Maonan language

The Maonan language is a Kam–Sui language spoken mainly in China by the Maonan people, specifically in northern Guangxi and southern Guizhou. Huanjiang Maonan Autonomous County, Hechi, northern Guangxi, holds a concentrated number of speakers.

Demographics
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.


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

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

man2 na4 kʰaːu3

3SG eat wine

"S/He drinks wine."

man2 paːi1 hɯ1

3SG go market

"S/He goes to the market."

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

kʰaːu3 ɦu4ljaːŋ4

wine broomcorn

"broomcorn wine"

mu5 laːu4

pig big

"big pig"

nok7 vin1

bird fly

"flying bird"

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

jaːn1 ndaːu1 ti5 bo4

house/family 1PL POSS.PTCL buffalo

"Our family's buffalo" (cf. the more common bo4 jaːn1 ndaːu1) (Lu 2008:173-174).

Writing system
The Maonan writing system was established in 2010. It is based on 26 Latin letters to facilitate standard keyboard input. 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. For example:

Writing: Hez suen ngz nhieij hux gangs deih tuet mad

IPA: ɦe² suːn¹ ŋ² ˀnjai³ ɦu⁴ kaːŋ⁵ dai⁶ tuːt⁷' maːt⁸'

Gloss: 1SG teach 2SG buy rice stitch bag {take off} sock

Meaning: "I teach you (how) to buy rice, stitch bags and take off (your) socks."