Bugan language

"Bugan" redirects here. For other uses, see Bugan (disambiguation).

Bugan
Pakan
Native to	China
Region	Yunnan
Native speakers	2,700 (2005)[1]
Language family	Austroasiatic Pakanic Bugan
Dialects	Nala Manlong
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bbh
Glottolog	buga1247
ELP	Bugan

Bugan, Bogan, Pakan, or Bugeng (布甘语, 布干语, or 布赓语) is an Austroasiatic language.^[2] The existence of the Bugan language was not known by the rest of world until recently. There are about 3000 speakers, mostly in some villages in southern Guangnan (广南) and northern Xichou (西畴), Yunnan Province, China. Bugan is an analytic language, and word order and auxiliary words have important functions in the grammar.^[3]

Distribution

Li Jinfang (1996)

According to Li Jinfang (1996), the Bugan-speaking population is distributed in seven villages across southern Guangnan (广南) and northern Xichou (西畴), Yunnan Province, China. As the language is highly uniform, it is not divided into any dialects.

• Laowalong 老挖龙 (Bugan-only population); Bugan language: pə55 luŋ13
• Xinwalong 新挖龙 (Bugan-only population); Bugan language: pə55 tsuŋ13
• Jiuping 九平 (Bugan and Han Chinese population); Bugan language: pə55 tsiaŋ31
• Shibeipo 石北坡 (Bugan-only population); Bugan language: pə55 ɕe13
• Xinzhai 新寨 (Bugan and Han Chinese population); Bugan language: li̠31 laŋ13
• Malong 马龙 (Bugan-only population); Bugan language: pə55 ɣu31
• Nala 那拉 (Bugan and Han Chinese population)

Li Yunbing (2005)

According to a more recent survey by Li Yunbing (2005), the Bugan people, comprising a total of 500+ households and 2,700+ individuals, live in the following locations.

• Laowalong 老挖龙, Nasa Township 那洒镇;^[4] Bugan language: pə31 loŋ55
• Xinwalong 新挖龙;^[5] Bugan language: pə31 tɕoŋ55
• Xiaoping 小坪寨; Bugan language: pə31 tɕaŋ55
• Nala 那腊;^[6] Bugan language: pə31 pʰja44
• Jiuping 九坪, Zhuanjiao Township 篆角乡 (Chongtian Township 冲天乡);^[7] Bugan language: pə31 tɕa̠ŋ31
• Shibeipo 石碑坡;^[8] Bugan language: pə55 ɕe24
• Manlong 曼龙;^[9] Bugan language: pu31ɣu31

Li Yunbing also uses the term Bùgēng (布赓) in place of Bùgān (布甘).

People

The Bugan people's autonym is pə55 ka̠n33, while the surrounding Han Chinese call them Huazu (Chinese: 花族; literally "flower people") or Hualo (Chinese: 花倮) due to their colorful clothing.^[10] Other autonyms are pu55 qe̠ŋ44 (in Manlong, Xichou County) and pə55 qe̠ŋ44 (in Nala and Xinwalong in Guangnan County). They are an unrecognized ethnic minority, and are currently classified as Yi. The Bugan are endogamous, and thus do not usually marry people from other ethnic groups^[11]

The Bugan people also hold their own New Year's Day celebration in April of the Chinese lunar calendar, which is separate from that of the Han Chinese New Year.

Common Bugan surnames include Li 李, Wang 王, Guo 郭, Luo 罗, Yan 严, Lu 卢, Pu 普, and Yi.

Phonology

Bugan is a tonal SVO language. Unlike the Bolyu language, Bugan distinguishes between tense and lax voice qualities. In current linguistic publications on Bugan, tense voice is indicated by underlining vowels. Bugan has a total of 49 onsets (including various consonant clusters) and 67 possible rimes.^[12]

There is a small difference in the phonemic inventory between two Bugan dialects, Nala Bugan and Manlong Bugan.

