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Yongnan languages

language

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ8055032 ↗
Source-derived summary

Yongnan, or Yongnan Zhuang, is a dialect-bund sharing common features but not common innovations of Zhuang languages of southern China.

In the classification of Pittiyaporn (2009), Yongnan is not a single language, or even a natural group, but parts of two main branches of the Tai language family (clades C, I, and M):

(clade C) Yongnan Zhuang of Chongzuo (崇左), Yongnan Zhuang of Shangsi (上思), Caolan of Vietnam*

(clade D)

(clade I) Yongnan Zhuang of Qinzhou (钦州)

(clade J)

(clade M) Wuming (Shuangqiao) dialect (武鸣)*, Yongnan Zhuang proper (邕南), Yongnan Zhuang of Long'an (隆安), Yongnan Zhuang of Fusui (扶绥)

(clade N)* Northern Tai: Saek, Bouyei, and other Northern Zhuang

* Not considered Yongnan anywhere, nor considered Yongnan by Pittiyaporn but placed here to make the clade D monophyletic.

See Tai languages for details.

References

Sources

Pittayaporn, Pittayawat. 2009. The Phonology of Proto-Tai. Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Linguistics, Cornell University.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Yongnan languages” is language. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Yongnan, languages and language, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2009—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Yongnan, languages and language is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “language” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8055032. The first chronological checks are 2009.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Yongnan languages” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.