Wa language

Wa
Va, Vo, Awa
Region	China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand
Ethnicity	Wa
Native speakers	(900,000 cited 2000–2008)
Language family	Austroasiatic Khasi–Palaungic Palaungic Waic Wa
Writing system	Latin script Formerly: Chinese characters, Shan script
Official status
Official language in	Template:Country data Wa State
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: prk – Parauk wbm – Vo vwa – Awa
Glottolog	waaa1245
ELP	Template:Endangered Languages Project
Linguasphere	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
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Wa is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Wa (Va) is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Wa people of Myanmar and China. There are three distinct varieties, sometimes considered separate languages; their names in Ethnologue are Parauk, the majority and standard form; Vo (Zhenkang Wa, 40,000 speakers) and Awa (100,000 speakers), though all may be called Wa, Awa, Va, Vo. David Bradley (1994) estimates there are total of 820,000 Wa speakers.

It is recognized as a state language by the government of Wa State.

Distribution and variants

Gerard Diffloth refers to the Wa geographic region as the "Wa corridor", which lies between the Salween and Mekong Rivers. According to Diffloth, variants include South Wa, "Bible Wa" and Kawa (Chinese Wa).

Christian Wa are more likely to support the use of Standard Wa, since their Bible is based on a standard version of Wa, which is in turn based on the variant spoken in Bang Wai, 150 miles north of Kengtung (Watkins 2002). Bang Wai is located in Northern Shan State, Burma, close to the Chinese border where Cangyuan County is located.

Certain dialects of Wa preserve a final -/s/. They include the variants spoken in Meung Yang and Ximeng County, such as a variety spoken in Zhongke (), Masan (), Ximeng County that was documented by Zhou & Yan (1984) (Watkins 2002:8).

Burma

David Bradley estimates that there is a total of about 500,000 Wa speakers in Burma.

A small number of Wa speakers also reside in Taunggyi, Mandalay and Yangon.

China

The PRC writing system for Wa is based on the Wa variant in Aishuai, Cangyuan County, Yunnan.

David Bradley estimates that there are 322,000 Wa speakers in China. In China, the Wa people live in (Watkins 2002):

• Ximeng County (83% of total)
• Cangyuan County (71% of total)
• Menglian County (over 25% of total; other ethnic groups include the Dai and Lahu)
• Gengma County
• Shuangjiang County
• Lancang County

A small number of Wa speakers also reside in Kunming and throughout various parts of Yunnan.

The three dialects of Wa (and their respective subdialects) according to Zhou et al. (2004) are:

• Baraoke (): ~ 250,000 speakers; autonym:
  • Aishi subdialect: 218,000 speakers
    • Cangyuan County: Yanshi , Tuanjie (), Mengsheng (), Nuoliang (), Danjia (), Mengjiao (), Menglai (), Yonghe ()
    • Shuangjiang County: Shahe (), Mengmeng (), Nanlang ()
    • Gengma County: Sipaishan (), Gengyi (), Hepai (), Mengjian (), Mengding (), Furong ()
    • Lancang County: Donghe (), Wendong (), Shangyun (), Xuelin ()
  • Banhong () subdialect: 35,000 speakers
    • Cangyuan County: Banhong (), Banlao (), most of Nanla ()
  • Dazhai () subdialect: 3,000 speakers
    • Gengma County: Mengjian (), Dazhai ()
• Awa (Ava) (): ~ 100,000 speakers; autonym:
  • Masan () subdialect: 60,000 speakers
    • Ximeng County: Mowo (), Xinchang (), Zhongke (), Mengsuo (), Yuesong (), Wenggake (), parts of Lisuo ()
  • Awalai () subdialect: 3,000 speakers
    • Ximeng County: Awalai () in Lisuo ()
  • Damangnuo () subdialect: 30,000 speakers
    • Menglian County: Fuyan (), Gongxin (), Lalei (), Nanya ()
    • Ximeng County: parts of Wengjiake )
  • Xiyun () subdialect: 5,000 speakers
    • Lancang County: Xiyun () in Donghui ()
    • Menglian County: Shuangbo () in Mengman ()
• Wa (): ~ 40,000 speakers; autonym:
  • Yongde County: Dedang (), Menggong (), Minglang (), Mengban (), Yongkang (), Dashan ()
  • Zhenkang County: Mangbing (), Muchang ()
  • Cangyuan County: parts of Nanla ()

Jackson Sun (2018a) lists the Awa dialects and their alternate names as follows.