Nala Bugan

The Nala Bugan dialect is spoken in the Nala village (那腊), Nala town, Guangnan County, Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan. The Bugan of this village call themselves pə⁵⁵qe̠ŋ⁴⁴ and their village pə³¹pʰja⁴⁴.

Data of the Nala dialect was collected by Li Jinfang (2006). A brief grammatical sketch of Nala Bugan was provided by Li & Luo (2015).

Consonants

Initial consonants^[13]

			Labial			Dental/Alveolar			(Alveolo-) palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
			plain	lvg	ldt	dental	central	sibilant
Nasal			m				n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	plain	p				t	t͡s	(t͡ɕ)	k	q	ʔ
		aspirated	pʰ				tʰ	t͡sʰ	(t͡ɕʰ)	kʰ
		prenasalized						ᵐt͡sʰ			ᵑq
	voiced	plain	b				d	d͡z		ɡ
		prenasalized	ᵐb				ᵐd/ⁿd	ᵐd͡z/ⁿd͡z		ᵑɡ
Fricative		voiceless			f	θ		s	ɕ	x		h
		voiced			v*				ʑ	ɣ
Lateral							l
Approximant				w					j

• Sound in asterisk (*): /v/ is only heard in Nala Bugan.^[12]
• Prenasal consonant cluster sounds include /ᵐt͡s/, /ᵐt͡sʰ/, /pt͡s/, /pt͡sʰ/, /ᵐd͡z/, /ᵐv/, /ᵐd/, /ᵑg/, /ᵑq/, /ⁿd/, and /ⁿd͡z/.
• Sounds /t͡s, t͡sʰ/ are heard as alveolo-palatal [t͡ɕ, t͡ɕʰ] when preceding /i/.^[14]
• In tone /31/, /ᵐt͡s, ᵐt͡sʰ, ᵐd͡z/ may be pronounced as [pt͡s], [pt͡sʰ], [pd͡z]. Eg. /mtsʰɑ³¹/ ~ [ptsʰɑ³¹] "to rub with the hands, make a cord."^[14]
• Cluster /ŋg/ sometimes may be realized as plain velar nasal. Eg. /ŋga³¹/ ~ [ŋa³¹] "yellow."^[14]

Vowels

There is a distinction between tense-throat vowels and lax-throat (plain) vowels.^[14]

	Front			Central		Back
	plain		tense	plain	tense	plain		tense
Close	i	y	i			ɯ	u	ɯ	u
Close-mid	e		e	ə		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɛ			ɔ
Open				a	a

Nasal vowels

	Front	Central		Back
		plain	tense	plain	tense
Close				ũ	ũ
Mid	ɛ̃	ə̃		õ
Open		ã	ã

In the same syllable, tense and lax vowels do not co-occur. The restriction seems to be phonemic, because tense vowels are described as having a lower and more retracted tongue position than their lax counterparts. Eg. ta³¹ "near" is realized as a central-open [a], while tense /a̠/ in ta̠³¹ "to bet" is closer to [ɑ].^[15]

In syllables with a rising tone, tense vowels are accompanied by a noticeably constricted or tight laryngeal setting, making the tense quality acoustically salient. In syllables with the falling tone (31), however, the laryngeal tension weakens, so the contrast relies more heavily on vowel quality itself. There are six contrastive tones in Nala Bugan. The neutral tone only occurs in some prefixes.^[15]

Tone value	Contour	Context
0	neutral	open syllables
13	low rising	open syllables
35	high rising	open syllables
31	low falling	checked (-p̚, -t̚, -k̚) & open syllables
33	mid level	checked & open syllables
55	high level	checked & open syllables

Manlong Bugan

Manlong Bugan is spoken by the Bugan tribe of the Manlong (曼龙) village, Jijie Township, Xichou County, Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan. It is mutually intelligible with Nala Bugan. Bugans refer to this village by their native toponym pu³¹ɣu³¹ and call themselves pu⁵⁵qe̠ŋ⁴⁴. Neighboring communities of the Manlong Bugans often call them the Flowery Luo (花倮) people, due to their colorful ethnic clothing. A grammatical description of Manlong Bugan has been documented in detail by Li Yunbing (2005).^[16]

Consonants

Manlong Bugan possesses a richer inventory of complex cluster onsets compared to Nala Bugan. It features a series of glided clusters, a series of prenasalized clusters, and three other labial clusters /pt͡s/, /pt͡sʰ/, /bd/.

