白语

Central Bai

Sino-Tibetan (Bai)

FamilySino-Tibetan (Bai) Speakers~600K-700K ScriptLatin (Latin script with diacritics following Yunnan conventions) Official inNone (minority language, not official status)

Data sources: Ethnologue 27 (bca), Glottolog (bai1280 Bai; bca Central Bai specific entry), He Liyi (1986) 'The Bai Language: Phonology and Lexicon' (Yunnan Nationalities Publishing), David Steele (1989) 'Bai-Chinese-English Comparative Lexicon', and Yunnan Minorities Language Commission (1987) references. Geographic center coordinates (25.92°N, 100.31°E) correspond to Dali City, Yunnan Province, core Bai-speaking region. Speaker count based on census and ethnographic data indicating Central Bai [Provisional - limited documentation; readings pending native-speaker verification.]

Where it is spoken

20 core words in Central Bai

Water

tshi

/tʃʰɪ/

Fire

me

/me/

Sun

nyi

/ɲi/

Moon

thsi

/tʰsɪ/

Mother

me

/me/

Father

phu

/pʰu/

Eat

tshje

/tʃʰje/

Drink

phi

/pʰɪ/

Love

phi-tshje

/pʰɪ tʃʰje/

Heart

sin

/sɪ̃/

Tree

si

/sɪ/

House

khe

/kʰe/

Dog

kho

/kʰo/

Cat

mau

/mau̯/

Hand

khon

/kʰɔ̃/

Eye

ngat

/ŋɑ́t/

Hello

he

/he/

Thank you

mje-kje

/mje kje/

One

tshit

/tʃʰɪt/

Good

no

/no/

Words compared

Compared with related Sino-Tibetan (Bai) languages

Meaning Central BaiSouthern QiangKhams TibetanBaltiAmdo TibetanClassical TibetanThulung
Water tshi /tʃʰɪ/ tʃʰu /tʃʰu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ཆུ་ /tʂʰu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ भु /bʱu/
Fire me /me/ miː /miː/ མེ /me/ མེ /me/ མེ་ /mɛ/ མེ /me/ मे /me/
Sun nyi /ɲi/ ɲit /ɲit/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ཉི་མ་ /ɲəmɑ/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ नाम /nam/
Moon thsi /tʰsɪ/ ʐwaː /ʐwaː/ ཟླ་བ /dawa/ ཟླ་བ /dawa/ ཟླ་བ་ /dʐɑwɑ/ ཟླ་བ /dawa/ लामी /lami/
Mother me /me/ miː /miː/ ཨ་མ /ama/ ཨ་མ /ama/ ཨ་མ་ /ɑ mɑ/ ཨ་མ /ama/ मामा /mama/
Father phu /pʰu/ /pə/ ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ ཕ་ /pʰɑ/ /pʰa/ पापा /papa/
Eat tshje /tʃʰje/ tʃʰə /tʃʰə/ /za/ /za/ ཟ་ /zɑ/ བཟའ /za/ च- /tʃa/
Drink phi /pʰɪ/ ʂu /ʂu/ འཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ ཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ ཐུང་ /tʰuŋ/ འཐུང /tʰuŋ/ तुङ- /tʰuŋ/
Page 1/3

Han readings compared

Compared with related Sino-Tibetan > Bai (Baipho branch; sometimes classified as sister of Sinitic) languages

Character Central BaiEarly Mandarin (Yuan)Taiwan MandarinChinese (Mandarin)Thai Mandarin (heritage)Northeastern MandarinGan Chinese (Yingtan)
it6 /ʔit̚˨˨˨/ i3 /i˨˩˦/ /i˥˥/ /i˥˥/ /i˥˥/ yi⁵⁵ /i˥˥/ it⁵ /it̚˥/
nox3 /no˨˩˦/ ʐï4 /ʐʅ˥˩/ èr /ɑɻ˥˩/ èr /ɑɻ˥˩/ èr /ɑɻ˥˩/ er⁵³ /ɚ˥˧/ ɛ²¹ /ɛ˨˩/
sae1 /sæ˥/ sam1 /sam˥/ sān /san˥˥/ sān /san˥˥/ sān /san˥˥/ san⁵⁵ /san˥˥/ sã⁴² /sã˦˨/
sv4 /sɿ˨˩/ sï4 /sɿ˥˩/ /sɿ˥˩/ /sɿ˥˩/ /sɿ˥˩/ si⁵³ /sɿ˥˧/ sɿ⁴⁵ /sɿ˦˥/
ngux3 /ŋu˨˩˦/ u3 /u˨˩˦/ /u˨˩˦/ /u˨˩˦/ /u˨˩˦/ wu²¹³ /u˨˩˧/ ŋ̩²¹³ /ŋ̩˨˩˧/
lox6 /lo˨˨˨/ lieu4 /liəu˥˩/ liù /ljou˥˩/ liù /ljou˥˩/ liù /ljou˥˩/ liu⁵³ /liou˥˧/ liuq⁵ /liuʔ˥/
chi1 /tɕʰi˦˦/ tshi3 /tsʰi˨˩˦/ /tɕʰi˥˥/ /tɕʰi˥˥/ /tɕʰi˥˥/ qi⁵⁵ /tɕʰi˥˥/ tɕʰit⁵ /tɕʰit̚˥/
be2 /pe˧˥/ pa3 /pa˨˩˦/ /pa˥˥/ /pa˥˥/ /pa˥˥/ ba⁵⁵ /pa˥˥/ pat⁵ /pat̚˥/
jiux3 /tɕiu˨˩˦/ kieu3 /kiəu˨˩˦/ jiǔ /tɕjou˨˩˦/ jiǔ /tɕjou˨˩˦/ jiǔ /tɕjou˨˩˦/ jiu²¹³ /tɕiou˨˩˧/ tɕiu²¹³ /tɕiu˨˩˧/
cix6 /tsʰɿ˨˨˨/ ʂï2 /ʂʅ˧˥/ shí /sz̩˧˥/ shí /ʂʐ̩˧˥/ shí /sz̩˧˥/ shi³⁵ /ʂʐ̩˧˥/ sɨt⁵ /sɨt̚˥/
Page 1/7

Part of LangMap — a linguistic visualization project. This is a static, crawlable summary; the interactive maps offer pronunciation audio, filters, and a globe view.