• Masan 馬散 (Lavïa; Ravia; Avë; Avo; etc.). Sun (2018b) documents the Lavïa [la-vɨɒʔ] variety of Banzhe () (pa-cʰək) Village, Mengka 勐卡 (məŋkʰa) Town in Ximeng County, Yunnan Province. Lavïa of Banzhe is non-tonal and sesquisyllabic.
• Awalai () (Avëloy)
• Damangnuo () (Vo)
• Xiyun () (Va [vàʔ]). Sun (2018a) documents the Va variety of Yingla () (zoŋráʔ) Village, Wenggake () Township, Ximeng () County, Pu'er () City, Yunnan Province. Va of Yingla is monosyllabic has 3 tones, which are high, mid and low. Sun (2018a) notes that the Va varieties of Yingla and neighboring villages in Wenggake () Township of Ximeng County belong to the same dialect as varieties spoken farther away in Donghui () and Nuofu () Townships, Lancang County.

The Dai exonym for the Wa of Yongde, Zhenkang and Nanla () is . In Sipsongpanna, the Dai call them the , ("Raw Va" ()), ("Head-carrying Wa" ()), ("Religious Wa" ()). In Ximeng and Menglian counties, the Wa autonym is , while in Cangyuan and Gengma counties it is (Zhou, et al. 2004:2).

Yan and Zhou (2012:138) list the following names for Wa in various counties.

• , (): in Lancang, Gengma, Shuangjiang, Lancang counties; exonyms: Small Kawa (), Kawa (), Cooked Ka (), Lajia ()
• (): in Zhenkang and Yongde counties; exonyms: Benren ()
• (), (), (): in Ximeng and Menglian counties; exonyms: Big Kawa 大卡瓦, Raw Ka 生卡, Wild Ka 野卡
• (): in Cangyuan and Gengma counties; also called ()

A language known as Bujiao () (autonym: Puga, ) in Mengla County was mentioned in Yunnan (1960) The Bujiao were classified as ethnic Bulang and had a population of 212 in 1960.

The Kela () (Dai exonym: Kala (); population: 393 people) live in District 3 三区 of Tengchong County (), Yunnan (You 2013:359). The Kela used to speak a variety of Wa, but now speak only Chinese. The Kela also refer to themselves as the Wama ().

Thailand

Wa have also migrated to Thailand in the past several decades, mainly from Burma. There are about 10,000 Wa speakers in Thailand. Wa villages can be found in (Watkins 2002:6):

• Mae Sai District, Chiang Rai Province, close to the Burmese border
• Mae Yao subdistrict near Chiang Rai City
• Wiang Pa Pao District, in southern Chiang Rai Province
• Chiang Dao District, Chiang Mai Province

Phonology

Standard Wa is a non-tonal language. However, tone has developed in some of the dialects. There is correspondence between tones in tonal dialects and tenseness in non-tonal dialects.

In Wa, there are 44 phonemes; 35 consonants and 9 vowels. All of these vowels can be tense or lax. Tenseness is a phonemic feature in syllables with unaspirated initials.

Vowels

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Back
	unrounded		rounded
Close	i	ɯ	u
Close-mid	e	ɤ	o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open	a

There are 15 diphthongs: and 2 triphthongs: . The general syllabic structure of Wa is C(C)(V)V(V)(C). Only a few words have zero-initials.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

			Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		plain	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
		aspirated	mʱ	nʱ	ɲʱ	ŋʱ
Stop	voiceless	plain	p	t	c	k	ʔ
		aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	cʰ	kʰ
	prenasalized	voiced	ᵐb	ⁿd	ᶮɟ	ᵑɡ
		aspirated	ᵐbʱ	ⁿdʱ	ᶮɟʱ	ᵑɡʱ
Fricative		plain	v	s
		aspirated	vʱ				h
Approximant		plain		l	j
		aspirated		lʱ	jʱ
Trill		plain		r
		aspirated		rʱ

Script

Wa writing and cultural symbols on a T-shirt

The Wa language formerly had no script and some of the few Wa that were literate used Chinese characters, while others used the Shan language and its script. Christian missionary work among the Wa began at the beginning of the 20th century first in the Burmese and later in the Chinese areas of the Wa territory. It was led by William Marcus Young, from Nebraska. The first transcription of the Wa language was devised by Young and Sara Yaw Shu Chin (Joshua) in 1931 with the purpose of translating the Bible. This first Wa alphabet was based on the Latin script and the very first publication was a compilation of Wa hymns in 1933, the Wa New Testament being completed in 1938. This transcription, known as Bible orthography, is known as lǎowǎwén () old Wa orthography in Chinese, and is now used mainly in the Burmese Wa areas and among the Wa in Thailand through the materials published by the Wa Welfare Society (Cub Yuh Bwan Ka son Vax, Cub Pa Yuh Phuk Lai Vax, Phuk Lai Hak Tiex Vax) in Chiang Mai.

