Native to China Writing system Ersu Shaba script Glottolog ersu1242 | Native speakers (20,000 cited 1982) ISO 639-3 ers | |
Language family Sino-Tibetan
Qiangic
Ersu–Namuzi ?
Ersu | ||
Ersu (Chinese: 尔苏, Ersu; also called Duoxu or Erhsu) is a Qiangic language cluster of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Ersu languages are spoken by about 20,000 people in China as reported by Sun (1982). Muya (alternatively Menia or Menya) is reported to be related, but it is not known how it fits in.
Contents
Ersu speakers live in the western part of China's Sichuan province (several counties within the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, and the prefecture-level city of Ya'an). Most of them are classified by the Chinese government as members of the Tibetan ethnic group (Zang zu), although some also are registered as Han Chinese. Older adults mostly use Ersu, but younger people also use Chinese or Yi.
The Ersu Shaba script of the shābā religious books is a pictographic system of proto-writing. The system, in which the color of the characters has an effect on the meaning, was inspired by Chinese writing and was created in the 11th century.
Languages
There are three Ersu languages (Yu 2012).
Yu's (2012) classification of Ersu languages is as follows, with defining innovations given in parentheses.
Grammar
Ersu is a subject–object–verb language. It has three tones.