She language


The She language, autonym Ho Ne, or Ho Nte, is an endangered Hmong–Mien language spoken by the She people. Most of the over 709,000 She people today speak Hakka Chinese. Those who still speak She—approximately 1,200 individuals in Guangdong Province—call themselves Ho Ne, "mountain people". She is nearly extinct today.

Dialects

There are two main dialects of She, both of which are highly endangered. They are spoken in two small pockets to the west and east of Huizhou City, Guangdong.
She has been difficult to classify due to the heavy influence of Chinese on the language. Matisoff, for example, left it unclassified within the Hmongic languages, and some have considered that much to be doubtful, leaving it unclassified within the Hmong–Mien languages. She has monosyllabic roots, but has mainly compound words. However, due to the similar components of She, Mao & Li and Ratliff consider She to be most closely related to Jiongnai.
Shēhuà is not to be confused with Shēyǔ, also known as Ho Ne, which is a Hmong-Mien language spoken in east-central Guangdong. Shēhuà is an unclassified Sinitic language spoken by the She people of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces in southeastern China. Shehua and Sheyu speakers have separate histories and identities, although both are officially classified by the Chinese government as She people. The Dongjia of Majiang County, Guizhou are also officially classified as She people, but speak a Western Hmongic language closely related to Chong'anjiang Miao.

Phonology

Consonants

Glottal stop is not distinct from zero.
There are consonant mutation effects. For instance, pǐ + kiáu becomes pi̋’iáu, and kóu + tȁi becomes kóulȁi.

Vowels

Vowels are. Finals are, with only in Hakka loans, though is never followed by a final, and the only stops which follow the front vowels are.

Tones

There are six tones, reduced to two in checked syllables. There is quite a lot of dialectical variability; two of the reported inventories are:

Vocabulary

Loanwords from Classical Chinese

Like Southern Chinese dialects, the She language has loanwords from Classical Chinese.