E language

E (), also known as Ei, Wuse, or Wusehua, () is a Tai–Chinese mixed language spoken primarily in Rongshui Miao Autonomous County, Guangxi, China. It contains features of both Tai and Chinese varieties, generally adopting Chinese vocabulary into Tai grammar. E is a tonal language—distinguishing between seven tones—and contains a few rare phonemes: voiceless versions of the more common nasal consonants and alveolar lateral approximant.

Etymology

The E language's unusual name, which is also an autonym, derives from the pinyin transliteration of the rare Mandarin syllable (), which conventionally denotes an expression of affirmation (and is distinguished from ē in pinyin by the use of a circumflex). The language's speakers also refer to their language as Kjang E . Wusehua is a derogatory name for E.

Geographical distribution

File:Guilin.jpg

Zhuang people in Guilin

In 1992, E was spoken by about 30,000 people, but by 2008 this number had dwindled to 9,000. Gao (2016) reported that there were 5,000 speakers of E. 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. E speakers' most commonly spoken other languages are the Liujia dialect (六甲话) of Yue Chinese and the Guiliu variant of Southwestern Mandarin.

Phonology

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 Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, and the voiceless alveolar lateral approximant Template:IPAblink. All are voiceless versions of consonants that, in most languages, are always voiced. E allows syllabic consonants and diphthongs.

E consonants

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
			plain	sibilant		plain	labialized
Nasal	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
Plosive	unaspirated	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	aspirated	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Fricative		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link			Template:IPA link
Approximant	voiced		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
	voiceless		Template:IPA link

E vowels

	Front		Central	Back
Close	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link
Mid	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Open	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link

Like most Southeast Asian languages, including Tai and the varieties of Chinese, E is tonal. 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.

Tone contours

Number		Contour	Tone letter
1.		42	˦˨
2.		231	˨˧˩
3.		44	˦
4.		35	˧˥
5.		24	˨˦
6.		55	˥
7.	short	24	˨˦
	long	22	˨

Grammar and lexicon

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. Some non-Chinese scholars, however, consider it a Tai-Kadai language with Chinese influence. 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. The Caolan language of Vietnam also displays many similarities with E.

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

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.

Pronouns

Person	Singular	Plural
1.	ku1	lau2 (incl.) kju1 (excl.)
2.	ŋ2	su1
3.	mo5	mo5 kjau1

Numbers

No.	E	No.	E
1	je꞉t6	6	l̥ok6 lok7
2	soŋ1 ŋ̥i5	7	tshat6
3	sam1	8	pe꞉t6
4	si4	9	kjəu3
5	ŋ̥a3 ŋo3	10	tɕəp7 ɕəp7

References

• Gao, Huan 高欢. 2016. Guangxi Ronghsui Aihua yanjiu 广西融水诶话研究. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Academy Press 中国社会科学出版社.