Language name: BAI
UPSID number: 2506
Alternate name(s): MINKIA, MINJIA
Classification: Sino-Tibetan, Sinitic
This language has 29 segments
Its Frequency index is 0.357137396 (average percentage of segments; 0.1: many very rare segments; 0.39: average; 0.7: many common segments)
The language has these sounds: p tD k ph tDh kh "ts "tsh f x v "s zD m nD N lD j i e E a O o u uu @) 3) uuF
Comment: Bai is spoken primarily in the Dali Bai autonomous county in western Yunnan, China. Dell (1981) notes 8 tones: high, mid and low level, high falling and low falling, mid rising and low fall-rise -- the 8th tone is very high with a final glottal stop which shortens the vowel. Since no initial glottal stops occur this feature is analyzed as part of an extra high tone. There are no final consonants. /j,w/ can appear after some consonants, as well as initially. /w/ has a labial-palatal variant before /i/. The labio-dental fricative vowel does not occur after bilabials.
Source(s): Dell, F. 1981. La Langue Bai: Phonologie et Lexique. Etudes Linguistiques No. 2, Editions de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.

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