Nuosu language

Nuosu, also known as Northern Yi, Liangshan Yi, Nosu, and Sichuan Yi, is the prestige language of the Yi people; it has been chosen by the Chinese government as the standard Yi language and, as such, is the only one taught in school, both in its oral and written form. It is spoken by two million people and is increasing; 60% are monolingual. The occasional terms 'Black Yi' and 'White Yi' are castes of the Nuosu people.

Nuosu is one of several often mutually unintelligible varieties known as Yi, Lolo, Moso, or Noso; the six Yi languages recognized by the Chinese government hold only 25 to 50 percent of their vocabulary in common. They share a common traditional writing system, though this is used for shamanism rather than daily accounting. The Yi people regard the traditional Western term Lolo as pejorative.

Writing system

Classic Yi is a syllabic logographic system of 8000–10,000 glyphs. Although similar to Chinese in function, the glyphs are independent in form, with little to suggest a direct relation.

The Modern Yi script (ꆈꌠꁱꂷ nuosu bburma [nɔ̄sū bʙ̝̄mā] 'Nosu script') is a standardized syllabary derived from the classic script in 1974 by the local Chinese government. It was made the official script of the Yi languages in 1980. There are 756 basic glyphs based on the Liangshan dialect, plus 63 for syllables only found in Chinese borrowings.

In 1958 the Chinese government had introduced a Roman-based alphabet for use in Yi.^[1] (This was later replaced by the Yi script.)

Phonology

The written equivalents of the phonemes listed here are "Yi Pinyin". For information about the actual script used, see the section above entitled Writing System.

Consonants

Vowels

* Identified with the vowel of the Mandarin 四 sì "four"

Dialects

A signpost in a public park in Xichang, Sichuan, China, showing Modern Yi, Chinese and English text.

The Yi people speak six major languages/dialects:^[2]

1. Northern Yi (Nuosu)[1]
2. Western Yi (Lalu)[2]
3. Central Yi (Lolopo)[3]
4. Southern Yi (Nisu)[4]
5. Southaastern Yi (Nasu)[5]
6. Eastern Yi (Nasu)[6]

These 'dialects' are mutually unintelligible. Northern Yi is the largest with some two million speakers, and is the basis of the literary language.

See also

• Laghuu language (a Yi language of Vietnam)

References

Further reading

• Collective book, Ritual for Expelling Ghosts, A religious Classic of the Yi nationality in Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan. The Taipei Ricci Institute (November 1998)

External links

Nuosu language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Yi font by SIL