Initial consonants^[16]

			Labial				Alveolar			(Alveolo-) palatal	Velar		Uvular	Glottal
			plain	pal.	lvg	ldt	central	pal.	sibilant		plain	pal.
Nasal			m	mʲ			n			ɲ	ŋ		ɴ
Stop/ Affricate	voiceless	plain	p	pʲ			t	tʲ	t͡s	t͡ɕ	k	kʲ	q	ʔ
		aspirated	pʰ	pʰj			tʰ	tʰj	t͡sʰ	t͡ɕʰ	kʰ		qʰ
	voiced	plain	b	bʲ			d	dʲ	d͡z	d͡ʑ	ɡ		ɢ
		prenasalized	ᵐb	ᵐbʲ			ᵐd/ⁿd		ᵐbd͡z/ⁿd͡z	ᶮd͡ʑ	ᵑɡ		ᶰɢ
Fricative		voiceless				f			s	ɕ	x	xʲ		h
		voiced								ʑ	ɣ
Lateral							l
Approximant					w					j

Vowels

Like Nala Bugan, lax and tense vowel contrast is found in Manlong Bugan. Each monophthong also has a nasalized counterpart.^[17]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

Manlong Bugan reportedly has four contour tones: /55/, /44/, /24/, and /31/.^[18]

Morphosyntax

Nominal morphology

Proforms

In possessive constructions, tone contour in pronouns is raised to /55/ to express possessive relation with the syntactically NP head. Eg. pa²⁴ ʔɔ⁵⁵ (father 1SG.POSS) "my father".^[19]

		singular	dual	plural
1st person	exclusive	ʔɔ³¹	wi³¹ bi̠ɔ̱³¹	pɛ³¹
	inclusive			wi³¹
2nd person		mɯ³¹	mi³¹ bi̠ɔ̱³¹	mi³¹
3rd person		ʔi³¹	hɛ³¹ bi̠ɔ̱³¹	hɛ³¹

Interrogatives

Bugan appears to build interrogatives analytically by attaching the element -pau³⁵ to nominal or pronominal bases. For example, mɯ⁵⁵ pau³⁵ means "who?" but can also function as an infinitive pronoun "anyone". This also holds true with mə dze⁵⁵ "what, whatever".^[20]

Interrogative	Meaning
mə dze⁵⁵	'what?'
ʔo⁵⁵pau³⁵	'where?'
ɣen⁵⁵pau³⁵	'why?'
ɣɯ³¹pau³⁵	'how?'
mɯ⁵⁵ pau³⁵	'which one?'
ta⁵⁵ pau³⁵	'which ones?'
tə⁵⁵pau³⁵	'how many?'
tsə⁵⁵pau³⁵	'when, which day?'

Classifiers

There are two types of classifiers in Bugan.^[21]

Noun		Verbal
Classifier	Purpose	Classifier	Purpose
pau³¹	humans	tsi³⁵	time frequency
biə³³	animals	fɛ³¹	for trip
li̠³³	long objects	mtsa³⁵	for eating
tsʰe¹³	objects, rivers	tuŋ⁵⁵	for biting
tsu̠ŋ⁵⁵	plants	ŋga³¹	for sleeps, naps
liu³³	thin, sheet objects	ta̱ŋ³³	for hitting with fist
tsam³³	pairs
pam³⁵	portions

