Min Zhuang is a recently described
Tai language spoken in the Langheng (郎恒) area of
Funing County, Yunnan,
China, and possibly also southwestern
Guangxi province. All speakers are reportedly bilingual in
Yei Zhuang (also known as Guibian Zhuang or Sha), which is classified as
Northern Tai (Johnson 2011a). The language was first described in 2011 by Eric C. Johnson of
SIL International, though it had been earlier mentioned in Kullavanijaya and
L-Thongkum (1998).
Names
The Min Zhuang speakers of Guixun-Anhe call their language kaŋ˨min˨˦ or min˨˦sɔŋ˥˧. Another Min Zhuang dialect is called pu˨min˨˦ or kən˧min˨˦.
Min Zhuang is spoken by about 2,600 people in 11 villages. With the exception of Shangmabu (上麻布), all of the following villages are purely made up of Min Zhuang speakers.
Kullavanijaya, Pranee and L-Thongkum, Theraphan. 1998. "Linguistic criteria for determining Tai ethnic groups: case studies on Central and south-western Tais." Proceedings [of] the International Conference on Tai Studies, July 29–31, 1998, Bangkok.