Zhuang language

The Zhuang language (Chinese: 壮语 Zhuàngyǔ) is used by the Zhuang people in the People's Republic of China. Most of them Live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Zhuang is an official language in that Region. Language use is however rapidly declining as the Zhuang assimilate to the Chinese.

Bouyei, considered a separate language in China, is actually just a slightly different standard form of Zhuang, used across the province border in Guizhou. There is a dialect continuum between Zhuang and Bouyei.

Zhuang is a tone language. It has six tones in open syllables:

number contour description
1 24 rising
2 31 low falling
3 55 high level
4 42 falling
5 35 high rising
6 33 mid level

It has two (high and low) in closed syllables.

Writing systems

Zhuang had been written with ideographs that were borrowed from Han characters adopted to this language, and original characters made out by using the similar manner of construction, for more than a thousand years, similar to Vietnamese Chu Nom. In 1957, in the People's Republic of China a Latin alphabet with some special letters was introduced to write the new standardised Zhuang language. A spelling reform in 1986 replaced these special letters with regular letters of the Latin alphabet to facilitate printing and the use of computers. The table below compares spelling before and after the 1986 reform.
consonants
1957 1986 1957 1986 1957 1986 1957 1986 1957 1986
B b B b Ƃ ƃ Mb mb M m M m F f F f V V
D d D d Ƌƌ Nd nd N n N n S s S s L l L l
G g G g Gv gv Gv gv Ŋ ŋ Ng ng H h H h R r R r
C c C c Y y Y y Nv ny Ny ny Ŋv ŋv Ngv ngv
By by By by Gy gy Gy gy My my My my

vowels
1957 1986 1957 1986 1957 1986
A a A a E e E e Ə ə AE ae
I i I i O o O o Ɯ ɯ W w

tones
1957 1986
1 not indicated
2 Ƨ ƨ Z z
3 З з J j
4 Ч ч X x
5 Ƽ ƽ Q q
6 Ƅ ƅ H h