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Bunu language

Bunu is a Hmongic language of southern China. Bunu speakers are classified ethnically as Yao by the People's Republic of China.

Varieties

Meng (2001) lists the following language varieties for Bunu.

The Shaoyang Prefecture Gazetteer (1997:533) reports that the Miao of Xinning County, Hunan, speak a Bunu-branch language.

The Yunnan Province Gazetteer (1989) reports that a Bunu dialect known as ' (布咋) is spoken by about 7,000 people in Guichao (归朝乡) and Dongbo (洞波瑶族乡) (including in Dadongzhai 大洞寨, Saxiangdong Village 三湘洞村) townships of Funing County, Yunnan.

Others

The following may be alternative names for speakers of Bunu languages.

  • Beidalao (北大老): 15,000 (1990) in Rong'an County and Rongshui County, Guangxi; probably Bunu, though divergent
  • Changpao (长袍): 5,000 (1999) in southern Guizhou; undetermined linguistic affiliation, but could possibly be Bunu. Identified as Dongmeng by Bradley (2007).
  • Youmai (优迈): 2,000 (1999) in southwestern Guizhou; possibly a Bunu variety; classified as Pingtang Miao by Li Yunbing (2000)

Phonology

This section presents the phonology of the Dongnu variety of Qibainong (七百弄) Township, Dahua Yao Autonomous County, Guangxi as representative.

Consonants

Sounds /tɬ, tɬʰ, ⁿtɬ, ⁿtɬʰ/ may be pronounced as [pl, plʰ, ᵐpl, ᵐplʰ] in some areas.

Vowels

Diphthongs and Other Rimes

Qibainong Dongnu has seven diphthongs: /ei/, /ai/, /au/, /ou/, /ɔi/, /iu/, and /eu/. Of these, /ɔi/, /iu/, and /eu/ only appear in recent loans from Chinese and Zhuang. Examples of words with diphthongs appear in the table below; yellow background is for those diphthongs that appear only in recent borrowings.

Several vowels in Qibainong Dongnu permit a nasal consonant following, either /n/ or /ŋ/; most vowels permit one or the other, but not both. Qibainong also permits the rime /iaŋ/, despite not having a diphthong /ia/; /iaŋ/ is used only in recent loans. The possible combinations of vowel with final nasal, organized by the position of the vowel, appear in the table below.

Tone

Qibainong Dongnu has eight tones, with four having an alternate realization, giving a total of 12 tone values.

Alphabet

Bunu is written in a Latin script similar to other minority languages of China, such as Hmong-Mien languages, like Hmong or Tai-Kadai languages, like Kam or Sui. It uses Digraphs or combinations of letters instead of diacritics to represent additional sounds. The Bunu alphabet is:

Tones

Tones are marked with a consonant letter written at the end of a syllable.

Grammar

Word Classes

According to Meng (2001), Bunu has 12 parts of speech, namely, nouns, pronouns, numerals, classifiers, adjectives, verbs, intensifiers (状词), adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliaries, and interjections.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Bunu exhibit a three-way distinction in both person and number, yielding nine contrasting terms:

Bunu also has pronouns for 'oneself' and 'everyone', as well as a set of interrogative expressions:

Demonstratives

According to Meng (2001), demonstratives fall within the word class of pronouns. Five demonstratives are attested in Qibainong: 'this (visible)', 'that (medial, visible)', 'that (distal, visible)', 'that (unknown)', and 'that (known, not visible)'.

Numerals

Cardinal numerals include the following:

References