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Bonan

མ་ནི་སྐད་ཅི

Bonan is a Mongolic-Khitan language spoken in China, by about 10 thousand people. Glottolog rates it shifting.

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Bonan · 35.5°N 102.0°E

The Bonan language (pronounced [p⁼aoˈnaŋ], Baonang; Chinese: 保安语, Bǎo'ānyǔ; Amdo Tibetan: Dorké), also known by its endonym Manikacha (Tibetan: མ་ནི་སྐད་ཅི; Wylie: Ma ni skad ci), is the Mongolic language of the Bonan people of China. As of 1985, it was spoken by about 8,000 people, including about 75% of the total Bonan ethnic population and many ethnic Monguor, in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces. There are several dialects, which are influenced to varying degrees – but always heavily – by Chinese and Tibetan, while bilingualism in Wutun is less common. The most commonly studied is the Tongren dialect. Bonan is not typically written by speakers, though there is a folk practice of writing Bonan with the Tibetan syllabary following Amdo pronunciation.

From Wikipedia · Bonan language · CC BY-SA 4.0

Words in Bonan

MeaningWordRomanization
personkuN*
namenari*
eyenedong
earCiXaN*
noseXor*
toothduN*
tonguekhaloN*
handXar*
bloodCisuN*
boneyasuN*
skinarsuN*
kneeebd3g*
breastnono*
liverganzi*
waterse
firexal
sunnaraN*
starhotho*
stonetaSi*
mountainn3ma*
treemortong
leaflapCuN*
nightXoso*
dognoXui*
fishna*
lousebosuN*
onen3g3*
twoquar*
Ibu*
youCi*

* in the simplified ASJP transcription

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Vocabulary

Grammar

Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.

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