A DESCRIPTION OF MAONAN LANGUAGE IN CHINA

Abstract

Maonan is a language spoken by Maonan ethnic group in China. Chinese scholars have classified Maonan language in Sino – Tibetan language family, Zhuang-Dong branch, Dong-Sui group. This article is a linguistic description of Maonan language. The data are mainly based on Chinese scholars’ research. The article presents two main issues: 1) Maonan ethnic information and 2) Maonan linguistic description including (1) language family classification (2) phonological system (3) word system (4) grammar and (5) examples of vocabulary. From the investigation, it is revealed that there are different point of view on language descriptions from the foreign and Chinese linguistics. Most Thai researchers learned some linguistic information of Maonan language only from works of western and some Thai scholars. Without studying from Chinese scholars who are live in the same country with Maonan people. This article provides information about Maonan language from Chinese scholars perspective.