Hani Language
A Brief Overview
「Hani Language with Latin Phonetic Transcription」
The picture shown above is a "Latin phonetic transcription" system successfully designed by the government for the Hani people in 1947.
For Reference
The Hani people have no records in terms of their language, including a formal system for the language itself—there are no spelling rules, no grammatical framework, and no writing system.
For a long time, the transmission of the Hani language and culture has largely been attributed to the creation and preservation of epics. "Hani Apei Cong Popo" is one of the epics that is relatively systematic, complete, and of special significance. Its rich content presents the entire history of migration and evolution of the Hani people since around 483-475 BC.
In the late 1950s, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the government began to intervene and created a Hani phonetic system based on the Latin alphabet for the Hani people[3]. The purpose of this move was to better enable the Hani language to be passed down in accordance with its current preserved state.Key Issues Concerning the Hani Language
Vulnerabilities and Discrepancies
According to Zhao (2023), the Hani language has long relied on oral transmission,without written records[3]. This pattern reflects the oral-centered cultural characteristics of the Hani people and also results in a high degree of flexibility in the phonological and grammatical structure of the language. Compared with other ethnic minorities, Hani has no fixed grammatical rules or spelling system, and belongs to an “informal language system”, with significant differences in language formation depending on the region and branch of the ethnic group. Because of this, with the promotion and popularization of Putonghua, the frequency of use of the Hani language has gradually declined, especially among the younger generation.
In the process of increasing social modernization, the Hani language is also undergoing corresponding self-adjustment and renewal. However, there is one point worthy of attention: although the Hani language now, with the help of the "Latin phonetic transcription" system, has a relatively prominent advantage in enabling more Hani people to use their mother tongue, Mandarin remains the primary language promoted and used in the education system of Hani-inhabited areas (such as the Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan). This is precisely the reason why the frequency of Hani language use is gradually decreasing.
The content shown in the picture above is the school emblem of LiHao Zhai Township Middle School in Jianshui County, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, which is written in Hani, Yi, and Chinese.
Deficiencies in the Range of Applications
Although the newly created writing system has, to a certain extent, filled the gap in written records, its practical application is still limited to specific fields such as education and literacy campaigns, failing to be widely used in daily life and remaining underdeveloped. Surveys in Honghe Prefecture show that the written form of the Hani language is mostly used in literacy education and basic education, while its application in fields such as literary creation and scientific communication is almost non-existent. Furthermore, the rapid advancement of globalization and modernization has further caused the usage environment of the Hani language to be replaced by Mandarin and other mainstream languages. Many Hani youth groups tend to acquire more educational and career opportunities through Mandarin and English, which has weakened their dependence on their mother tongue[2].
More Examples
Specifically within the scope of Lüchun County. Dai Qingxia and his team once visited here to conduct a local survey. One of the most notable tests among them was the mother tongue proficiency test for the Hani people. The results of this test ultimately showed that the group relatively unfamiliar with their mother tongue was limited to adolescents aged 6-19[5]. Compared with people of other age groups, the phenomenon of "having a slight understanding" or even "not knowing" their own mother tongue was most prevalent among adolescents aged 6-19.
However, there lies another important factor...
Among this group of adolescents aged 6-19, it is essential to note that there is a certain proportion of younger individuals within this age group. In other words, in this test, it is highly likely that a small number of adolescents encountered words they had never been exposed to at all (and perhaps even advanced vocabulary). Therefore, to further summarize and demonstrate this point in detail, Dai Qingxia's team also designed another set of test procedures.
Hani 400-Word Test
The difference between this language proficiency test and the previous one lies in a more detailed selection of words.
Subsequently, the test yielded some unprecedented data.
Dai Qingxia's research team found that some commonly used words were extremely unfamiliar to some adolescent groups—they did not recognize them at all. With this information, the researchers further reflected on and analyzed the phenomenon. They then discovered that the reason why adolescents were so unfamiliar with such words that seemed to appear frequently in daily life was that the actual occurrence frequency of these words in "real life" had decreased:For example, words like "thatch, cotton, sesame, crossbow, arrow"[5]—of course, in the context of modern society, the probability of their use and occurrence has become very low. Here, the probability of use and occurrence does not refer to the use of the words themselves, but rather that the objects represented by these words are rarely used in real life. Therefore, it is only natural that adolescents have no opportunity to learn these words and thus lose their understanding of them.
If you are interested in and curious about Hani culture, you are welcome to continue exploring this website!
