Buyang language
| Buyang | |
|---|---|
| Boux-yaeŋz | |
| Native to | China |
| Region | Yunnan |
| Ethnicity | Buyang people |
|
Native speakers
|
1,500 (1997–2000) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously: yzg – E'ma Buyang yln – Langnian Buyang enc – En yrn – Yalang (Yerong) |
| Glottolog | buya1244 |
Buyang (Chinese: 布央语) is a Tai–Kadai language spoken in Guangnan and Funing counties, Yunnan Province, China by the Buyang people. It is important to the reconstruction of Austro-Tai as it retains the disyllabic roots characteristic of Austronesian languages. Examples are /matɛ́/ "to die", /matá/ "eye", /qaðù/ "head", and /maðû/ "eight". (See Austro-Tai for proposed connections.)
The Buyang language was only discovered in 1990 by Chinese linguist Liang Min. In 1999, a doctoral dissertation and book was published for Buyang. The book has also recently been translated into English.
Many speakers of Buyang are also fluent in Zhuang.
The Buyang (布央) dialect cluster is spoken by a total of around 2,000 people living mostly in the Gula (谷拉) River valley of southeastern Yunnan Province, China. It is spoken in at least 8 villages in Gula Township 谷拉乡, Funing County 富宁县, Wenshan Zhuang–Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan, China. Buyang is divided into the following groups:
Weera Ostapirat (2000) splits the Buyang language into two branches:
Ostapirat also classifies Buyang and Qabiao together as Eastern Kra, while Paha is classified as Central Kra. Together, the two branches form one of the two primary Kra branches, namely Central-East Kra. The En language has also been recently included in Eastern Kra (also called Yang–Biao, from [Bu]yang–[Pu]biao).
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