The Ho Nte She language: with a special documentation on tone and speech prosody
| Language | Ho Nte She |
| Depositor | Xiyao Wang, Xiaojing Liang |
| Affiliation | The University of Sydney |
| Location | China |
| Collection ID | 0812 |
| Collection Status | Forthcoming |
| Landing Page Handle | http://hdl.handle.net/2196/e3d0092c-912f-47a6-ac84-5556ea946ddf |
Summary of the collection
English: This collection arises from the documentation efforts of the endangered Ho Nte She language spoken in Guangdong Province of China. The Ho Nte community plays a significant role in the documentation process, contributing extensively to the collection, transcription, and translation of data. A special endeavor is being made to systematically record the tonal and prosodic phenomena of the She language. The deposited data will involve tonal and prosodic recordings with the native Ho Nte speakers at multiple levels, from lexicon, phrases, sentences to conversations. In particular, all these recordings will be in a visual-audio format, so as to respond to the appeal of more multi-modal resources for the language.
简体中文：本语档库的语档资料来自记录活聂畲语的语言保护工作，该语言主要分布于中国广东省，目前正濒临消亡。活聂畲族在语言记录的过程中发挥了重要作用，为语言数据的收集、转录和翻译做出了广泛贡献。本项目将特别关注活聂畲语的声调和韵律现象，系统性地从多个层面与活聂畲语母语者录制活聂畲语的声调和韵律数据，包括词汇、短语、句子、会话等。值得一提的是，所有这些录制都将以视听形式呈现，以响应增加濒危语言多模态资源的呼吁。
Group represented
English: This collection depicts the language of Ho Nte, who belongs to the She ethnic group in China. They identify themselves as [hɔ²² ⁿte³²] Ho Nte, which literally means ‘mountain people’, as they have a long history of migrating and living in the mountainous areas. The broader She ethnic group on record emerged as early as the 12-13th century during China’s Song dynasty, when they already inhabited the border areas of today’s Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian provinces (Xu, 1962; Jiang, 1980, 1987). But their origin can be traced back to the Neolithic Daxi culture, whose people once thrived in the middle Yangtze River region and are considered as the ancestors of today’s Hmong-Mien speakers (Li, et al., 2007; Wen, et al., 2016). The genetic studies also proved that the modern Hmong-Mien speakers, including the Miao, Yao, She ethnic groups in China and other Hmong-Mien communities overseas, share a common ancestry (Lu and Wang, 2019; He et al., 2023; Huang et al., 2022). The Yao and She groups have descended later than the Miao, and thus share more cultural ties with each other. Today, the She people are spread across Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces of China.
The Ho Nte She is a distinct subgroup of the She people, whose villages are mainly scattered in the mountainous regions of Guangdong Province. Although they share cultural traditions with the broader She communities, they speak a heritage language that is genealogically divergent from the rest of the She communities. The Ho Nte She language belongs to the Hmong-Mien language family, whereas the language of the other She groups is generally considered to have adopted a Sinitic branch (Nakanishi, 2010; Luo, 2013). The latter is labelled as ‘She Hua’ (lit. ‘She dialect’) by Chinese scholars to distinguish it from ‘She Yu’ (lit. ‘She language’) spoken by the former. In this documentation project, the language spoken by the Ho Nte people will be referred to as Ho Nte, or (Ho Nte) She, to preserve the community’s identification as ‘mountain people’.
Today, most of the Ho Nte villages have been relocated to lowland areas since the establishment of the PRC. Only one village cluster in Zengcheng and two others in Huidong have remained in the mountainous regions until now. This documentation project will primarily be carried out in the Ho Nte village of Zhengguo Town, Zengcheng District, Guangzhou City. The remaining Ho Nte villages in Huizhou and Shanwei/Shenzhen cities are to be visited, and the speech of them is also to be included in this deposit.
