Yi language

Nuosu, also known as Northern Yi, Liangshan Yi, Nosu, and Sichuan Yi, is the prestige language of the Yi people

Yi people

The Yi people are a modern ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand...

; it has been chosen by the Chinese government as the standard Yi language and, as such, is the only one taught in school, both in its oral and written form. It is spoken by two million people and is increasing; 60% are monolingual. The occasional terms 'Black Yi' and 'White Yi' are castes of the Nuosu people.

Nuosu is one of several often mutually unintelligible varieties known as Yi, Lolo, Moso, or Noso; the six Yi languages recognized by the Chinese government hold only 25 to 50 percent of their vocabulary in common.

Nuosu, also known as Northern Yi, Liangshan Yi, Nosu, and Sichuan Yi, is the prestige language of the Yi people

Yi people

The Yi people are a modern ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand...

; it has been chosen by the Chinese government as the standard Yi language and, as such, is the only one taught in school, both in its oral and written form. It is spoken by two million people and is increasing; 60% are monolingual. The occasional terms 'Black Yi' and 'White Yi' are castes of the Nuosu people.

Nuosu is one of several often mutually unintelligible varieties known as Yi, Lolo, Moso, or Noso; the six Yi languages recognized by the Chinese government hold only 25 to 50 percent of their vocabulary in common. They share a common traditional writing system

Yi script

The Yi script, also historically known as Cuan Wen or Wei Shu , is used to write the Yi languages.-Classical Yi:Classical Yi is a syllabic logographic system that was reputedly devised during the Tang dynasty by someone called Aki...

, though this is used for shamanism rather than daily accounting. The Yi people regard the traditional Western term Lolo as pejorative.

Writing system

Classic Yi is a syllabic logographic

Logogram

A logogram, or logograph, is a grapheme which represents a word or a morpheme . This stands in contrast to phonograms, which represent phonemes or combinations of phonemes, and determinatives, which mark semantic categories.Logograms are commonly known also as "ideograms" or "hieroglyphics", which...

 system of 8000–10,000 glyphs. Although similar to Chinese in function, the glyphs are independent in form, with little to suggest a direct relation.

The Modern Yi script ( 'Nosu script') is a standardized syllabary

Syllabary

A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. A symbol in a syllabary typically represents an optional consonant sound followed by a vowel sound.-Languages using syllabaries:...

 derived from the classic script in 1974 by the local Chinese government

People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...

. It was made the official script of the Yi languages in 1980. There are 756 basic glyphs based on the Liangshan dialect, plus 63 for syllables only found in Chinese borrowings.

In 1958 the Chinese government had introduced a Roman-based alphabet for use in Yi. (This was later replaced by the Yi script.)

Phonology

The written equivalents of the phonemes listed here are "Yi Pinyin". For information about the actual script used, see the section above entitled Writing System.

Consonants

		Labial Labial consonant Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips or with the lower lip and the upper teeth...	Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...	Retroflex Retroflex consonant In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue articulates with the roof of the oral cavity behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar to palatal region of the...	Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...	Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....	Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricatives, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the lips or tongue...	voiced
	unvoiced
Plosive	prenasalized
	voiced
	unvoiced
	aspirated
Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...	prenasalized
	voiced
	unvoiced
	aspirated
Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...	unvoiced
	voiced
Lateral Lateral consonant Laterals are "L"-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue....	voiced
	unvoiced

Vowels

	Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also called...	Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel...	Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark...
Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the...
Close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel...
Open-mid Open-mid vowel The open-mid vowels make a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel...
Open Open vowel An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in nearly all spoken languages . The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue...

* Identified with the vowel of the Mandarin 四 sì "four"

Dialects

The Yi people

Yi people

The Yi people are a modern ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand...

speak six major languages/dialects:

1. Northern Yi (Nuosu)http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=iii
2. Western Yi (Lalu)http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ywt
3. Central Yi (Lolopo)http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ysp
4. Southern Yi (Nisu)http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=nsd
5. Southaastern Yi (Nasu)http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=yig
6. Eastern Yi (Nasu)http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ywq

These 'dialects' are mutually unintelligible. Northern Yi is the largest with some two million speakers, and is the basis of the literary language.

Further reading

• Collective book, Ritual for Expelling Ghosts, A religious Classic of the Yi nationality in Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan. The Taipei Ricci Institute (November 1998)

External links

• Yi font by SIL