Nisu, Southern
PrintA language of China
ISO 639-3
Alternate Names
Yuan-Mo Yi
Population
210,000 (2007), decreasing.
Location
Yunnan Province, Honghe, Yuanyang, Lüchun (Eastern), Jinping, Shiping (Southern), and Yuanjiang (Southeastern) counties.
Language Maps
Language Status
6b (Threatened).
Language Use
Use active in areas with high concentrations of Nisu. However, increasing lexical borrowing from Chinese. Code switching common between Nisu and Chinese. Many men and women spend part of the year working in predominantly Chinese towns or cities. Home, village. Actively used by people middle-aged and above. Neutral attitudes. Many parents teach their children the Chinese [cmn] local dialect as L1 to do well in school. Village children eventually learn Nisu (with many loan words from Chinese). Chinese is the L2, spoken with outsiders.
Language Development
Literacy rate in L1: 0%.
Language Resources
Writing
Yi script, traditional, limited usage.
Officially classified within Yi nationality. Traditional religion.