Numerals

Bugan has a typical Austroasiatic decimal counting system with head-first combining forms for higher numerals. For examples, nineteen in Bugan is mã³¹ ɕi³³ (10 + 9), forty is pau³³ mã³¹ (4 x 10), 200 is bi³¹ ʑu³¹ (2 x 100), and 10,010 is mə⁵⁵ vã¹³ lɛ³³ ma³¹ or 1 x 10,000 + 10.^[22] Comparison of some cardinal numerals of Bugan, Mang (Mangic), and Gorum (South Munda):

Bugan, Mang, Gorum counting^[23]

gloss	Bugan	Mang	Gorum	Notes
one	bɔ⁵⁵/mə⁵⁵	măk⁶	bɔˀj	mə⁵⁵ is the weakly suppletive form of bɔ⁵⁵ in NPs with classifiers and numbers higher than 100
two	biɔ³¹/bi³¹	ʑɯəi²	bag, bagu	bi³¹ is the shorter form of biɔ³¹, only occurs in NPs with classifiers and numbers larger than 100
three	mtse³¹	pe³	yag, yagu, yagi	cf. Santali pɛ
four	pau³³	pun²	ungi	cf. Santali pon
five	mi³³	hăn²	mɔnlɔy
six	pi̱o̱³³	ʑɔ̆m²	turgi	cf. Palaung tɔr, Semelai pruʔ
seven	po̱u̱³¹	tăm¹ py³	gulgi
eight	sã³³	tăm¹ ham²	tamgi
nine	ɕi³³	tăm¹ θin²	timgi
ten	mã³¹	ʑi³ mɛ⁴	galgi	cf. Wa kau, Palaung ʔukɤr
hundred	ʑu³¹	ran⁵~ʑan⁵

Copulas

Nala Bugan has two copulas: generic ni³³/ȵu³³ and negative mə⁵⁵sa̱ŋ⁵⁵. ȵu³³, presumably derived from the same root which means "do", is not frequently used as copula.^[24]

ʔɔ³¹

I

ni³³/ȵu³³

COP

pə⁵⁵ka̱n³³

Bugan

ʔɔ³¹ ni³³/ȵu³³ pə⁵⁵ka̱n³³

I COP Bugan

'I am a Bugan.'

The preverbal negative mə⁵⁵ appears to be deeply connected with a wide array of Munda and Austroasiatic preverbal negatives otherwise, such as the conservative South Munda Juang finite negative ma-, Gtaʔ ma=, Kharia um, Gorum ambu.^[25]

Bugan (Li & Luo (2015:1044))

ʔɔ³¹

I

mə⁵⁵

NEG

sa̱ŋ⁵⁵

COP

piau¹³

person

pə⁵⁵se³³

Guangnan

ʔɔ³¹ mə⁵⁵ sa̱ŋ⁵⁵ piau¹³ pə⁵⁵se³³

I NEG COP person Guangnan

'I am not a native of Guangnan.'

Kharia (Peterson (2011), Kerkeʈʈā, (1990:11))

am

You

um

NEG

co=na=m

go=MID.IRR=2SG

laʔ=ta

EMOT=MID.PRES

am um co=na=m laʔ=ta

You NEG go=MID.IRR=2SG EMOT=MID.PRES

'It looks like you won't be going.'

Hill Gtaʔ (Anderson (2020), field notes)

ma-bihæ=nǝ

NEG.ATTR-marry=ATTR

ngire

young.man

ma-bihæ=nǝ ngire

NEG.ATTR-marry=ATTR young.man

'Unmarried young man, bachelor'

