Language, environment and social cognition in southeastern Yunnan: A holistic documentation of multimodal communication amongst the Phola

Language	Phola
Depositor	Manuel David González Pérez, Agnes Conrad
Affiliation	The University of Sydney
Location	China
Collection ID	0746
Grant ID	IPF0428
Funding Body	ELDP
Collection Status	Collection online
Landing Page Handle	http://hdl.handle.net/2196/23ae9c07-e076-4b66-92fd-5eb2ee1fb7a2

 

Summary of the collection

English: This deposit results from a documentation project exploring linguistic diversity and multimodal communication amongst Phula communities of Southern Yunnan Province in China with a focus on the language and culture of the Pholas of Southeastern Yuanjiang County. Both naturalistic dialogues in a variety of sociocultural and environmental domains and more formal speech are represented including culturally important stories and songs.
文集概述
中文： 本视听语料库是一项语言记录项目的成果，该项目旨在探索中华人民共和国云南省南部普拉人的语言多样性和多模态交流。该项目主要集中于元江县东南部“笸拉”人的语言和文化。 该语料库表现匀称的设计和内容包含各种语言使用情况、许多社会与文化的背景还有不同的环境、村子和地点。 主要重点是自然对话，但也包括更正式的语言，包括具有重要文化意义的故事和传统歌曲。

 

Group represented

English: The main group represented in this deposit are the Pholas of Luodie (罗垤) village natively known as lɑ³³ɬe³³, who call themselves lɑ³³ɬe³³pʰɑ³³ (lit. people of Lahle), and their language – lɑ³³ɬe³³ŋɨ³³ ( lit. the language of Lahle). Lahle village itself is located in the southern corner of Wadie Township（洼垤乡）at the southeasternmost end of Yuanjiang County（元江县）of Yuxi Municipality （玉溪市）at a latitude of 23.459077 and a longitude of 102.285383. With a registered population of about 450 people, Luodie is the largest Phola village and a cultural and institutional bulwark for local traditions, arts and crafts. Government statistics and records on speaker numbers for Phola are not reliable since Pholas are lumped together with other members of the Yi nationality such as the Nisu, Nyesu and Nesu, which are vastly more numerous and culturally dominant in the relevant areas (Wadie and Nanuo Townships of Yuanjiang County). While there is a traditional Chinese exonym for speech communities associated with the historical ethnonym Phula (Pelkey 2011), variously 普拉 pǔlā or 卜拉 bolā, this is used as an umbrella term to refer to a wide range of speech communities in various counties, including Phala (YPA) in Honghe & Shiping Counties as well as Alugu (AUB), Phupha (YPH) and Phupa (YPP) in Yuanyang, Gejiu & Mengzi Counties. While diachronically related to Phola, all of these are entirely distinct languages. Moreover, the term goes against official guidelines which does not recognise Phula as a distinct nationality of China, which limits the availability and reliability of records using this term. The same applies to informal oral reports by local government officials and villagers, whose impressionistic appreciation of linguistic diversity and distribution in such a complex ethnolinguistic and political landscape is at best imperfect. Prior to Manuel González’ PhD project, Jamin Pelkey spent three days in Phola villages in 2005 and provided a rough estimate of the number of speakers which is featured on the Ethnologue database. Having spent several months between 2018 and 2020 learning about the distribution of Phola first-hand, González’ own estimates suggests a population of a maximum of 4000 and decreasing, a figure significantly lower than Pelkey’s estimate.
代表群体
中文： 本文所述的主要群体为洼垤乡南部的罗垤村的“笸拉”人，他们本地称为lɑ³³ɬe³³，自称为lɑ³³ɬe³³pʰɑ³³（即lɑ³³ɬe³³人），其使用的语言为lɑ³³ɬe³³ŋɨ³³（即lɑ³³ɬe³³语）或pʰɔ³¹lɑ³³ŋɨ³³（即笸拉语）。罗垤村位于玉溪市元江县的最东南端，洼垤乡的南部，地理坐标为北纬23.459077度，东经102.285383度。罗垤村是“笸拉族”最大的村庄，注册人口约450人，是当地传统、艺术和手工艺的文化和制度支柱。然而，政府对“笸拉”人的说话人数的统计数据和记录并不可靠，因为“笸拉”人通常被与彝族的其他成员（例如尼苏、捏苏和讷苏等）一起统计，而后者在洼垤乡和那诺乡的元江县地区人数更多，文化上更具支配性。虽然与历史上的族名“普拉”相关的语言社群有一个传统的中文外号（Pelkey 2011），即普拉pǔlā或卜拉bolā，但此称呼被用作泛称，以指代各个县市中的一系列语言社群，包括红河县和石屏县的Phala（YPA），以及元阳县、个旧县和蒙自县的Alugu（AUB）、Phupha（YPH）和Phupa（YPP）。尽管这些语言在语言演变的历史发展过程中与笸拉有着一定的历时联系，但它们其实是完全独立的语言。此外，该用词违反了不将Phula视为中国的独立民族的官方指导方针，这限制了使用该术语的记录的可用性和可靠性。同样的情况也体现在当地政府官员和村民的非正式口头报告，他们对如此复杂的民族语言和政治景观中的语言多样性的印象主义的认识远不及完美。在Manuel González的博士项目之前，Jamin Pelkey在2005年曾在“笸拉”村庄待了三天，并对说话者人数进行了粗略估计并被收录在《Ethnologue》数据库中。在2018年至2020年期间，González亲身做了数月的研究后了解了“笸拉”的分布情况。他自己的估计表明，“笸拉”的人口数最多为4000人，并且还在逐渐减少，这一数字明显低于Pelkey之前的估计。

