Sanqiao | |
---|---|
Native to | China |
Region | Guizhou |
Ethnicity | Miao |
Native speakers | 6,000 (2017).[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | None (mis ) |
Glottolog | sanq1234 |
Sanqiao (Chinese: 三锹话/三橇话) is a mixed Dong–Miao language spoken in Liping County and Jinping County, Guizhou, China by about 6,000 people.[1]
The Sanqiao people sing traditional songs using the Suantang language (酸汤话), a Sinitic language that is similar to New Xiang.[1]
Sanqiao vocabulary is about 30–40% Miao (Hmu) and 40%-50% Dong (Kam), with the remainder consisting of Chinese words.[1] Sanqiao speakers can understand the local Dong and Miao dialects, but the Dong and Miao cannot understand the Sanqiao language.[1]
In Liping County and Jinping County, Guizhou, the Sanqiao live in just over 20 villages, with over 6,000 people (Yu 2017).[1]
Sanqiao in a broader sense, however, is a grouping of about 30,000 people who speak unrelated languages, who are spread across Jingzhou, Huitong, Tongdao, and Suining counties of Hunan, and Liping, Jinping, and Tianzhu counties of Guizhou.[1] In Hunan, they are also known as the Flowery Miao (花苗) or Flowery-Clothed Miao (花衣苗), while in Guizhou they are known as the Sanqiao people (三撬人).[1]
The Sanqiao are distributed in the following locations of Qiandongnan Prefecture, Guizhou (Deng 2010).[2] There are 22 villages in total.