Jino language

Jino Language (Jinuo; also known as Buyuan, Jinuo, Buyuan Jinuo 基諾語補遠方言.)[4] autonyms: tɕy44 no44, ki44 ɲo44) Jino language is a pair of Loloish languages spoken by the Jino people of Yunnan.

Jino
Jinuo, Buyuan Jino, Youle Jino, 基諾語補遠方言 [1]
Jinuo
Pronunciation[tɕy44 no44] or [ki44 ȵo44][2]
RegionSipsongpanna, Dai autonomous prefecture of southern Yunnan (People's Republic of China)
EthnicityJino
Native speakers
21,000 (2007)[3]
Dialects
  • Youle Jino
  • Buyuan Jino
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
jiu – Youle Jinuo
jiy – Buyuan Jinuo
Glottologyoul1235

Varieties

In total, there are about 28,320 Jinuo people living in China.[5] 70–80% of Jinuo people can speak Jino fluently.[6] The Jino languages has two subdialects of Youle Jino and Buyuan Jinuo,[7] and they are not mutually intelligible.

Buyuan Jinuo is spoken by 21,000 people[8] Most of the speakers are monolingual, which means they only speak Jino language.[4] There is no official written form. Most Jino also speak one of the Tai languages or Chinese. The ISO 639-3 code for the Jino language is "jiu" for Youle Jino, or "jiy" for Buyuan Jino.[8] The Glottocode for Jino language is "youl1235" for Youle Jino,[9] or "buyu1238" for Buyuan Jino.[10]

Classification

The exact classification of Jino within the Loloish branch of Sino-Tibetan language family remains uncertain. Jino is classified as a Southern Loloish (Hanoish) language by Ziwo Lama (2012),[11] but as a Central Loloish language by Bradley (2007).[12] Jino is also classified as a Southern Loloish language in Satterthwaite-Phillips' (2011) computational phylogenetic analysis of the Lolo-Burmese languages.[13]

History

The language usage is rapidly eliminating, in the 1980s there was 70–80% of Jinuo people used Jino language. In 2000, There was less than 50% of the population can speak Jino language.[14]

Jino was recognized by the state council on 6 June 1979 as the last recognized minority nationality in China.[14]

Historically, Jino people was organized as a matriarchal culture, and “Jino” means “descending from the uncle,” and it refers to the importance of mother’s brother in matriarchal societies.[15]

From language aspect, Jino language is similar to other languages under the branch of the Tibeto-Burman languages, because Jino people moved from the northwest of Yunnan province to the territories they are at now, but the timing and routes of this migration remain uncertain,[1]

Geographic distribution

Jinuo Township (Jinuo Mountain), located in Jinghong City of the Sipsongpanna Dai autonomous prefecture of Yunnan province, China.[14]

Tonemes

There are five tonemes in Buyuan Jino language. Gai believes that the function of tonemes are distinguishing lexical meanings and grammatical meanings.[16]

  1. [55] value tone (high level tone): it tends to exhibit vowels that are phonetically shortened
  2. [44] value tone (mid level tone): lower than 55, though high
  3. [31] value tone(low falling tone): low
  4. [35] value tone (rising tone): rising
  5. [53] value tone (high falling tone): falling from the top level

[53] value tone is considered difficult to tell when listen to native speaker [7]

Writing system

Since there is no official written form for Jino, therefore, Jino does not have a writing system, but it developed several systems of signs to cover communication in different situations.[1] They used engraved wooden or bamboo boards to record debts between villages.

References
  1. Arcones, Pedro Ceinos (2014-04-14). China's Last but one matriarchy: The Jino of Yunnan. Pedro Ceinos.
  2. Lama, Ziwo Qiu-Fuyuan (2012), Subgrouping of Nisoic (Yi) Languages, thesis, University of Texas at Arlington
  3. Youle Jinuo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Buyuan Jinuo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  4. "Did you know Buyuan Jinuo is endangered?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2017-03-08.
  5. "People Group Profiles - Asia Harvest". asiaharvest.org. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
  6. Moseley, Christopher (2012). "Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger". UNESCO.
  7. NetCommons (2013-03-01). "神戸市外国語大学学術情報リポジトリ". Annals of Foreign Studies (in Japanese). 83.
  8. "Jinuo, Buyuan". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
  9. "Glottolog 2.7 - Jino". glottolog.org. Retrieved 2017-03-09.
  10. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Jino". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  11. Lama, Ziwo Qiu-Fuyuan. 2012. Subgrouping of Nisoic (Yi) Languages. Ph.D. thesis, University of Texas at Arlington.
  12. Bradley, David. 2007. East and Southeast Asia. In Moseley, Christopher (ed.), Encyclopedia of the World's Endangered Languages, 349-424. London & New York: Routledge.
  13. Satterthwaite-Phillips, Damian. 2011. Phylogenetic inference of the Tibeto-Burman languages or On the usefulness of lexicostatistics (and "Megalo"-comparison) for the subgrouping of Tibeto-Burman. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University.
  14. Yuming, Li; Wei, Li (2013-03-22). The Language Situation in China. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-1614512530.
  15. Minahan, James B. (2014-02-10). Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781610690188.
  16. Xingzhi, Gai. 1986. Jinoyu Jianzhi [A brief description of the Jinuo language]. Beijing: Minzu Chubanshe.
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