 

Language information

English: Phola is an endangered Tibeto-Burman language of the Ngwi-Burmese branch spoken by about 4000 farmer-herders in small-scale villages located for the most part in the mountain ranges along the Red River, very particularly in the areas comprised by Wadie and Nanuo Townships of south-eastern Yuanjiang County in Southern Yunnan Province of China. It is part of a cluster of closely related varieties known as Phula languages spoken in in southeastern Yunnan and Northern Vietnam. Phula languages are fairly distinct from the three main subbranches within the Ngwi branch of Tibeto-Burman (Northern Ngwi, Central Ngwi and Southern Ngwi) and thus have been hypothesised to make up a separate south-eastern subbranch of Ngwi (Pelkey 2008). However, both their exact genetic position and the degree of internal diversification amongst Phula languages is not yet fully clarified as in-depth documentation has only recently started.
Preliminary fieldwork suggests that some Phula languages, including Phola, have undergone contact with Nisu, Hani and Dai varieties, which could account for the difficulty classifying them. Indeed, most Phola speakers are bilingual or multilingual, commonly exhibiting some degree of fluency in a number of linguistic varieties including the local Mandarin dialect (known as 元江话; lit. the Yuanjiang language) and Nisu, the most prestigious (non-Phula) Ngwi variety used in the region by members of the Yi ethnicity that Pholas are lumped into by the Chinese government. Phola villagers under the age of 30 are increasingly mobile. Many of these young adults have migrated permanently or semi-permanently to Yuanjiang County Seat (population 250,000) or farther afield. They only visit their villages once or twice a year during key ethnic festivals, and their children are growing up monolingually in the local variety of Chinese. Many great-grandparents, who are for the most part not fluent in Chinese, cannot communicate with their great-grandchildren.
语言信息
中文：笸拉语是一种属于藏缅语系彝缅语支的濒危语言。笸拉是母语的人口大概有四千左右的农民。他们的老家位于元江岸边的山上，主要分布于云南省南部的元江县东南端的洼垤乡和那诺乡。笸拉语属于一个语群叫做“普拉语言群”。按照Jamin Pelkey（2008）的博士研究，普拉语言群由23不同的小语种构成，其中元江县的笸拉语是最西端的方言。普拉语言跟其他彝语方言支系（北、中、南）的差别挺大的。所以有的语言学家提出了它们可以被认为是分开的方言支系（既东南彝语， 参考Pelkey，2008）。然而普拉语言确切的历史演变还不能决定性地查明。这就是因为详细的语言档案编织项目不久前才启动的。
初步实地调查表明一些普拉语言，包括笸拉语在内，与尼苏语、哈尼语和傣语有过接触，这可能是难以对它们进行分类的原因。 事实上，大多数笸拉人使用者都是双语或多语言的，通常讲多种语言，在一定程度上讲得流利，包括当地汉语方言（称为元江话）和分布比较广的尼苏语。，也就是说在该地区内被中国政府正式承认的彝族成员最常用的语种。 30 岁以下的笸拉村民流动性越来越大。 这些年轻人中有许多已经永久从农村向元江县城（人口 25 万）或更远的地方迁移过了。 他们每年只在重要的民族节日期间回乡探亲一两次，他们的孩子因为在村庄外长大的，所以只习得当地汉语方言。 有不少不会说中文的曾祖父母无法与他们的曾孙交流。

 

Acknowledgement and citation

To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:

González Pérez, Manuel David & Conrad, Agnes. 2023. Language, environment and social cognition in southeastern Yunnan: A holistic documentation of multimodal communication amongst the Phola. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/5830a66e-1384-484a-91cb-52160a0cdbcd. Accessed on [insert date here].