She language

Not to be confused with Benc' language.

She
Ho Ne
Pronunciation	[hɔ̀né̄]
Native to	China
Region	Zengcheng, Boluo County, Huidong County and Haifeng County in Guangdong
Ethnicity	710,000 She (2000 census)
Native speakers	unknown (910 cited 1999)
Language family	Hmong–Mien Hmongic She–Jiongnai She
Language codes
ISO 639-3	shx
Glottolog	shee1238

The She language (Mandarin: 畲語 shēyǔ, Hakka 山客話 san ha ue [sáŋ xáʔ uə̄̀]), autonym Ho Ne (hɔ22 ne53) or Ho Nte, is an endangered Hmong–Mien language spoken by the She people. Most of the over 709,000 She people today speak Hakka Chinese. Those who still speak She—approximately 1,200 individuals in Guangdong province—call themselves Ho Ne "mountain people" (Chinese: 活聶 huóniè).

External relationships

She has been difficult to classify due to the heavy influence of Chinese on the language. Matisoff (2001), for example, left it unclassified within the Hmongic languages, and some have considered that much to be doubtful, leaving it unclassified within (and potentially a third branch of) the Hmong–Mien languages. However, Mao & Li (2002) and Ratliff (2010) consider She to be most closely related to Jiongnai.

Relationship with Hakka

The She have strongly influenced, and been strongly influenced by, the Hakka Chinese, both in language and culture.

Relationship with Min Dong

The She people of Eastern Fujian speak a Min Dong–influenced variety of She.

• The first person singular 我 is pronounced as [ŋuai] (compare Fuzhou dialect nguāi).
• The word 囝 (a diminutive particle) is pronounced as [kiaŋ], just as giāng in Fuzhou dialect.
• They both share the same verbs.

Phonology

Consonants

		Bilabial		Labio- dental	Alveolar		Velar			Glottal
		plain	pal.		plain	pal.	plain	pal.	lab.	plain	pal.
Nasal	voiced	m	mʲ		n	nʲ	ŋ	ŋʲ
	voiceless						ŋ̊
Plosive	voiceless unaspirated	p	pʲ		t	tʲ	k	kʲ	kʷ	(ʔ)
	voiceless aspirated	pʰ	pʰʲ		tʰ	tʰʲ	kʰ	kʰʲ	kʰʷ
Affricate	voiceless unaspirated				ts	tsʲ
	voiceless aspirated				tsʰ	tsʰʲ
Fricative	voiceless			f	s	sʲ				h	hʲ
	voiced			v	z	zʲ

Glottal stop is not distinct from zero (a vowel-initial syllable).

There are consonant mutation effects. For instance, pǐ + kiáu becomes pi̋’iáu, and kóu + tȁi becomes kóulȁi.

Vowels

Vowels are /i e a ɔ ɤ u/. Finals are /j w n ŋ t k/, with /t k/ only in Hakka loans, though /ɤ/ is never followed by a final, and the only stops which follow the front vowels are /n t/.

Tones

There are six tones, reduced to two (high and low) in checked syllables (Hakka loans only). There is quite a lot of dialectical variability; two of the reported inventories (not necessarily in corresponding order) are:

[ ˥ ˦ ˧ ˨ ˨˩ ˧˥ ]: that is, /5 4 3 2 1 35/, or (on /a/), /a̋ á ā à ȁ ǎ/

[ ˥˧ ˦˨ ˧ ˨ ˧˩ ˧˥ ]: that is, /53 42 3 2 31 35/

Vocabulary

Loanwords from Classical Chinese

Like Southern Chinese dialects, the She language has loanwords from Classical Chinese. 走 to run 行 to walk 烏 black 赤 red 寮 house 禾 rice (plant) 鑊 wok 奉 to give 其 he/she/it 着 to wear 睇 to look 戮 to kill 齧 to bite 使 to use

References

• Bruhn, Daniel. 2008. Minority Language Policy in China, with Observations on the She Ethnic Group[1]
• Mao, Zongwu & Meng, Chaoji. 1986. She yu jian zhi (A Sketch of the She language). Beijing, China: Nationalities Press. (毛宗武, 蒙朝吉. 1986. 畬語簡志. 北京: 民族出版社)
• Ratliff, Martha. 1998. Ho Ne (She) is Hmongic: One final argument. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 21.2:97-109.
• You, Wenliang. 2002. She zu yu yan [The languages of the She people]. Fuzhou, China: Fujian People's Publishing House. (游文良. 2002. 畲族语言. 福州: 福建人民出版社)