Notes

1. Bugan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Gordon, Raymond G. Jr., ed. (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (15th ed.). Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
3. "[Buganyu]". Zhōngguó mínzú yǔyán yánjiū wǎng 中国民族语言研究网 (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2012-03-22.
4. "Guǎngnán Xiàn Nàsǎ Zhèn Lóngwāngdòng Cūnwěihuì Lǎowālóng Zìráncūn" 广南县那洒镇龙汪洞村委会老挖聋自然村 [Laowalong Natural Village, Longwangdong Village Committee, Nasa Town, Guangnan County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-08-15. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
5. "Guǎngnán Xiàn Nàsǎ Zhèn Lóngwāngdòng Cūnwěihuì Xīnwālóng Zìráncūn" 广南县那洒镇龙汪洞村委会新挖聋自然村 [Xinwalong Natural Village, Longwangdong Village Committee, Nasa Town, Guangnan County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2018-08-15. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
6. "Guǎngnán Xiàn Nàsǎ Zhèn Lóngwāngdòng Cūnwěihuì Nàlà Zìráncūn" 广南县那洒镇龙汪洞村委会那腊自然村 [Nala Natural Village, Longwangdong Village Committee, Nasa Town, Guangnan County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
7. "Guǎngnán Xiàn Zhuànjiǎo Xiāng Dàpíng Cūnmín Wěiyuánhuì Jiǔpíng Zìráncūn" 广南县篆角乡大坪村民委员会九坪自然村 [Jiuping Natural Village, Daping Village Committee, Zhuanjiao Township, Guangnan County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
8. "Guǎngnán Xiàn Zhuànjiǎo Xiāng Dàpíng Cūnmín Wěiyuánhuì Shíbēipō Zìráncūn" 广南县篆角乡大坪村民委员会石碑坡自然村 [Shibeipo Natural Village, Daping Village Committee, Zhuanjiao Township, Guangnan County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
9. "Xīchóu Xiàn Jījiē Xiāng Hǎizi Cūnwěihuì Mànlóng Zìráncūn" 西畴县鸡街乡海子村委会曼龙自然村 [Manlong Natural Village, Haizi Village Committee, Jijie Township, Xichou County]. ynszxc.gov.cn (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2015-04-19. Retrieved 2012-09-23.
10. Li (1996)
11. Li (2006)
12. Li (2005)
13. Li & Luo 2015, p. 1035.
14. Li & Luo 2015, p. 1036.
15. Li & Luo 2015, p. 1037.
16. Hsiu 2016, p. 11.
17. Hsiu 2016, p. 12.
18. Hsiu 2016, p. 13.
19. Li & Luo 2015, p. 1050.
20. Li & Luo 2015, p. 1051.
21. Li & Luo 2015, p. 1053.
22. Li & Luo 2015, p. 1052.
23. Sidwell 2021, p. 540.
24. Li & Luo 2015, p. 1044.
25. Anderson 2020, p. 176-177.

References

• Anderson, Gregory D. S. (2020). "Proto-Munda Prosody, Morphotactics and Morphosyntax in South Asian and Austroasiatic Contexts". In Jenny, Mathias; Sidwell, Paul; Alves, Mark (eds.). Austroasiatic Syntax in Areal and Diachronic Perspective. Brill. pp. 157–197. doi:10.1163/9789004425606_008.
• Hsiu, Andrew (2016). "A Preliminary Reconstruction of Proto-Pakanic" (Final term paper for a Payap University graduate course). doi:10.5281/zenodo.1127812 – via Zenodo.
• Li, Jinfang (1996). "Bugan – A New Mon–Khmer Language of Yunnan Province, China" (PDF). Mon-Khmer Studies. 26: 135–160.
• Li, Jinfang 李锦芳 (2006). Xīnán dìqū bīnwēi yǔyán diàochá yánjiū 西南地区濒危语言调查研究 [Studies on Endangered Languages in the Southwest China] (in Chinese). Beijing shi: Zhongyang minzu daxue chubanshe.
• Li, Yunbing 李云兵 (2005). Bùgēngyǔ yánjiū 布赓语研究 [A Study of Bugeng [Bugan]] (in Chinese). Beijing: Minzu chubanshe.
• Li, Jinfang; Luo, Yongxian (2015). Bugan. In Paul Sidwell and Mathias Jenny (eds.), The Handbook of Austroasiatic Languages: Leiden: Brill. pp. 1033–1064.
• Sidwell, Paul (2021). "Northern Austroasiatic languages of MSEA". The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia. De Gruyter. pp. 499–546. doi:10.1515/9783110558142-023.