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Philip R. Brassett, Cecilia Brassett

Diachronic and synchronic overview of the Tujia language of Central South China

The Tujia language, which belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, is spoken by members of the Tujia ethnic minority who live in the border regions of Hunan, Hubei and Guizhou Provinces and Chongqing Municipality in the People’s Republic of China. Although the Tujia people number over eight million, there are now only around 70,000 speakers, that is, less than 1% of the Tujia population. This article first traces and discusses the reasons for the historical decline in the use of Tujia, and then investigates contemporary factors which affect language attitudes and use. The linguistic interactions between Tujia and Chinese are also described, together with the resulting phonological, lexical, and grammatical changes. The article concludes that, in its present endangered state, the Tujia language is likely to disappear completely within a few generations.

International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Walter de Gruyter

Print ISSN: 0165-2516
Volume: 2005, 05/2005
Pages: 75 - 97

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