She language

Not to be confused with Benc' language.
She
Ho Ne
Pronunciation [hɔ̀né̄]
Native to China
Region Zengcheng, Boluo County, Huidong County and Haifeng County in Guangdong
Ethnicity 710,000 She (2000 census)[1]
Native speakers
 910 (1999)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 shx
Glottolog shee1238[2]

The She language (Mandarin: 畲語 shēyǔ, Hakka 山客話 san ha ue [sáŋ xáʔ uə̄̀]), autonym Ho Ne (hɔ22 ne53) or Ho Nte, is an endangered Hmong–Mien language spoken by the She people. Most of the over 709,000 She people today speak Hakka Chinese. Those who still speak She—approximately 1,200 individuals in Guangdong province—call themselves Ho Ne "mountain people" (Chinese: 活聶 huóniè).

External relationships

She has been difficult to classify due to the heavy influence of Chinese on the language. Matisoff (2001), for example, left it unclassified within the Hmongic languages, and some have considered that much to be doubtful, leaving it unclassified within (and potentially a third branch of) the Hmong–Mien languages. However, Mao & Li (2002) and Ratliff (2010) consider She to be most closely related to Jiongnai.[3][4]

Relationship with Hakka

The She have strongly influenced, and been strongly influenced by, the Hakka Chinese, both in language and culture.

Relationship with Min Dong

The She people of Eastern Fujian speak a Min Dong–influenced variety of She.

Phonology

Consonants

  Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Alveolar Velar Glottal
plain pal. plain pal. plain pal. lab. plain pal.
Nasal voiced m mʲ n nʲ ŋ ŋʲ
voiceless ŋ̊
Plosive voiceless unaspirated p pʲ t tʲ k kʲ kʷ (ʔ)
voiceless aspirated pʰ pʰʲ tʰ tʰʲ kʰ kʰʲ kʰʷ
Affricate voiceless unaspirated ts tsʲ
voiceless aspirated tsʰ tsʰʲ
Fricative voiceless f s sʲ h hʲ
voiced v z zʲ

Glottal stop is not distinct from zero (a vowel-initial syllable).

There are consonant mutation effects. For instance, pǐ + kiáu becomes pi̋’iáu, and kóu + tȁi becomes kóulȁi.

Vowels

Vowels are /i e a ɔ ɤ u/. Finals are /j w n ŋ t k/, with /t k/ only in Hakka loans, though /ɤ/ is never followed by a final, and the only stops which follow the front vowels are /n t/.

Tones

There are six tones, reduced to two (high and low) in checked syllables (Hakka loans only). There is quite a lot of dialectical variability; two of the reported inventories (not necessarily in corresponding order) are:

[ ˥ ˦ ˧ ˨ ˨˩ ˧˥ ]: that is, /5 4 3 2 1 35/, or (on /a/), /a̋ á ā à ȁ ǎ/

[ ˥˧ ˦˨ ˧ ˨ ˧˩ ˧˥ ]: that is, /53 42 3 2 31 35/

Vocabulary

Loanwords from Classical Chinese

Like Southern Chinese dialects, the She language has loanwords from Classical Chinese. 走 to run 行 to walk 烏 black 赤 red 寮 house 禾 rice (plant) 鑊 wok 奉 to give 其 he/she/it 着 to wear 睇 to look 戮 to kill 齧 to bite 使 to use

References

  1. 1 2 She at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "She". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ 毛宗武, 李云兵 / Mao Zongwu, Li Yunbing. 2002. 炯奈语硏究 / Jiongnai yu yan jiu (A Study of Jiongnai). Beijing: 中央民族大学出版社 / Zhong yang min zu da xue chu ban she.
  4. ↑ Ratliff, Martha. 2010. Hmong–Mien language history. Canberra, Australia: Pacific Linguistics.
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