Native to China Native speakers 2,500 (date missing) Glottolog naxi1247 | Region Hunan ISO 639-3 None (mis) | |
Language family Tai–Kadai
Kam–Sui
Kam
Naxi Yao | ||
Naxi Yao (Chinese: 那溪瑶话), or Naxihua 那溪话, is a Kam–Sui language of Naxi Township 那溪瑶族乡, Dongkou County, Hunan Province, China. Even though they are classified as ethnic Yao people by the Chinese government, the Naxi Yao speak a Kam–Sui language closely related to Dong. Shi (2015:132) considers Naxi Yao to have split off from Dong about 600 years.
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Names
The Naxi Yao call themselves the ȵiu1 (Shi 2015:107) or mu2 ȵiu1 (Shi 2015:125), and refer to their own language as kin1 (Shi 2015:107). The town of Naxi 那溪 (the first syllable is pronounced nuo35 in Mandarin (Shi 2015:107)) is referred to in the local Hunanese dialect as lo2 ȶhi1.
Demographics
Shi (2015:107) estimates a total of 2,500 speakers and 5,000 ethnic Yao in Naxi Township. According to the Shaoyang Prefecture Gazetteer (1997), language varieties closely related to Southern Kam are spoken in Naxi 那溪, Dongkou County (which had 4,280 ethnic Yao in 1982 (Chen 2013:39)) and Lianmin 联民, Suining County.
The Suining County Gazetteer [绥宁县志] (1997) documents the variety of Lianmin Yao as spoken in Xiaohuang 小黄组, Tianluoxuan Village 田螺旋村, Lianmin Ethnic Miao and Yao Township 联民苗族瑶族乡, Suining County 绥宁县, Hunan Province, China.
History
Chen Qiguang (2013:39) reports that the ancestors of Naxihua 那溪话 speakers had migrated to their current location from Tianzhu, Liping, and Yuping counties of southeastern Guizhou during the early 15th century. According to Shi Lin (2015:126), the Naxi Yao had migrated from Gaoyi Township 高椅乡, Huitong County 会同县, Hunan Province in 1403.