Nesu language
| Nasu | |
|---|---|
| Eastern Yi | |
| Native to | China |
| Ethnicity | Nasu (Yi) |
|
Native speakers
|
1.0 million (2007) |
| Pollard script, Yi script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously: ywq – Nasu (Wulu) ygp – Gepo (Köpu) yig – Wusa Nasu ywu – Wumeng Nasu |
| Glottolog |
wudi1238 (Wuding-Luquan Yi = Wulu)gepo1234 (Gepo)nesu1235 (Nesu = Wusa–Wumeng)
|
Nasu (Naisu, Eastern Yi), or Nasu proper, is a Loloish language spoken by a quarter million Yi people of China. Nasu proper and Wusa Nasu are two of six Yi languages recognized by the government of China. Unlike most written Yi languages, Nasu proper uses the Pollard (Miao) script. A distinct form of the Yi script was traditionally used for Wusa, though few can still read it.
According to the Guizhou Ethnic Gazetteer (2002), Yi autonyms include Nasu 哪苏, Tusu 兔苏, Lagou 腊勾, Guo 果, and so forth.
Most of Yi people of the Luquan area do not have the autonym Luoluo and Nasu (transliterasted into Chinese as 纳苏) means "black", hence the Black Yi (黑彝 Hei Yi), 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.
Epo 峨颇 (autonyms: ŋo33 phu21, ŋo33) is an Eastern Yi language variety spoken by about 8,000 people in the following villages of Longlin, Napo, and Xilin counties in western Guangxi.
In his description of the Yi script (not the spoken language) Huáng Jiànmíng (1993) holds that the Nasu variety of 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. 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:
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