Baima language
| Baima | |
|---|---|
| Pe | |
| 白马语 | |
| Native to | Sichuan Province, Gansu Province |
| Region | China |
| Ethnicity | 14,000 Baima people (2007) |
|
Native speakers
|
10,000 (2007) |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | baim1244 |
Baima is a language spoken by 10,000 Baima people, of Tibetan nationality, in north central Sichuan Province, and Gansu Province, China. Baima is passed on from parents to children in Baima villages. It is spoken within the home domain and is not used in any media of mass communication. Baima is often classified as a Sino-Tibetan dialect and is currently endangered.
In terms of geographical locations, Baima is spoken in:
Baima uses subject–object–verb (SOV) word order, initial consonant word clusters and is tonal. It is unclassified within Sino-Tibetan; there are multiple layers of borrowings from Amdo, Khams, and Zhongu Tibetan, as well as lexical and grammatical connections with Qiangic languages. Basic vocabulary is about 85% Tibetic and 15% Qiangic, and the Tibetic words do not link to any established group of Tibetic languages. Chirkova (2008) suggests that the Qiangic vocabulary "might be a retention from the language originally spoken by the Báimǎ before their shift to a form of Tibetic in the 7th century." She accepts Baima as Tibetan, but as an isolate within the Tibetic languages.
Baima speakers number around 10,000 and have lived for generations in the mountainous region spanning the borders of Sichuan Province and Gansu Province. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Baima speakers have requested to grant them recognition as an independent ethnic group on many occasions. Historians believe that the Baima are decedents of the ancient Di people in China. Chinese records from 551 AD mention that The Di are also called Baima. One historian states, "The Baima tribe was the largest tribe of the Di nationality, which lived in Gansu, Sichuan and Shaanxi during the Three Kingdoms Period (220–265 AD)." Tibetans invaded the Di territory in the 7th century and assimilated the local population, which probably subsequently shifted into a form of Tibetan spoken by the invaders. Linguists consider Baima to be an independent language of the Tibetan branch but the language itself has been greatly influenced by Tibetan. In addition, DNA specialists have discovered that the Baima are genetically closer to the Qiang people than to the Tibetans.
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Wikipedia