简体中文：本语档库记录的语言是活聂人的语言，他们是中国少数民族畲族的一部分。活聂人有在山区迁徙和生活的悠久历史，因而自称 [hɔ² ⁿte³²] Ho Nte，字面意为“山人”。早在中国宋朝时期约12-13 世纪，就已出现关于畲族的记载，当时他们已在今天的广东、江西和福建三省交界地区生活 (徐规, 1962; 蒋炳钊, 1980, 1987)。不过，畲族的起源可以追溯至新石器时代的大溪文化，大溪人曾在长江中游地区繁衍生息，被认为是现代苗瑶语系使用人群的祖先 (Li 等, 2007; Wen 等, 2016)。遗传学研究也证明，现代苗瑶语系使用人群——包括中国的苗族、瑶族、畲族和海外的其他蒙勉族群——拥有共同的祖先 (禄佳妮、王传超, 2019 ; He 等, 2023; Huang 等, 2022)。不过，瑶族和畲族的分化比苗族晚，彼此间的文化联系更多。如今，畲族分布在中国的广东、福建、浙江、江西和安徽等省。
活聂人是畲族的一个独特分支，其村落主要分布于广东省的山林地区。虽然他们与更广泛的畲族社区共享文化传统，但他们掌握着在语言系属上与其他畲族族群截然不同的传统语言，活聂畲语属于苗瑶语，而其他畲族族群的语言一般被认为是一种汉化分支 (Nakanishi, 2010; Luo, 2013)。中国学者将后者称为“畲话”，以区别于前者的“畲语”。本语档项目中，将活聂人所说的语言称为活聂语，或（活聂）畲语，以保留活聂族群对于“山人”的自我认同。
新中国成立以来，大部分活聂村庄已逐步迁至山下，目前仅有一个位于广州市增城区的活聂村落和两个位于惠州市惠东县的村子还留存于山区，延续着活聂人的山居传统。本语档项目主要于广州市增城区正果镇的活聂畲族村中开展，语言记录工作也将在惠州市和汕尾/深圳市的其余活聂畲族村中开展，所收集的影音资料也将纳入本语档库。
Language information
English: The Ho Nte She language is also referred to as ‘She Yu’ (lit. ‘She language’) or ‘Ho Nie Hua’ (lit. Ho Nte speech) by Chinese scholars. This documentation project adopts the endonym ‘Ho Nte ([hɔ²² ⁿte³²])’ to represent the speech community and their language, while also acknowledging the exonym ‘She’ used in the broader national context of China.
Ho Nte falls under the Hmongic branch of the Hmong-Mien language family (Mao and Meng, 1985; Ratliff, 1998; 2010). Their villages are spread across four counties/districts of Guangdong Province in China, i.e., Zengcheng, Boluo, Huidong and Haifeng. There are two dialects classified for this language, which were named by Mao and Meng (1986) after the mountain areas where the speakers reside, i.e., ‘Lianhua’, in Huidong and Haifeng counties, and ‘Luofu’, in Boluo and Zengcheng counties.
The language has only about 1,000 speakers, assessed as ‘severely endangered’ in Encyclopedia of the World’s Endangered Languages (Bradley, 2007, p. 410). However, the perilous situation confronting the language and the speech communities has not eased at all since the first fieldwork by Mao and Meng in 1982. Many villages in Boluo, Zengcheng, Huidong counties face incredibly severe conditions – the younger generations, especially the children, can hardly speak their heritage language or even know some words from it (Lan, 2020; and from my own fieldwork).
简体中文：活聂畲语也被中国学者称为“畲语”或“活聂话”，本语档项目采用“活聂 ([hɔ² ⁿte³²])”这一自称来指代该族群及其语言，他称“畲”同时并行，以反映该族群所属的更广阔的中国国族语境。
活聂畲语属于苗瑶语的苗语支 (毛宗武、蒙朝吉, 1985; Ratliff, 1998, 2010)，其村落散落于中国广东省的四个区/县之中，即广州市增城区、惠州市博罗县和惠东县，以及汕尾市海丰县。活聂话有两种方言，由毛宗武、蒙朝吉 (1986) 以活聂村落各自聚集的山区划分，命名为“莲花方言”和“罗浮方言”，前者包括惠东县和海丰县范围内的活聂话，后者指的博罗县和增城区的活聂方言。
《世界濒危语言百科全书》(Bradley, 2007, 第 410 页) 将活聂畲语评定为 “严重濒危语言”，目前仅有约 1000 人使用。然而，自毛宗武、蒙朝吉于 1982 年首次进行语言记录以来，活聂话和活聂社群所面临的危险处境丝毫没有缓解。博罗、增城、惠东等县的许多村庄面临着令人难以置信的严峻形势——活聂人的年轻一代，尤其是儿童，几乎不会讲自己的传统语言，更不用说能对一些活聂词略知一二了 (蓝计香, 2020; 以及来自本项目主要负责人的田野调查)。
Other Information
English: A link to other deposits for Ho Nte She, previously archived by the primary investigator of this project with PARADISEC: https://catalog.paradisec.org.au/collections/XYW01
简体中文： 本项目主要负责人此前也在PARADISEC档案馆建立过活聂畲语的其它语档资源，链接如下：https://catalog.paradisec.org.au/collections/XYW01
References
English / 简体中文:
He, G., Wang, J., Yang, L., Duan, S., Sun, Q., Li, Y., Wu, J., Wu, W., Wang, Z., & Liu, Y. (2023). Genome-wide allele and haplotype-sharing patterns suggested one unique Hmong–Mein-related lineage and biological adaptation history in Southwest China. Human Genomics, 17(1), 1–17.
