The use of minority languages in Yunnan can be divided into four types: mother tongue, bilingualism, multilingualism and mother tongue conversion.

Yunnan is a multi-ethnic province, and ethnic minorities account for more than 40% of the 56 ethnic groups in China. The population of ethnic minorities is 1, 4 1.5 million, accounting for 1/3 of the whole province's population. There are ethnic minorities in all cities and counties in the province. Ethnic minorities with a population of more than 5,000 include Yi, Bai, Hani, Dai, Zhuang, Miao, Lisu, Hui, Lahu, Wa, Naxi, Yao, Jingpo, Tibetan, Bulang, Buyi, Pumi, Achang, Nu and Kimi.

Multi-ethnicity constitutes a corresponding multi-language. Among the 25 ethnic minorities, except Hui, Manchu and Shui, the other 22 ethnic minorities speak 26 national languages. Among them, Jingpo people have two languages, one is Jingpo language used by Jingpo people who call themselves Jingpo, and the other is Zawa language used by Jingpo people who call themselves Zawa. Yao people have two languages, one is Mian language used by Yao people who call themselves Mian, and the other is Bunu language used by Yao people who call themselves Bunu. Nu people have three languages, namely, Nu language used by Nu people who call themselves Nu people in Bijiang, Rouruo language used by Nu people who call themselves Rouruo in Lanping and Lushui, and Nong language used by Nu people who call themselves Nong in Fugong. These 26 languages do not include Kemu, Mang and so on.

These 26 languages belong to the Sino-Tibetan and South Asian languages, namely, Tibetan-Burmese, Zhuang-Dong, Miao-Yao and Mon-Khmer, as well as Tibetan-Jingpo, Yi-Burmese, Miao-Yao, Zhuang-Dai and Wa-deong, among which Tibetan-Burmese has three languages: Bai, Pumi and Nuro.

Sino-Tibetan languages include Tibetan, Jingpo, Yi, hani language, Lisu, Lahu, Naxi, Jino, Kazuo (Tonghai Mongolian), Zawa, Achang, Bai, Pumi and Nu (Anong, Nu and Mauro). Its characteristic is that each syllable has a fixed tone, which is an important phonetic feature of Sino-Tibetan language. Tone can distinguish lexical meaning, and in some languages, tone can also distinguish grammatical meaning. Tone is closely related to initials and finals, and the three affect each other, which is the condition in the development process. Tone is the same as initials, but it is divided into yin and yang, which is common to the whole language family. The tone development of Sino-Tibetan language family is unbalanced. Judging from the hue value, there are only two at least, and the most is 12. The tones of Zhuang-Dong language family and Miao-Yao language family are similar in characteristics, both of which are four tones and eight categories, and the corresponding relationship of tones is also obvious. The vowels of many languages in Sino-Tibetan language family have different lengths, among which Zhuang and Dong are the most common. The initials of many languages are opposite and have a common development trend. Some languages still have complex consonants, and most of them are binary consonants, and a few are ternary consonants. In some languages, vowels are divided into two categories: elastic vowels and elastic vowels. Its function is mainly to distinguish lexical meanings, and some languages can also distinguish grammatical meanings. Grammatically, word order and function words are important means to express grammatical meaning in Chinese and Tibetan. The word order is relatively fixed. There are many kinds of function words, which express different grammatical meanings in sentences. Each language has some morphological changes, including phonetic alternation, adding additional components, overlapping and other grammatical means. In terms of vocabulary, the Sino-Tibetan language family is composed of monosyllabic words and polysyllabic compounds, with few polysyllabic words, and some of them are composed of disyllabic words and overlapping rhymes.

The languages belonging to the South Asian language family are Wa, Brown, De 'ang and so on. Features of South Asian languages: In phonetics, the main feature is that the consonant system is relatively neat. The opposition between voiced and voiced sounds is common, and there is an independent series of voiced and aspirated sounds. In many Mon-Khmer languages, there are cases where the internal sonic boom is used as glottic nasal and flowing sound. Suffixes at the end of words are often uninterrupted. The vowel system is rich, and vowels are often divided into four levels: high, front, middle and back. Long vowels are common, but nasal vowels are uncommon. Except for a few tonal languages, most South Asian languages are not tonal language. In grammar, the general word order of a sentence is subject-verb-object An adjective usually follows the noun it modifies. Syntactically, passive structures are also used, and prepositions are often used instead of postpositions. In vocabulary, the structure of a word is usually a main syllable, and sometimes it can be preceded by a secondary syllable. Most roots are monosyllabic. Prefixes and infixes are common.

Due to the differences in social development stages, the geographical environment and language environment of Yunnan's ethnic minorities are different, the population is different, and the situation of mixed residence is also different. The language situation of each ethnic group is very different from that influenced by other ethnic groups, thus showing their own different characteristics. Judging from the use of modern languages, it is roughly like this: some ethnic groups basically only use their own languages; Some ethnic groups use their own languages, while others also speak Chinese or other ethnic languages. Some ethnic groups use their own languages, and some people can speak more than two national languages; Some ethnic groups have lost their mother tongue, and Chinese has become a common language. Therefore, according to the above situation, the use of minority languages in Yunnan can be divided into four types: mother tongue, bilingual, multilingual and mother tongue conversion.

