Zhuang language

The Zhuang language (autonym: Cuengh or Cueŋь; ) is used by the Zhuang people in the People's Republic of China. Most of them live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Zhuang, which belongs to the Tai language group, is an official language in that region. However, use of the language is rapidly declining as the Zhuang assimilate to the Han Chinese.

Standardized Zhuang is based on the dialect of Wuming County (武鸣县).

Buyei, 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 Buyei.

Zhuang is a tonal 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 logographs 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 Chữ nôm. 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 tables below compare spelling before and after the 1986 reform.

{| class="toccolours" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" style="border-collapse: collapse;" |+ Consonants ! scope="col" style="background-color: #efefef;" | 1957 ! scope="col" | 1986 ! scope="col" style="background-color: #efefef;" | 1957 ! scope="col" | 1986 ! scope="col" style="background-color: #efefef;" | 1957 ! scope="col" | 1986 ! scope="col" style="background-color: #efefef;" | 1957 ! scope="col" | 1986 ! scope="col" style="background-color: #efefef;" | 1957 ! scope="col" | 1986 |- | style="background-color: #efefef;" | B b || B b | style="background-color: #efefef;" | || Mb mb | style="background-color: #efefef;" | M m || M m | style="background-color: #efefef;" | F f || F f | style="background-color: #efefef;" | V || V |- | style="background-color: #efefef;" | D d || D d | style="background-color: #efefef;" | || Nd nd | style="background-color: #efefef;" | N n || N n | style="background-color: #efefef;" | S s || S s | style="background-color: #efefef;" | L l || L l |- | style="background-color: #efefef;" | G g || G g | style="background-color: #efefef;" | Gv gv || Gv gv | style="background-color: #efefef;" | Ŋ ŋ || Ng ng | style="background-color: #efefef;" | H h || H h | style="background-color: #efefef;" | R r || R r |- | style="background-color: #efefef;" | C c || C c | style="background-color: #efefef;" | Y y || Y y | style="background-color: #efefef;" | Nv ny || Ny ny | style="background-color: #efefef;" | Ŋv ŋv || Ngv ngv |- | style="background-color: #efefef;" | By by || By by | style="background-color: #efefef;" | Gy gy || Gy gy | style="background-color: #efefef;" | My my || My my |} {| class="toccolours" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-top: 1em;" |+ Vowels ! scope="col" style="background-color: #efefef;" | 1957 ! scope="col" | 1986 ! scope="col" style="background-color: #efefef;" | 1957 ! scope="col" | 1986 ! scope="col" style="background-color: #efefef;" | 1957 ! scope="col" | 1986 |- | style="background-color: #efefef;" | A a || A a | style="background-color: #efefef;" | E e || E e | style="background-color: #efefef;" | Ə ə || AE ae |- | style="background-color: #efefef;" | I i || I i | style="background-color: #efefef;" | O o || O o | style="background-color: #efefef;" | || W w |} {| class="toccolours" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" style="border-collapse: collapse; margin-left: 1em;" |+ Tones ! scope="col" | Tone ! scope="col" style="background-color: #efefef;" | 1957 ! scope="col" | 1986 |- ! scope="row" | 1 | colspan="2" | Not indicated |- ! scope="row" | 2 | style="background-color: #efefef; | || Z z |- ! scope="row" | 3 | style="background-color: #efefef;" | З з || J j |- ! scope="row" | 4 | style="background-color: #efefef;" | Ч ч || X x |- ! scope="row" | 5 | style="background-color: #efefef; | || Q q |- ! scope="row" | 6 | style="background-color: #efefef; | || H h |}

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Writing systems

See also