The Mak language (
Chinese: 莫语;
autonym: ʔai3 maːk8)[2] is a
Kam–Sui language spoken in
Libo County,
Qiannan Prefecture,
Guizhou,
China. It is spoken mainly in the four townships of Yangfeng (羊/阳风乡, including Dali 大利村 and Xinchang 新场村 dialects[3]), Fangcun (方村), Jialiang (甲良), and Diwo (地莪) in Jialiang District (甲良),
Libo County. Mak speakers can also be found in
Dushan County. Mak is spoken alongside
Ai-Cham and
Bouyei.[4] The Mak, also called Mojia (莫家) in Chinese, are officially classified as
Bouyei by the Chinese government.[5]
Yang (2000) considers
Ai-Cham and Mak to be different dialects of the same language.
The Fangcun dialect was first studied by
Fang-Kuei Li in 1942, and the Yangfeng dialect was studied in the 1980s by Dabai Ni of the
Minzu University of China.[4] Ni also noted that the Mak people only sing Bouyei folk songs, and that about 5,000 Mak people have shifted to the Bouyei language.
Dialects
Wu et al. (2016) contains a 2,531-item word list of 5 Mak dialects. Wu et al. (2016) also has data tables comparing a few hundred words in
Bouyei,
Sui, and Mak. The Mak dialects compared, each of which are spoken in their respective townships, are:[6]
Jialiang 甲良
Fangcun 方村
Yangfeng 阳凤
Boyao 播尧 (Diwo 地莪)
Jichang 基长
References
^
abMak at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^Ni, Dabai 倪大白 (2010). Dòng-Táiyǔ gàilùn 侗台语概论 [An Introduction to Kam-Tai Languages] (in Chinese). Beijing Shi: Minzu chubanshe. p. 249.
ISBN978-7-105-10582-3.
^
abNi, Dabai (1988). "Yangfeng Mak of Libo County". In Edmondson, Jerold A.; Solnit, David B. (eds.). Comparative Kadai: Linguistic Studies Beyond Tai. Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington. pp. 87–106.
Edmondson, Jerold A.; Solnit, David B., eds. (1988). Comparative Kadai: Linguistic Studies Beyond Tai. Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington.
Yang, Tongyin 杨通银 (2000). Mòyǔ yánjiū 莫语研究 [A Study of Mak] (in Chinese). Beijing: Zhongyang minzu daxue chubanshe.