| Nasu | |
| Also Known As: | Eastern Yi |
| States: | China |
| Ethnicity: | Nasu (Yi) |
| Speakers: | 1.0 million |
| Date: | 2007 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Sino-Tibetan |
| Fam2: | Tibeto-Burman |
| Fam3: | Lolo-Burmese |
| Fam4: | Loloish |
| Fam5: | Nisoish |
| Fam6: | Northern Loloish |
| Fam7: | Nasoid |
| Script: | Pollard script, Yi script |
| Lc1: | ywq |
| Ld1: | Nasu (Wulu) |
| Lc2: | ygp |
| Ld2: | Gepo (Köpu) |
| Lc3: | yig |
| Ld3: | Wusa Nasu |
| Lc4: | ywu |
| Ld4: | Wumeng Nasu |
| Glotto: | wudi1238 |
| Glottoname: | Wuding-Luquan Yi = Wulu |
| Glottorefname: | Wuding-Luquan Yi |
| Glotto2: | gepo1234 |
| Glottoname2: | Gepo |
| Glotto3: | nesu1235 |
| Glottoname3: | Nesu = Wusa–Wumeng |
| Glottorefname3: | Nesu |
The Nasu language, also known as the Eastern Yi language or Naisu, Luquan Yi, Wuding Yi, Guizhou Yi, Weining Yi, Guangxi Yi or Longlin Yi, is a Loloish language spoken by the Yi people of China. Nasu and Wusa are two of six Yi languages recognized by the Government of China. There are also some speakers in Vietnam. Unlike most written Yi languages, Nasu uses the Pollard script. A distinct form of the Yi script was traditionally used for Wusa, though few can still read it.
The Nasu language is also known as the Black Yi language, but this name is no longer used.
According to the Guizhou Ethnic Gazetteer (2002),[1] Yi autonyms include Nasu 哪苏,[2] Tusu 兔苏,[3] Lagou 腊勾,[4] Guo 果,[5] and so forth.
Most of Yi people of the Luquan area do not have the autonym Luoluo and Nasu (transliterated into Chinese as 纳苏) means "black", hence the Black Yi (黑彝 Hei Yi),[6] though Black Yi is an aristocratic caste distinction among the Yi People, and Black Yi Script (Heiyiwen) was a Latin script for Yi introduced by missionaries.[7]
Chen, et al. (1985:108) recognizes 3 major varieties of Eastern Yi (i.e., Nasu) that are spoken in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, namely Dianqian 滇黔 (Yunnan-Guizhou), Pan 盘县 (Pan County of Guizhou), and Diandongbei 滇东北 (Northeastern Yunnan).[8] Autonyms include pronounced as /no55su55/ (alternatively pronounced as /nɤ55su13/), pronounced as /na33su33 pʰo55/ (including pronounced as /na33so33 pʰo55/, pronounced as /nɤ55su33 pʰu55/, and pronounced as /ni55su33 pʰu55/), pronounced as /nɒ55 pʰo55/, and pronounced as /ko33 pʰo55/.
In his description of the Yi script (not the spoken language), Huáng Jiànmíng (1993) holds that the Nasu variety of the Yi script is used by the groups speaking languages of the Nasu language cluster of Northern Yi in south-eastern Sìchuān, eastern Yúnnán, Gùizhōu, as well as in Guǎngxī.[9] He distinguishes two sub-groups. Nasu proper used in Wuding, Luquan, and the suburbs of Kunming, and Wusa used in Guizhou and the bordering areas of Eastern Yunnan.
David Bradley (1997) distinguishes three main dialects of Nasu:
Lama (2012) determined that Nasu (Western) is more closely related to Gepo than it is to the others:
| Labial | Alveolar | (Alveolo-) palatal | Retroflex | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Stop | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| prenasal/asp. | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| aspirated | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| prenasal/asp. | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| lateral | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Lateral | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
There is distinction between tight-throat vowels and lax-throat (plain) vowels.
| Front | Central | Back | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrd. | tight | unrd. | tight | unrd. | rnd. | tight | |||
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| Mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/, pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||||
3 tones occur as follows:
| Name | Pitch | Symbol | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | 55 | pronounced as /˦/ | |
| Mid | 33 | pronounced as /˧/ | |
| Low (falling) | 21 | pronounced as /˨˩/ |