In 1956, a transcription adapted to the new pinyin romanization, known as new Wa orthography, "PRC orthography" or "Chinese orthography", was developed for the Wa people in China. However, its publications, mainly propagated through the Yunnan administration, are yet to reach a wider public beyond academics. This transcription, which originally included even a couple of letters of the Cyrillic script, has also since been revised. Despite the revisions, both the Chinese and the Bible orthography are still marred by inconsistencies.

Recently, a revised Bible orthography adopting some features from the Chinese orthography has been adopted as Wa State Wa orthography or "official Wa spelling" by the central authorities of the Wa State in Pangkham which have published a series of primers in order to improve the literacy of the United Wa State Army troops. Also, after 2000 Wa people in social networks such as Facebook, as well as Wa songwriters in karaoke lyrics of Wa songs, use this Myanmar (revised Bible) orthography in its main variations. The Wa Women's Association promotes the use of the script.

Wa Bible Orthography

WBO	IPA	WBO	IPA	WBO	IPA	WBO	IPA	WBO	IPA	WBO	IPA
p	[p]	bh	[ᵐbʱ]	nh	[nʰ]	rh	[rʰ]	o	[o]	e	[ei]
ph	[pʰ]	d	[ⁿd]	ny	[ɲ]	y	[j]	ie	[ɛ]	o	[ou]
t	[t]	dh	[ⁿdʱ]	nyh	[ɲʰ]	yh	[jʰ]	aw	[ɔ]	oi, oe, we	[oi~ɔi]
th	[tʰ]	j	[ᶮɟ]	ng	[ŋ]	l	[l]	a	[a]	ai	[ai]
c	[c]	jh	[ᶮɟʱ]	ngh	[ŋʰ]	lh	[lʰ]	iu	[iu]	au	[aɯ]
ch	[cʰ]	g	[ᵑg]	s	[s]	i	[i]	eei, ui	[ɯi]	au, ao	[au]
k	[k]	gh	[ᵑgʱ]	h	[h]	ee	[ɯ]	ui, wi	[ui]	iao	[iau]
kh	[kʰ]	m	[m]	v	[v]	u	[u]	ia	[ia]	oe	[uai]
x	[ʔ]	mh	[mʰ]	vh, f	[vʱ]	e	[e]	eue	[ɤi]
b	[ᵐb]	n	[n]	r	[r]	eu	[ɤ]	ua, wa	[ua]

See also

• Wa people

Further reading

• Bradley, David (1994). "East and Southeast Asia". In Moseley, Christopher; Asher, R. E. (eds.). Atlas of the World's Languages. London: Routledge.
• Schiller, Eric (1985). An (Initially) Surprising Wa language and Mon-Khmer Word Order. University of Chicago Working Papers in Linguistics (UCWIPL) 1.104–119.
• Watkins, Justin (2013). "A Themed Selection of Wa Proverbs and Sayings". Journal of Burma Studies. 17 (1): 29–60. doi:10.1353/jbs.2013.0001. S2CID 162762127.
• Watkins, Justin (2013). Dictionary of Wa (2 vols). Leiden: Brill.
• Watkins, Justin (2013). "Grammatical Aesthetics in Wa". In Williams, Jeffrey P. (ed.). The Aesthetics of Grammar: Sound and Meaning in the Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 99–117.
• Watkins, Justin (2010). Topicalisation, Focus-Clefts and Stranded Prepositions in Wa. 20th Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, 10-11 June 2010, University of Zurich.
• Watkins, Justin (2002). The Phonetics of Wa: Experimental Phonetics, Phonology, Orthography and Sociolinguistics. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/PL-531. hdl:1885/146152. ISBN 978-0-85883-486-6.

External links

• Some links to Wa-related Internet sites
• A Dictionary of the Wa Language with Burmese (Myanmar), Chinese, and English Glosses and Internet Database for Minority Languages of Burma (Myanmar)
• ワ語の発音と表記 (Pronunciation and spelling of Wa; in Japanese)
• RWAAI | Projects RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage)
• http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-7BBF-9@view Parauk in RWAAI Digital Archive
• Consonant Ear Training Tape
• The XG1 collection in Kaipuleohone includes Awa language open access materials.
• WA (PARAOG / BA RĀOG) - BURMESE-CHINESE-ENGLISH DICTIONARY