Maonan language
Encyclopedia
The Maonan language is a Kam–Sui language spoken mainly in Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County
Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County
Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County is a county of Guangxi, China. It is under the administration of Hechi city....

, Hechi
Hechi
-Administration:Hechi has 1 urban district, 1 city, 4 counties, and 5 autonomous counties.City:*Yizhou Urban District:*Jinchengjiang District Counties:*Nandan County -Administration:Hechi has 1 urban district, 1 city, 4 counties, and 5 autonomous counties.City:*Yizhou (宜州市)Urban...

, northern Guangxi
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...

 by the Maonan people.

Demographics

Approximately half of all Maonan people are capable of speaking Maonan. In addition to this, many Maonan also speak Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

 or a Zhuang language
Zhuang language
The Zhuang languages are any of various Tai languages used by the Zhuang people. Most speakers live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region within the People's Republic of China, where the Wuming variety is an official language...

. About 1/3 of all people who self-identify as Maonan are concentrated in the southern Guizhou
Guizhou
' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the southwestern part of the country. Its provincial capital city is Guiyang.- History :...

 province. They speak a mutually unintelligible dialect commonly called Yanghuang, which is more common known as the Then language
Then language
The Then language is a Kam–Sui language spoken in Pingtang County, southern Guizhou.-References:* 薄文泽 / Bo, Wenze. 1997. 佯僙语研究 / Yanghuang yu yan jiu . Beijing: 中央民族大学出版社 / Zhong yang min zu da xue chu ban she.-External links:...

in Western literature. The Maonan do not have a writing system.

Phonology

Maonan is a tonal language with 8 tones (Lu 2008:90–91), featuring an SVO clause construction (Lu 2008:169). For example, man (he/she) shoot (drink) ka:u (wine) "He/She drinks wine", man (he/she) ba:i (go) (market) "He/She goes to the market", etc.

Syntax

Maonan displays a head-first modification structure, i.e. the modifier occurring after the modifier (Lu 2008:170). For example, ka:u (wine) hulia:ng (broomcorn) "broomcorn wine", mu (pig) la:u (big) "big pig", nok (bird) vin (fly) "flying bird", among others. Occasionally, a head-final modification structure is also possible with the involvement of a possessive particle (P.P.) di, e.g. ya:n (house/family) nda:u (we/our) di (P.P.) bo (buffalo) "Our family's buffalo" (cf. the more common bo ya:n nda:u) (ibid. pp173–174).
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