Tujia language


The Tujia language is a language spoken natively by the Tujia people in Hunan province, China. It is unclassified within the Sino-Tibetan language family, due to pervasive influence from neighboring languages. There are two dialects, Northern and Southern. Both dialects are tonal languages with the tone contours of. The northern dialect has 21 initials, whereas the southern dialect has 26. As for the finals, the northern dialect has 25 and the southern 30, 12 of which are used exclusively in loanwords from Chinese. Its verbs make a distinction of active and passive voices. Its pronouns distinguish the singular and plural numbers along with the basic and possessive cases. As of 2005, the number of speakers was estimated at roughly 70,000 for the northern dialect, and 1,500 for the southern dialect, out of an ethnic population of 8 million.

Names

Tujia autonyms include ' and '. The Tujia people call their language "".
"Tujia" literally means 'native people', which is the appellation that the Han Chinese had given to them due to their aboriginal status in the Hunan-Hubei-Chongqing area. The Tujia, on the other hand, call the Han Chinese "Kejia", a designation also given to the Hakka people, which means 'guest people'.

Classification

Tujia is clearly a Sino-Tibetan language, but its position within that family is unclear, due to massive borrowing from other Sino-Tibetan languages. It has been placed with Loloish and Qiangic, but many leave it unclassified.

Subdivisions

Tujia is divided into two major dialects. The Northern dialect has the vast majority of speakers, while the Southern dialect is spoken in only 3 villages of Tanxi Township 潭溪镇 in Luxi County. Almost all Tujia speakers are located in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture.
The Tujia-speaking areas of Longshan County are mostly located around the Xiche River 洗车河. The variety studied by Tian is that of Dianfang Township 靛房乡, Longshan County. Ye focuses on the Northern variety of Xinghuo Village 星火村, Miao'ertan Township 苗儿滩镇 (formerly Miaoshi 苗市

Chen (2006)

Chen Kang divides Tujia as follows.
Yang Zaibiao reports that Tujia is spoken in over 500 natural villages comprising about 200 administrative villages and 34 townships. The Northern Tujia autonym is ', and the Southern Tujia autonym is '. Yang covers the two Northern Tujia dialects of Dianfang 靛房 and Xiaolongre 小龙热, and the Southern Tujia dialect of Qieji 且己.

Ye (1995)

One system of writing Tujia in Latin script is based on Hanyu Pinyin and uses letters as tone markers, namely, x, r, v, f.

Brassett, Brassett, & Lu (2006)

Brassett, Brassett, & Lu have proposed an experimental Pinyin orthography for the Tujia language, as follows.
SymbolIPASymbolIPA
bng
cp
dq
gr
hs
hht
jw
kx
ly
mz
nzz

SymbolIPASymbolIPA
aing
aiiong
aniu
ango
aoong
eou
eiu
engua
iuai
iauan
ianui
iaoun
i.e.uo

SymbolPitchName of toneLetters
1 or High level-v
2 or Low rising-f
3Low falling-r
4 or High falling-x

Tujia numerals

NumberTujia words
1La
2Niev
3Sov
4Riev
5Uv
6Wor
7Nier
8Yer
9Kiev
10Laxiv

Possible Ancient Tujia script

The Tujia have been known as an ethnic minority without a written language. However, a succession of ancient undeciphered books with glosses presented in Chinese characters have been found in the Youyang Tujia habitation straddling the borders of Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou Province, and Chongqing City. Modern Tujia is written in Latin script.

Language preservation

Although only a small percentage of Tujia people speak the Tujia language, Tujia language enthusiasts work hard on to preserve it, both in Hunan and Hubei. According to news reports, two Tujia language instruction books have been published, and work continues on a Tujia dictionary. The Tujia language scholar Chu Yongming works with children at the Baifusi Ethnic Minorities School in Baifusi Town, Laifeng County, Hubei to promote the language use.