The Bai language (Bai: ; ) is a language spoken in China, primarily in Yunnan Province, by the Bai people. The language has over a million speakers and is divided into three or four main dialects. Bai syllables are always open, with a rich set of vowels and eight tones. The tones are divided into two groups with modal and non-modal (tense, harsh or breathy) phonation. There is a small amount of traditional literature written with Chinese characters, Bowen (), as well as a number of recent publications printed with a recently standardized system of romanisation using the Latin alphabet.
The origins of Bai have been obscured by intensive Chinese influence of an extended period. Different scholars have proposed that it is an early offshoot or sister language of Chinese, part of the Loloish branch or a separate group within the Sino-Tibetan family.
Varieties
Xu and Zhao (1984) divided Bai into three dialects, which may actually be distinct languages: Jianchuan (Central), Dali (Southern) and Bijiang (Northern). Bijiang County has since been renamed as Lushui County. Jianchuan and Dali are closely related and speakers are reported to be able to understand one another after living together for a month.
The more divergent Northern dialects are spoken by about 15,000 Laemae (, Lemei, Lama), a clan numbering about 50,000 people who are partly submerged within the Lisu. They are now designated as two languages by ISO 639-3: Panyi, spoken by people called Lemo () on the Nu River (upper Salween) in Lushui County. Lama, spoken by people called Lama () on the Lancang River (upper Mekong) in Lanping County and Weixi County.
Wang Feng (2012) provides the following classification for nine Bai dialects:
Bai
Western
Gongxing (), Lanping County
(core branch) Enqi (), Lanping County; Jinman (金满), Lushui County Tuoluo (), Weixi County Ega (), Lushui County Eastern Mazhelong (), Qiubei County (core branch) Jinxing (), Jianchuan County Dashi (), Heqing County Zhoucheng (), Dali City
Wang (2012) also documents a Bai dialect in Xicun, Dacun Village, Shalang Township, Kunming City (昆明市沙朗乡大村西村).
Classification
The affiliation of Bai is obscured by over two millennia of influence from varieties of Chinese, leaving most of its lexicon related to Chinese etyma of various periods. To determine its origin, researchers must first identify and remove from consideration the various layers of loanwords and then examine the residue. In his survey of the field, Wang (2006) notes that early work was hampered by a lack of data on Bai and uncertainties in the reconstruction of early forms of Chinese. Recent authors have suggested that Bai is an early offshoot from Chinese, a sister language to Chinese, or more distantly related (though usually still Sino-Tibetan).
There are different tonal correspondences in the various layers. Many words can be identified as later Chinese loans because they display Chinese sound changes from the last two millennia: labiodental fricatives, which developed from earlier labial stops in certain environments. palatal affricates from earlier velar stops in palatal environments. aspirated stops from earlier voiced stops in words having the Middle Chinese level tone. the initial , which developed from Old Chinese *r-. Some of these changes date back to the first centuries AD.