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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Asia > China > Bai, Southern

Bai, Southern

A language of China

ISO 639-3: bfs

Population	400,000 (2003).
Region	Northwest Yunnan, Dali, and Xiangyun provinces.
Language map	Southwestern China
Dialects	Dali, Xiangyun.
Classification	Sino-Tibetan, Tibeto-Burman, Bai
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% to– 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. 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. 1997. "Baiyu xizhouzhen hua shengdiao de ceshi fenxi."

ALLEN, Bryan; ALLEN, Silvia, authors. 1999. "Baiyu foudingdongci gezhong xingshi chutan."

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

ALLEN, Bryan; ALLEN, Silvia, authors. 2005. "Mozzarella of the East: cheese-making and Bai culture."  

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

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."