Ethnicity Hani Glottolog hani1248 | ISO 639-3 hni | |
Native to Southern China, Vietnam, Laos, Burma Native speakers 760,000 (2007, 1999, 1995) Language family Sino-Tibetan
(Tibeto-Burman)
Lolo–Burmese
Loloish
Hanoish
Hanoid
Hani | ||
The Hani language (Hani: Haqniqdoq or xa˧˩nʲi˧˩; simplified Chinese: 哈尼语; traditional Chinese: 哈尼語; pinyin: Hāníyǔ; Vietnamese: Tiếng Hà Nhì) is a language of the Loloish (Yi) branch of the Tibeto-Burman linguistic group spoken in China, Laos, and Vietnam by the Hani people.
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Distribution
In China, Hani is spoken mostly in areas to the east of the Mekong River in south-central Yunnan province, mostly in Pu'er and Honghe prefectures, as well as in parts of other surrounding prefectures. Hani is also spoken in Lai Châu and Lào Cai provinces of northwestern Vietnam and in Phongsaly Province of Laos along the border with Yunnan.
Edmondson (2002) reports that the Hani of Vietnam are distributed in 2 provinces of northwestern Vietnam where two distinct dialects are found, one east of Muong Te and the other to the west. The Hani of Vietnam claim to be able to communicate in the Hani language with ethnic Hani from different areas of Vietnam despite significant geographical barriers. Edmondson (2002), reported that the different Hani speech varieties in Vietnam differ mostly in lexicon.
Phonology
Hani has three main tones and two types of short vowels.
Writing systems
Oral tradition tells of an ancient written script for Hani but says it was lost when the Hani migrated from Sichuan. In China, Hani now uses a romanization of the Haya dialect of Luchun in the Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture as a written script developed by Chinese authorities and promulgated in 1957. As with the Latin-based scripts of the Zhuang, Hmong and Iu Mien languages, it uses final consonant letters to designate tone.