Huang, X., Xia, Z.-Y., Bin, X., He, G., Guo, J., Adnan, A., Yin, L., Huang, Y., Zhao, J., Yang, Y., Ma, F., Li, Y., Hu, R., Yang, T., Wei, L.-H., & Wang, C.-C. (2022). Genomic Insights Into the Demographic History of the Southern Chinese. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 10.
Lan, Jixiang 蓝计香. (2020). A Study on Boluo She Vocabulary [博罗畲语词汇研究] (Master’s Dissertation). Jinan University.
Li, H., Huang, Y., Mustavich, L. F., Zhang, F., Tan, J.-Z., Wang, L.-E., Qian, J., Gao, M.-H., and Jin, L. (2007). Y chromosomes of prehistoric people along the Yangtze River. Human Genetics, 122(3), 383-388.
Lu, Jiani, and Wang, Chuanchao 禄佳妮, and 王传超. (2019). A New Approach to the Origin of She in the Perspective of Molecular Anthropology. Journal of North Minzu University (Philosophy and Social Science), 1, 98-107.
Luo, Meizhen 罗美珍. (2013). Characteristics and Naming of Speech by the She People [关于畲族所说语言的定性和命名问题的思考]. Journal of Longyan University, 31(01), 1-3.
Jiang, Bingzhao 蒋炳钊. (1980). Preliminary Study on the Origin of She People [畲族族源初探]. Ethno-National Studies, 4, 39-45+21.
Jiang, Bingzhao 蒋炳钊. (1987). The Border Area of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi as Historical Settlement of She People—Also on the Origin of She [闽粤赣交界地是畲族历史上的聚居区——兼论畲族族源问题]. In Shi, Lianzhu 施联朱 (Ed.), Essays on the Study of She Ethnic Group [畲族研究论文集] (pp. 137-160). Nationalities Publishing House.
Mao, Zongwu and Meng, Chaoji, 毛宗武, and 蒙朝吉. (1985). On the Genetic Affiliation of She [试论畲语的系属问题]. Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 2, 259-270.
Mao, Zongwu and Meng, Chaoji, 毛宗武, and 蒙朝吉. (1986). 畲语简志 [A sketch introduction to She language]. The Ethnic Publishing House.
Nakanishi, H. (2010). On the Genetic Affiliation of Shehua [論畲話的歸屬]. Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series, (24), 247-267.
Ratliff, M. (1998). Ho Ne (She) is Hmongic: One final argument. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 21(2), 97-109.
Ratliff, M. (2010). Hmong-Mien language history. Pacific Linguistics.
Wen, S.-Q., Tong, X.-Z., and Li, H. (2016). Y-chromosome-based genetic pattern in East Asia affected by Neolithic transition. Quaternary International, 426, 50-55.
Xu, Gui 徐规. (1962). The Name, Origin and Migration of the She People [畲族的名称、来源和迁徙]. Journal of Hangzhou University, 1, 57-62.
Acknowledgement and citation
To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
Wang, Xiyao, and Liang, Xiaojing 王茜瑶, and 梁晓静. 2024. The Ho Nte She language: with a special documentation on tone and speech prosody. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/57f2a57a-a607-4a89-8e81-a55f47e068fe. Accessed on [insert date here].
