| Paha | |
| Region: | China |
| Speakers: | 600 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Tai–Kadai |
| Fam2: | Kra |
| Iso3: | yha |
| Glotto: | baha1256 |
| Glottorefname: | Baha Buyang |
Paha or Baha (autonym: pronounced as /[pāhā]/) is a Kra language spoken in northern Guangnan County, Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan. The two villages are located near the border with Longlin County, Guangxi. Paha is often considered to be part of the Buyang dialect cluster and is the most divergent form. Although listed in Ethnologue as Baha Buyang (ISO 639-3: yha), Weera Ostapirat classifies Paha separately from the other Buyang varieties.[1]
Within Guangnan County (广南县), Yunnan, the Paha language is spoken in the two villages of Yangliancun (央连村)[2] (from Zhuang pronounced as /jaaŋ24 lɛŋ31/ "lonely Buyang [village]") in Dixu Township (底圩乡) and Anshecun (安舍村)[3] in Bada Township 八达乡. While Yanglian has around 500 Paha speakers, Anshe only has about 100 speakers left. Paha speakers are shifting rapidly to Zhuang and Southwestern Mandarin, particularly in Anshe village. Many Buyang men in Yanglian village are also married to Zhuang women.[4]
Paha Buyang has the following consonants.[5]
| Labial | Coronal | Postalveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | bilab. | plain | bilab. | plain | bilab. | plain | bilab. | plain | bilab. | |||
| Nasal | voiceless | pronounced as /m̥/ | pronounced as /n̥/ | pronounced as /ɲ̊/ | pronounced as /ŋ̊/ | ||||||||
| voiced | pronounced as /m/ | pronounced as /mʲ/ | pronounced as /mʷ/ | pronounced as /n/ | pronounced as /ɲ/ | pronounced as /ŋ/ | pronounced as /ŋʷ/ | ||||||
| Plosive | plain voiceless | pronounced as /p/ | pronounced as /pʲ/ | pronounced as /pʷ/ | pronounced as /t/ | pronounced as /tʷ/ | pronounced as /tɕ/ | pronounced as /tɕʷ/ | pronounced as /k/ | pronounced as /kʷ/ | pronounced as /q/ | pronounced as /qʷ/ | pronounced as /ʔ/ |
| voiceless aspirated | pronounced as /pʰ/ | pronounced as /pʲʰ/ | pronounced as /pʷʰ/ | pronounced as /tʰ/ | pronounced as /tɕʰ/ | pronounced as /kʰ/ | pronounced as /kʷʰ/ | pronounced as /qʰ/ | |||||
| plain voiced | pronounced as /b/ | pronounced as /bʲ/ | pronounced as /bʷ/ | pronounced as /d/ | pronounced as /ɡ/ | pronounced as /ɡʷ/ | |||||||
| devoiced aspirated | pronounced as /b̥ʱ/ | pronounced as /b̥ʲʱ/ | pronounced as /d̥ʱ/ | pronounced as /ɡ̊ʱ/ | |||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /f/ | pronounced as /ʍ/ pronounced as /w/ | pronounced as /θ/ | pronounced as /θʷ/ | pronounced as /ɕ/ | pronounced as /ɕʷ/ | pronounced as /h/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /ð/ | pronounced as /ðʷ/ | pronounced as /ɣ/ | pronounced as /ʁ/ | |||||||||
| Approximant | voiceless | pronounced as /ȷ̊/ | |||||||||||
| voiced | pronounced as /j/ | pronounced as /ɥ/ | |||||||||||
| Laterals | voiceless | pronounced as /l̥/ | |||||||||||
| voiced | pronounced as /l/ | ||||||||||||
Paha Buyang has the following vowels.
| Front | Central | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unround | Round | ||||
| High | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /ɯ/ | pronounced as /u/ | ||
| Hi-Mid | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /o/ | ||
| Lo-Mid | pronounced as /ɛ/ | pronounced as /ɔ/ | |||
| Low | pronounced as /a/ | ||||
The three high vowels and the low vowel can be long.
Unlike the Buyang dialects of Langjia, Ecun, and Yalang, Paha negatives (such as pronounced as /pi45/) precede the verb, whereas the Buyang dialects always place negatives at the end of a sentence. This phenomenon in Paha is probably due to Chinese influence.[6]