白语

Central Bai

Sino-Tibetan (Bai)

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

Central Bai (ISO 639-3: bca), represented chiefly by Jianchuan Bai, is a Sino-Tibetan language of northwestern Yunnan, China, spoken by roughly 600,000–700,000 people. It is one of the major Bai varieties alongside Dali and Bijiang Bai, and centuries of contact with Chinese have contributed a large stratum of loanwords; its deeper position within Sino-Tibetan remains debated. Jianchuan Bai has open syllables, distinctive oral and nasal vowels, and a tonal-register system in which pitch contrasts interact with lax, breathy, and constricted phonation. The language has basic SVO order and is written in a standardized Latin orthography whose final letters mark tone and phonation; traditional Bai texts have also used adapted Chinese characters.

Where it is spoken

31 core words in Central Bai

Water

tshi

/tʃʰɪ/

Fire

me

/me/

Sun

nyi

/ɲi/

Moon

thsi

/tʰsɪ/

Star

gɯsɿ

/ɡɯ˧sɿ˧/

Mother

me

/me/

Father

phu

/pʰu/

I

ngo

/ŋo˧/

You

no

/no˧/

Name

mie

/mie˧/

Eye

ngat

/ŋɑ́t/

Hand

khon

/kʰɔ̃/

Heart

sin

/sɪ̃/

Love

phi-tshje

/pʰɪ tʃʰje/

Tree

si

/sɪ/

House

khe

/kʰe/

Dog

kho

/kʰo/

Cat

mau

/mau̯/

Eat

tshje

/tʃʰje/

Drink

phi

/pʰɪ/

One

yi

/i˧/

Two

ko

/ko˧/

Hello

he

/he/

Thank you

mje-kje

/mje kje/

Good

no

/no/

Words compared

Compared with related Sino-Tibetan (Bai) languages

Meaning Central BaiSouthern QiangKhams TibetanClassical TibetanBaltiLadakhiNaxi
Water tshi /tʃʰɪ/ tʃʰu /tʃʰu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ཆུ /tɕʰu/ ggee /ɡɯ̄/
Fire me /me/ miː /miː/ མེ /me/ མེ /me/ མེ /me/ མེ /me/ mee /mɯ˧/
Sun nyi /ɲi/ ɲit /ɲit/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ཉི་མ /ɲima/ ny-mei /ɲi˧mi˧/
Moon thsi /tʰsɪ/ ʐwaː /ʐwaː/ ཟླ་བ /dawa/ ཟླ་བ /dawa/ ཟླ་བ /dawa/ ཟླ་བ /zlawa/ he-mei /hɯ˧mi˧/
Star gɯsɿ /ɡɯ˧sɿ˧/ zgɿ /zɡɿ/ སྐར་མ /karma/ སྐར་མ /karma/ སྐར་མ /skarma/ སྐར་མ /skarma/ gee /kɯ˧/
Mother me /me/ miː /miː/ ཨ་མ /ama/ ཨ་མ /ama/ ཨ་མ /ama/ ཨ་མ /ama/ mei /mei˧/
Father phu /pʰu/ /pə/ ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ /pʰa/ ཨ་ཕ /apʰa/ ཨ་པ /apa/ av /a˧/
I ngo /ŋo˧/ qa /qɑ/ /ŋà/ /ŋa/ /ŋa/ /ŋa/ ngeq /ŋə˨˩/
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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˥/
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