Azha (Chinese: 阿扎语) is one of the Loloish languages spoken by the Yi people of China.

Demographics

Azha (autonym: a33tsa21 or a55tʂa33) is spoken in Ganhe Township of Yanshan County, Yunnan and Dongshan and Binglie Townships of Wenshan County. Pelkey (2011) identifies the Azha 阿扎 (exonym: Pula 朴喇) of Kaiyuan, Yunnan as Phowa speakers.

 Azha is spoken by the Phula people, but it is not a Phula language and is a Sani–Azha language, closely related to Sani, Axi and Azhe. Samei of Kunming may be related. Speakers are classified as Yi people by the Chinese Government.

Innovations

In Azha, the words for ‘goat’, ‘eat’, and ‘drink’ are innovative (Pelkey 2011:377). Luojiayi Azha^[2] /mɛ33 xɛ33/ ‘goat’, /la̠45/ ‘eat’, /ŋɨ33/ ‘drink’ are not derived from Proto-Ngwi *(k)-cit^L ‘goat’, *dza² ‘eat’, and *m-daŋ¹ ‘drink’.

References

• Pelkey, Jamin. 2011. Dialectology as Dialectic: Interpreting Phula Variation. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

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