The Loloish languages , also known as Yi (like the Yi people ) and occasionally Ngwi or Nisoic , are a family of 50–100 Sino-Tibetan languages spoken primarily in the Yunnan province of Southwestern China . They are most closely related to Burmese and its relatives. Both the Loloish and Burmish branches are well defined, as is their superior node, Lolo-Burmese . However, sub-classification is more contentious.
6-537: Azhe (Chinese: 阿哲; Azhepo; autonym: [a21 dʐɛ22 pʰo21] ) is one of the Loloish languages spoken by the Yi people of China . Wang Chengyou (王成有) (2003:210) lists 3 dialects of Azhe, which are all mutually intelligible. Azhe is spoken in Mile, Huaning, Kaiyuan, and Jianshui counties, with about 100,000 speakers. Loloish languages The 2013 edition of Ethnologue estimated
12-457: A clade ("Ni-Li-Ka") at about the same level as the other five branches of Loloish. Lama's Naxish clade has been classified as Qiangic rather than Loloish by Guillaume Jacques and Alexis Michaud ( see Qiangic languages ). A Lawoish (Lawu) branch has also been recently proposed. Satterthwaite-Phillips' (2011) computational phylogenetic analysis of the Lolo-Burmese languages does support
18-802: A computational analysis of shared phonological and lexical innovations . He finds the Mondzish languages to be a separate branch of Lolo-Burmese, which Lama considers to have split off before Burmish did. The rest of the Loloish languages are as follows: Hanoish : Jino , Akha–Hani languages, Bisoid languages, etc. (See) Lahoish : Lahu , Kucong Naxish : Naxi , Namuyi Nusoish : Nusu , Zauzou (Rouruo) Kazhuoish : Katso (Kazhuo), Samu (Samatao), Sanie , Sadu , Meuma Lisoish : Lisu , Lolopo , etc. (See) Nisoish : Nisoid languages, Axi-Puoid languages The Nisoish, Lisoish, and Kazhuoish clusters are closely related, forming
24-535: A total number of 9 million native speakers of Loloish ("Ngwi") languages, the largest group being the speakers of Nuosu (Northern Yi) at 2 million speakers (2000 PRC census). Loloish is the traditional name for the family in English. Some publications avoid the term under the misapprehension that Lolo is pejorative, but it is the Chinese rendition of the autonym of the Yi people and is pejorative only in writing when it
30-468: Is written with a particular Chinese character (one that uses a beast, rather than a human, radical ), a practice that was prohibited by the Chinese government in the 1950s. David Bradley uses the term Ngwi , and Lama (2012) uses Nisoic . Ethnologue has adopted 'Ngwi', but Glottolog retains 'Loloish'. Paul K. Benedict coined the term Yipho , from Chinese Yi and a common autonymic element (- po or - pho ), but it never gained wide usage. Loloish
36-638: Was traditionally divided into a northern branch, with Lisu and the numerous Yi languages and a southern branch, with everything else. However, per Bradley and Thurgood there is also a central branch, with languages from both northern and southern. Bradley adds a fourth, southeastern branch. Ugong is divergent; Bradley (1997) places it with the Burmish languages . The Tujia language is difficult to classify due to divergent vocabulary. Other unclassified Loloish languages are Gokhy (Gɔkhý), Lopi and Ache . Lama (2012) classified 36 Lolo–Burmese languages based on
#263736