A Study On The Yao Language

Mian language, the language of Yao ethnic minority group is the most universallanguage for the Yao people. It is generally thought to belongs to Yao language To mostscholars, in Sino-Tibetan family. To most scholars, the real Yao language is Mian. Inthis thesis, the Mian language has been researched by the author from the perspective ofcomparative linguistics.Except the acknowledgements, the main quotation and appendix, the paper iscomposed of ten parts. Part 1: Introduction. It emphasizes the aim and the significance ofthe research,the differences between the Yao language and the language of the Yaonationality, the material and the method in research. The author holds that Yao nationalityis a nationality with great characteristics throughout the research. Yao language has acomplicated system and various contents which provide abundant material for ournational language research, and what's more, the study of Yao language has an importantposition for a long time. At present, the research of Yao language is relatively backwardin our country, so making further research for Yao language is of great significance inboth theory and reality; Part 2: the history and the legend of the Yao nationality, whichmainly specifies the early common history of the Yao nationality and the Miao nationality,the legend about the origin of the Yao nationality' history and the new research done byscholars for the Yao nationality' history in recent years. The author makes sure throughthe research that Yao nationality and Miao nationality are of the same origin in the earlytime in view of the history of Yao nationality. At the earliest time, the ancestors of Yaonationality gradually broke away from the Miao-Yao community after Sui Dynasty andTang Dynasty and appeared in Chinese historical records in the name of"Mo Yao". AfterSong Dynasty, Yao nationality used "Yao" as the name and appeared in history as aethnic group; Part 3: the early history of Miao-Yao language. It reviews the dispute about the early relations and origins of Miao-Yao language, and moreover, it putsforward the author's propositions about the early origin of Miao-Yao language; Part 4:the contemporary sketch of Yao-language. It simply introduces the consonants, thevowels and the tones of the contemporary Mian. But because of the limit of this article'length, the author simply introduces the 12 sound-sites which is JangDi(江底),MiaoZiYuan(庙子源),LuoXiang(罗香),ChangPing(长坪),LiangZi(梁子),TanSan(滩散),DongShan(东山),ShiKou(石口),NiuWeiZhai(牛尾寨),DaPing(大坪),WuBu(巫不) and DaDi(达地) in the Mian(勉) as the representatives; Part 5: the comparison ofconsonant in contemporary Yao-language. The consonants in contemporaryMian-language has been compared synchronically, classified as Labial consonant, lingualconsonant, Sibilance consonant and Tooth-throat-sound (牙喉音)consonant; Part 6: thecomparison of vowel in contemporary Yao-language. The vowels in contemporaryYao-language has been synchronicly grouped into "i","e", "ε","a","o","u"; Part 7:the analysis of vocabulary in contemporary Yao-language. It analyses cognate words ofMiao-Yao language, monosyllabic word, polysyllabic word, core words and Loanwords in Mian-language from Chinese in the aspects of the composition, the component,the difference and the core words in vocabulary in contemporary Yao-language. It notonly points out some differences in vocabulary among different dialects inMian-language, but also analyses some core words in Mian-language; Part 8: the ancientpronunciation and reconstruction in Miao-Yao language. It analyses and emphasizes theancient pronunciation and reconstruction in Miao-Yao language which has been done byscholars over the world, and puts forward some views; Part 9: the development tendencyof contemporary Yao-language. It discusses the voice changes and the futuredevelopment tendency from the angles of the language contact and language influence,the eclipse and protection of language and so on. The author believes that a lot of peoplespeak Yao language in many Yao villages, but it is in a weaker position in the placewhere Yao nationality lives with the other nationalities, like the other minority languages, Yao language is marginalized by the main language. Therefore, Yao language doesn'toccupy the mighty status. The atrophied and endangered circumstances for Yao languageshould be taken into serious consideration; Part 10: Conclusion. It gives a conclusion ofthe research in this thesis.