Baima language
Baima (autonym: pe˥˧) is a language spoken by 10,000 Baima people, of Tibetan ethnicity, in north-central Sichuan Province and Gansu Province, China. Baima is passed on from parents to children in Baima villages. It is spoken within the home domain and is not used in any media of mass communication.
| Baima | |
|---|---|
| Pe | |
| 白马语 | |
| Pronunciation | /pe˥˧/ |
| Native to | China |
| Region | Sichuan and Gansu |
| Ethnicity | 14,000 Baima people (2007) |
Native speakers | 10,000 (2007) |
Sino-Tibetan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bqh |
| Glottolog | baim1244 |
| ELP | Baima |
Baima is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Baima uses subject–object–verb (SOV) word order, word-initial consonant clusters and is tonal. It is unclassified within Sino-Tibetan; there are multiple layers of borrowings from Amdo, Khams, and Zhongu Tibetan, as well as lexical and grammatical connections with Qiangic languages. Basic vocabulary is about 85% Tibetic and 15% Qiangic, and the Tibetic words do not link to any established group of Tibetic languages. Chirkova (2008) suggests that the Qiangic vocabulary "might be a retention from the language originally spoken by the Báimǎ before their shift to a form of Tibetic in the 7th century." She accepts Baima as Tibetan, but as an isolate within the Tibetic languages.