Younuo (also spelled Yuno, yà Âunuò; autonym: ') is a divergent Hmongic language spoken in Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County, Guangxi, China. Mao (2007:129) reports a total of approximately 4,000 speakers.
The classification of Younuo within Hmongic is uncertain, although it may be more closely related to Pa-Hng or She. According to Mao (2007), Younuo is most closely related to Pa-Hng, and forms a branch with it. However, Hsiu's (2015, 2018) computational phylogenetic study classifies Younuo as more closely related to She, Jiongnai, and Pana. Li (2018) also treats Younuo as closely related to She, Jiongnai, and Pana.
Like Pa-Hng speakers, the Younuo are also called "Red Yao" 红ç¶, which can refer to various Yao groups speaking different languages. Younuo speakers are also called Shanhua Red Yao å±±è¯Â红ç¶, and number about 4,600 people. Their neighbors, the Pinghua Red Yao å¹³è¯Â红ç¶, speak a Pinghua dialect related to the Chinese varieties of Guibei Pinghua æ¡ÂÃ¥ÂÂ平诠and Shaozhou Tuhua, and number just over 10,000 people (Mao 2007).
Younuo is spoken in Heping township (Ã¥ÂÂ平乡), Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County, Guangxi, China, in the villages of Liutian æ³ç° (including Xiaozhai å°Â寨), Jinjiang éÂÂæ±Â, Xinlu æ°ç¦Â, Jinkeng éÂÂå (including Huangluo é»Âè½), and a few others (Mao 2007:129). The Red Yao of Longsheng County are also distributed in Sishui æ³Âæ°´, Madi 马堤, and Jiangdi æ±Â庠townships.
The tables below present the vowels and consonant phonemes of Younuo as spoken in Xiaozhai (å°Â寨).
Younuo has relatively few diphthongs. These are: , , , , , and . In addition to vowels and diphthongs, other possible syllable codas are and .
Younuo is a tonal language with eight tones.