Mantsi language

Mantsi
Native to	Vietnam
Ethnicity	Yi
Native speakers	37,000 (2002)[1]
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Lolo-Burmese Mondzish Mantsi
Writing system	Yi script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: nty – Mantsi yso – Nisi
Glottolog	mant1265  (Mantsi)[2] nisi1238  (Nisi)[3]

Mantsi (autonym: mã˥˧ tsi˥˧; also called Lolo, Flowery Lolo, or Red Lolo, is a Lolo-Burmese language spoken the Yi people of China, and the Lô Lô people of Vietnam.

Mantsi has 40 initials, 27 vowels (11 monophthongs and 13 diphthongs), and 6 tones (Lama 2012).

Classification

Mantsi may be related to the Kathu (Kasu, Gasu) and Mo'ang (mɯaŋ˥˩) languages of Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan, China (Edmondson 2003). Lama (2012) concludes that Mantsi (Mondzi) and Maang constitute the most divergent branch of the Lolo-Burmese languages.

Distribution

The Red Lolo and Flowery Lolo live in Hà Giang Province of Vietnam. Both speak similar languages. The language spoken by the Red Lolo was investigated by Jerold A. Edmondson in the late 1990s. In Funing County in Yunnan across the border in China, related languages are spoken by peoples known as the White Lolo (Edmondson 2003).

The Lô Lô ethnic group of northern Vietnam consists of 3,134 people in Hà Giang and Cao Bằng, also including some in Mường Khương District of Lào Cai Province. They are also known as Mùn Di, Di, Màn Di, La La, Qua La, Ô Man, and Lu Lộc Màn.^[4]

In Vietnam:

Flowery Lolo

• Hà Giang Province
  • Xín Cái, Mèo Vạc District
  • Lũng Cù, Đồng Văn District

Red Lolo

• Hà Giang Province
  • Mèo Vạc District
  • Yên Minh District

White Lolo

• Hà Giang Province
  • Mèo Vạc District

The Black Lolo live in Bảo Lạc District, Cao Bằng Province, just to the east of Hà Giang Province. Black Lolo (Ma Ndzi) of Cao Bằng is covered in Iwasa (2003).

Black Lolo

• Bảo Lạc District, Cao Bằng Province
  • Hồng Tri (including Nà Van village^[5])
  • Đức Hạnh (Bảo Lạc)
  • Nghàm Lồm, Cô Ba Township^[5]

Quoc (2011)

Quoc (2011) lists the following ethnic Lolo villages in northern Vietnam.

• Meo Vac District, Ha Giang
  • Thượng Phùng township
    • bản Mỏ Phàng
    • bản Hoa Cà
  • Xin Cái township
    • Cờ Tẳng
    • Cờ Lẳng
    • Mè Lẳng
  • bản Sắng Pả A/B, Mèo Vạc

• Dong Van District, Ha Giang
  • bản Lô Lô Chải, Lũng Cú township
  • bản Mã Là, Lũng Táo township
  • khu Đoàn Kết, Sủng Là township

• Bao Lac District, Cao Bang
  • Hồng Trị township
    • Cốc Xả Trên/Dươi
    • Khau Cà
    • Khau Trang
    • Nà Van
    • Khuổi Khon
    • Khuổi Pao
  • bản Ngàm Lầm, Cô Ba township

• Bao Lam District, Cao Bang
  • Đức Hạnh township

References

1. Mantsi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
   Nisi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Mantsi". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
3. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Nisi". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
4. http://cema.gov.vn/modules.php?name=Content&op=details&mid=515
5. Iwasa Kazue. 2003. "A Wordlist of the Ma Ndzi Language". Descriptive and Theoretical Studies in Minority Languages of East and Southeast Asia, 69-76. ELPR Publications A3-016.

• Edmondson, Jerold A. 2003. Three Tibeto-Burman Languages of Vietnam. m.s.
• Hsiu, Andrew. 2014. "Mondzish: a new subgroup of Lolo-Burmese". In Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Chinese Languages and Linguistics (IsCLL-14). Taipei: Academia Sinica.
• Quốc Khánh Vũ. 2011. Người Lô Lô ở Việt Nam [The Lo Lo in Vietnam]. Hanoi: VNA Publishing House [Nhà xuất bản thông tấn].