Bouyei is a member of the northern branch of the Tai-Kadai language family. It has about 2.6 million speakers and is spoken in mainly in southern China, and also in northern Vietnam. In China, it is spoken particularly in Qiannan, Qianxinan and Qiandongnan prefectures, and Guanling and Zhenning counties in southern Guizhou, in Ningnan County in southern Sichuan Province, and in Yunnan Province. In Vietnam, it is spoken in Lai Châu, Lào Cai and Hà Giang provinces.
Bouyei is also known as Buyi, Puyi, 布依语 (bùyī yǔ) in Chinese, and tiếng Bố or tiếng Giáy in Vietnamese. Bouyei has official status in China and Vietnam. Dialects include Qiannan, Qianzhong and Qianxi.
Bouyei used to be written with a script based on Chinese characters similar to the Sawndip script used for Zhuang. In 1956 a way of writing Bouyei using the Latin alphabet was developed, and was based on the Latin alphabet for Zhuang. It was approved by the Chinese government in 1957, but was only used until 1960.
A new Latin-based script for Bouyei was developed in 1981 and experimental use began in 1982. It was officially adopted in 1985 and continues to be used. It is based on the dialect of Wangmo County (望谟县).
Bouyei has eight tones. The letters below are added to the ends on words to indicate the tones. Where there are two letters, the second is used for loanwords.
Download an alphabet chart for Bouyei (Excel)
Information about Bouyei suggested and compiled by Wolfram Siegel
Information about Bouyei | Numbers
Information about the Bouyei language and people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouyei_language
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/布依语
https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiếng_Bố_Y
http://www.china.org.cn/e-groups/shaoshu/shao-2-bouyei.htm
http://www.sil.org/resources/search/language/pcc
Basic vocabulary of Bouyei
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/language.php?id=731
Ahom, Aiton, Bouyei, Isan, Kam, Khamti, (Tai) Khün, Lao, Lue, Northern Thai (Kam Mueang), Nùng, Shan, Sui, Tai Dam, Tai Dón, Tai Hongjin, Tai Laing, Tai Nuea, Tai Phake, Tai Ya, Tai Yo, Tày, Thai, Thai Song, Yang Zhuang, Zhuang
Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Page last modified: 30.07.25
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