Ersu languages

Ersu
Native to	China
Native speakers	(20,000 cited 1982[1])[2]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Qiangic Ersu–Namuzi ? Ersu
Writing system	Ersu Shaba script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ers
Glottolog	ersu1242[3]

Ersu (Chinese: 尔苏, Ersu; also called Duoxu or Erhsu) is a Qiangic language cluster of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Ersu languages are spoken by about 20,000 people in China as reported by Sun (1982).^[4] Muya (alternatively Menia or Menya) is reported to be related, but it is not known how it fits in.

Ersu speakers live in the western part of China's Sichuan province (several counties within the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, and the prefecture-level city of Ya'an).^[4] Most of them are classified by the Chinese government as members of the Tibetan ethnic group (Zang zu),^[2][4] although some also are registered as Han Chinese.^[2] Older adults mostly use Ersu, but younger people also use Chinese or Yi.

The Ersu Shaba script of the shābā religious books is a pictographic system of proto-writing. The system, in which the color of the characters has an effect on the meaning, was inspired by Chinese writing and was created in the 11th century.

Languages

There are three Ersu languages (Yu 2012).

• Ersu 尔苏 (Eastern Ersu) - 13,000 speakers (Sun 1982)
• Lizu 傈苏, 里汝, 吕苏 (Western Ersu) - 4,000 speakers (Sun 1982); 7,000 speakers (Chirkova 2008)
• Tosu 多续 (Central Ersu) - 3,000 speakers (Sun 1982); almost none remaining (Chirkova 2008)

Yu's (2012) classification of Ersu languages is as follows, with defining innovations given in parentheses.

Proto-Ersuic

• Tosu
• Ersu (ja- adjective prefix)
  • Hanyuan
  • Zeluo 则落 / Qingshui 清水 (ui > ri, tɕ > ts, etc.)
• Lizu (j > ȵ, Ke > Kɯ, riu > ri)
  • Mianning 冕宁 (alveopalatal split)
  • Central (st > k, HC > C)
    • Naiqu 乃渠
    • Kala 卡拉 [from Chirkova 2008]
    • Kala 卡拉 [from Huanh & Renzheng 1991]

Grammar

Ersu is a subject–object–verb language. It has three tones.

Notes

1. Ethnologue's figures from 2002 are republished from 1983
2. Ersu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
3. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Ersuic". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
4. 尔苏语 (Ersu language) (Chinese)

• Yu, Dominic. 2012. Proto-Ersuic. Ph.D. dissertation. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley, Department of Linguistics.

External links

• ELAR archive of Ersu language documentation materials
• http://www.am-ccsm.org/operationchina/E/Ersu.asp