Research Explorer

Project

A study of Biyo, an endangered Chinese ethnic minority language of the Lolo-Burmese family: Language documentation and an analytical approach to the system of discourse markers in contact with Southwestern Mandarin
Code
01CD04025
Duration
01 October 2025 → 30 September 2026
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Research disciplines
  • Humanities and the arts
    • Rhetoric
Keywords
endangered language minority language documentation Lolo-Burmese language family non-Sinitic language of China Hani language group Biyo
 
Project description
This project aims at documenting the endangered BIYO language (Hani group of LoloBurmese), spoken by ethnic minorities in locations of Southwestern Yunnan Province of China. Presently, the language is very rarely transmitted to the younger generation which prefers Chinese or English as daily means of communication. As such, the language community is continuously shrinking and the language is on the verge of becoming extinct.