E language

The E language's unusual name, which is also an autonym, derives from the pinyin transliteration of the rare Mandarin syllable 诶; 誒; ê̄ (IPA: [ɛ⁵⁵]), which conventionally denotes an expression of affirmation (and is distinguished from ē in pinyin by the use of a circumflex).^[2][3] The language's speakers also refer to their language as Kjang E [kiaŋ⁵⁵ ɛ⁵⁵].^[2] Wusehua is a derogatory name for E.^[4]

 

In 1992, E was spoken by about 30,000 people,^[5][2] but by 2008 this number had dwindled to 9,000.^[6] Gao (2016) reported that there were 5,000 speakers of E.^[1] Most E speakers are classified as Zhuang by the Chinese government. E speakers live in Rongshui Miao Autonomous County and border areas of Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County in Guangxi. In Rongshui County, the three main villages inhabited by E speakers are Xiatan 下覃村, Simo 四莫村, and Xinglong 兴隆村 in Yongle Township 永乐乡.^[1] E speakers' most commonly spoken other languages are the Liujia dialect (六甲话) of Yue Chinese and the Guiliu variant of Southwestern Mandarin.^[1]

E's consonant and vowel inventories are mostly similar to those of its parent languages. However, it contains a few unusual consonants: the voiceless nasal consonants [n̥], [ŋ̥], [m̥], and the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant [l̥]. All are voiceless versions of consonants that, in most languages, are always voiced. E allows syllabic consonants and diphthongs.^[6]

Like most Southeast Asian languages, including Tai and the varieties of Chinese, E is tonal.^[7] The language is described as having seven tones, with the seventh varying allophonically with the length of the vowel it is attached to. With numbers ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest tone and 5 the highest, the contours of the various tones in E are as follows.^[6]

E is usually classified as a mixed language deriving ultimately from the Tai-Kadai and Sino-Tibetan families, which both inhabit southern China and Southeast Asia.^[4] Some non-Chinese scholars, however, consider it a Tai-Kadai language with Chinese influence.^[8] Whatever its classification, the grammar resembles that of the Tai branch of Tai-Kadai. E's grammatical features appear to be a mix of Northern Zhuang, Mulam, and Kam.^[1][7] The Caolan language of Vietnam also displays many similarities with E.^[7]

The vocabulary, however, is mostly Chinese, based on Guiliu and the Tuguai variant of Pinghua.^[1][7] Out of the 2,000 most commonly used E words, only about 200 are of Tai-Kadai origin.^[9] E also inherits elements of these Chinese dialects' phonology and compound word formation.^[1] E morphology is primarily analytic, with concepts such as negation expressed with auxiliary words (pat⁶, m²) and no pronominal agreement.^[6]

In its pronouns, E distinguishes for person between first, second, and third; in number between singular and plural; and, in the case of the first-person plural, between inclusive and exclusive we. E does not, however, make distinctions for grammatical gender.^[6]