Native to China ISO 639-3 tiz | Native speakers 85,000 (2000 census) Glottolog taih1246 | |
Language family Tai–Kadai
Tai
Southwestern (Thai)
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Tai Hongjin | ||
Tai Hongjin (Chinese: 红金傣语) is a Tai language of southern China. Dialects may not be mutually intelligible.
Contents
Speakers of Tai Hongjin live in the Red River (红河 or 元江) and Jinsha River (金沙江) watershed regions of south-central Yunnan. Most are Buddhists, but few are Theravada.
Dialects
Tai Hongjin can be split into five dialects, which are often mutually unintelligible (Zhou 2001:14).
The total number of Tai Hongjin speakers combined is 136,000 (Zhou 2001:14). A related but separate Tai language called Dǎi Jīnpíng (金平傣语) is spoken in Jinping County 金平县, Honghe Prefecture 红河州, which Zhou (2001) reports as having 15,400 speakers. This language has its own traditional script as well (see Zhou 2001:379).
Heipu
Heipu 黑蒲 (autonym: Kalang 卡郎, kʰa33 lun21; also called Baiyi 摆彝 by the Han Chinese) is a variety of Tai Ya 傣雅 spoken by 118 people in the 2 villages of Shitouzhai 石头寨 and Xiaomiao 小庙 in Panlong Township 盘龙乡, District 5 五区, Xinping County, Yunnan (You 2013:268). Heipu 黑蒲 is a Han Chinese exonym referring to their practice of teeth blackening. In Xinping County, the Heipu also refer to themselves as the Tai Kha 傣卡 (You 2013:336). It is mutually intelligible with Tai Ya as spoken in District 4 四区 of Xinping County. However, Heipu is unique in that it has only 4 tones, and has lost the final stops -p, -t, -k. Heipu is not to be confused with 2 other groups of the same name: