɛ55/ | pronounced as /kɛ55/ | pronounced as /kɛ55/ | |
| rice (crop) | 稻谷 | pronounced as /mɛ31/ | pronounced as /mɛ31/ | pronounced as /mai31/ | |
| water | 水 | pronounced as /ɕi31/ | pronounced as /ɕe31/ | pronounced as /se31/ | |
| big | 大 | pronounced as /la55/ | pronounced as /la55/ | pronounced as /lɛ31/ | |
| two | 二 | pronounced as /ta31/ | pronounced as /ta31/ | pronounced as /to33/ | |
| four | 四 | pronounced as /sɿ55/ | pronounced as /si55/ | pronounced as /so55/ | |
| meat | 肉 | pronounced as /ȵi31/ | pronounced as /ȵi31/ | pronounced as /ȵi31/
|
The Puding County Almanac (1999) reports that the Longjia language (autonym: Songnibao 松泥保) has 38 onsets and 22 rimes (8 simple, 14 complex). The Bijie County Almanac (1996:143) reports that there are many prenasalized onsets. In Dafang County, the autonym is Songlibao 松立保.[5]
The most extensive lexical data of Longjia can be found in Zhang & Li (1982).[11]
The Nanjing people (南京人) have usually been classified with the Longjia people, and claim to be descendants of soldiers from the Nanjing area who had intermarried with the local Longjia in Guizhou.[12] Their language is known as Nanjinghua (南京话; "Nanjing speech"), which is probably now functionally extinct.
In Jianxinhe village 建新河村, Kunzhai Township 昆寨乡, Nayong County, Guizhou Province, the phrase suo55 mu33 ‘eat rice’ was elicited from an elderly rememberer of Nanjinghua.[13] As suo55 is derived from Proto-Tibeto-Burman *dzya ‘to eat’, this points to Nanjinghua having an SVO word order like Caijia, Longjia, Bai, and Sinitic languages.[13]