Maonan language

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Maonan
Native to	China
Region	Northern Guangxi, Southern Guizhou[1]: 33
Ethnicity	107,000 (2000)[2]
Native speakers	30,000 (2005)[2]
Language family	Kra–Dai Kam–Sui Maonan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mmd
Glottolog	maon1241
ELP	Maonan
Maonan is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

The Maonan language (Chinese: 毛南语; pinyin: Máonán yǔ) is a Kam–Sui language spoken mainly in China by the Maonan people, specifically in northern Guangxi and southern Guizhou.^{[1]: 33 [3]} Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County, Hechi, northern Guangxi, holds a concentrated number of speakers.^[1]

Approximately half of all Maonan people are capable of speaking Maonan. In addition to this, many Maonan also speak Chinese or a Zhuang language. About 1/3 of all people who self-identify as Maonan are concentrated in the southern Guizhou province. They speak a mutually unintelligible dialect commonly called Yanghuang, which is more commonly known as the Then language in Western literature. The Maonan do not have a writing system.

Other than Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County in Guangxi, Maonan is also spoken in the following locations.^[3]

• Nandan County, Guangxi
• Du'an Yao Autonomous County, Guangxi
• Yizhou, Guangxi
• Libo County, Guizhou
• Pingtang County, Guizhou

Maonan is a tonal language with 8 tones (Lu 2008:90–91),^[1] featuring an SVO clause construction (Lu 2008:169).^[1] (See Proto-Tai language#Tones for an explanation of the tone numbers.) For example:

Maonan displays a head-first modification structure, i.e. the modifier occurring after the word being modified (Lu 2008:170).^[1] For example:

Occasionally, a head-final modification structure is also possible with the involvement of a possessive particle (P.P.) ti⁵. For example:

(cf. the more common bo⁴ jaːn¹ ndaːu¹) (Lu 2008:173-174).^[1]

The Maonan writing system was established in 2010. It is based on 26 Latin letters to facilitate standard keyboard input.^[4] The letters z, j, x, s, h are attached to the end of each syllable as tonal markers, representing tones 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 respectively. The first tone is not written. Syllables ending in -b, -d, -g, -p, -t, -k do not distinguish tone either. The writing system is being used among a limited number of Maonan intellectuals.^[5] For example:

• Maonan people

• Zhang, Jingni 张景霓 (2017). Huanjiang Maonanzu yuyan shiyong xianzhuang ji qi yanbian 环江毛南族语言使用现状及其演变. Beijing: Science Press 科学出版社. OCLC 1050506673.

• Maonan.info by Lu Tianqiao