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Bai, Central

A language of China

ISO 639-3: bca

Population	800,000 (2003).
Region	Northwest Yunnan, Jianchuan, Heqing, Lanping, Eryuan, and Yunlong.
Language map	Southwestern China
Alternate names	Labbu, Leme, Minchia, Minjia, Minkia, Nama, Pai
Dialects	Jianchuan, Heqing, Lanping, Eryuan, Yunlong.
Classification	Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Bai
Language use	Vigorous. All domains. All ages. Positive attitude. Some others also speak Chinese [cmn]. A few also speak Lisu [lis], Nung [nun], or Naxi [nbf].
Language development	Literacy rate in L2: 70%. Poetry. Radio programs. Dictionary. Grammar.
Writing system	Bowen or Lao Baiwen script, dating from the 8th century, based on Chinese characters, never standardized. Latin script.
Comments	Part of Bai nationality. Classification difficult because of heavy borrowing (60%–70%) from Chinese. Considered genetically related to Chinese, or a mixed language with Chinese, or related to Yi, or an independent branch of Tibeto-Burman. SVO; attributives precede noun heads; number classifier constructions follow noun heads; tense-lax vowel distinction; tonal, 5 to 8 tones. Agriculturalists: wet rice, maize, broad bean, wheat; traders; craftsmen. Polytheist, Buddhist, Daoist.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

ALLEN, Bryan, author. 2007. "Bai dialect survey."  

ALLEN, Bryan, author; ZHANG Xia, translator. 2004. Bai dialect survey (Baiyu fangyan yanjiu).

ALLEN, Bryan; ALLEN, Silvia, authors. 2000. "Baizu wenhua zhengmianlin weiji."

CASTRO, Andy; FINE, Cathryn, authors. 2009. "Representing tone in Levenshtein distance."

COBBEY, Heidi, author. 2007. "Challenges and prospects of minority bilingual education in China—an analysis of four projects."

EDMONDSON, Jerold A.; ESLING, John H.; HARRIS, Jimmy G.; LI Shaoni; ZIWO, Lama, authors. 2001. "The aryepiglottic folds and voice quality in the Yi and Bai languages: laryngoscopic case studies."