Mother tongue type. These ethnic groups mainly live in border areas. Although some people (students, cadres, workers, soldiers, etc. ) speaking Chinese, their common communicative language is their mother tongue. Such as the Lisu nationality in Nujiang, the Tibetan nationality in Diqing, the Dehong Dai nationality, the Jingpo nationality, the Xishuangbanna Dai nationality, the Cangyuan nationality, the Wa nationality in Ximeng, the Lahu nationality in Lancang, the Gongshan Dulong nationality and the Nu nationality.

Bilingual type. Bilingualism is a common phenomenon in the use of minority languages in Yunnan, and it is also one of the most important social phenomena. There are two kinds of situations in this ethnic group. One situation is that they live in Pingba area of the mainland and areas where ethnic minorities live together. In addition to using their own national languages, some people are familiar with Chinese, such as Bai, Naxi, Zhuang and Mongolian, and some Yi, Miao and Hani people who live together in the mainland, as well as some Dai people who live together or live on both sides of Jinshaojiang and Yuanjiang. One situation is that some ethnic groups with small populations live in border areas. In addition to using their own language, some people also know the language of another minority in this area. For example, people in Xishuangbanna, Simao, Lincang, Lahu, Hani and Wa all know the Dai people. Most of the Nu, Bai and Yi people in Nujiang speak fluent Lisu. Some Yao people in Wenshan can speak fluent Zhuang language. The Bai people in Lijiang generally speak Naxi language.

Multilingual type. Generally speaking, this kind of ethnic group has a small population and is closely related to the surrounding ethnic groups. Besides using their own language, they are also familiar with the languages of two or more neighboring nationalities. For example, the De 'ang people in Dehong use their own language, and some can speak Jingpo and Dai. Besides using Pumi language, some Pumi people in Ninglang can speak Tibetan, Yi and Naxi fluently, and some can speak Chinese fluently. In addition to the above ethnic groups, some Bulang ethnic groups are familiar with Dai and Wa languages, some Achang ethnic groups are familiar with Dai and Jingpo languages, and most Jino ethnic groups are familiar with Dai and Chinese.

Mother tongue conversion type. This national language has disappeared, but Chinese is widely used. Chinese is widely used in the history of Hui and Manchu. The mother tongue of the Shui people in Yunnan has basically disappeared. In addition to the above ethnic groups, most of the Yi people in Zhaotong and the Bai people in the suburbs of Kunming speak Chinese. Some teenagers in some ethnic minority areas in the mainland can only speak Chinese, but they don't know their own language.

In addition to the above four kinds, there are Han people living in ethnic minority areas and Han cadres, teachers, workers, medical workers, the People's Liberation Army and the police who work in ethnic minority areas from the mainland. Many people have mastered the languages of local ethnic minorities to varying degrees during their long-term production, living and construction with them. These people can use Chinese and a minority language.

Yunnan is a border province bordering Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, with a total length of 406 1 km. Among the 25 ethnic minorities in Yunnan, Yi, Hani, Zhuang, Dai, Miao, Lisu, Lahu, Wa, Yao, Jingpo, Bulang, Buyi, Achang, Nu, De 'ang and Dulong have 16 respectively. Most of the same ethnic minorities at home and abroad maintain their own languages and customs, and their own languages are mainly used as communication tools. As Engels pointed out: "No country's dividing line is consistent with the national natural dividing line, that is, the dividing line of language."

The multi-ethnic and multi-lingual characteristics of Yunnan constitute a variety of languages that adapt to it. There are many kinds of primitive characters of ethnic minorities in Yunnan. According to the survey in 1950s, there are 23 ethnic minorities in the original language of 1 1. There are five Dai languages: Xishuangbanna Dai language, Dehong Dai language, Dai language, Jinping Dai language and Xinping Dai language. There are four Naxi languages: Dongba, Goba, Mary Savin and the phonetic alphabet written by foreign missionaries. There are three kinds of Lisu scripts: one is a syllable script created for Lisu Wang Renbo in Weixi, and the other two are created by foreign missionaries. There are two kinds of Yi language: primitive Yi language (also called old Yi language) and phonetic symbols written by foreign missionaries. There are three kinds of Jingpo: 1 Jingpo and 2 dolls. Tibetan is the same as Tibetan in Tibet. Miao Wen, Lahu, Wa and Dulong (also known as Japanese Wang Wen) each have 1 species, all of which were invented by foreign missionaries. In addition to the above 22 national languages, there are Fang Zhuang language, Fang Bai language, China hani language language and Fang Yao language in history.

The glyphs and systems of these characters are quite complicated. Dai's Dai language, Dai's Na language, Dai's tense language and Jinping's Dai language all come from the Sanskrit alphabet system of ancient India, all of which belong to the same system as Thai, Burmese in Myanmar, Cambodian and Lao in Laos. Dai script is the same as Dai Yun script in Chiang Mai, Thailand (Lanna Dai script), Dai Chinese script in Jingdong, Myanmar, and Confucian classics used in Laos temples, except for some differences in calligraphy. Tibetan was created by Tubo San Pu Za in the 7th century AD, imitating the Nagari system of Sanskrit at that time. Old Yi language, Luodan language, Baguio language, Bo language, Tang and Shu language, etc. The origin and historical evolution of ancient Yi language is still inconclusive. Ancient Yi language is popular in the eastern, southern and southeastern dialect areas of Yi language. Dongba language of Naxi nationality has developed into a few pictophonetic characters in modern times, and it is also metonymic, but it is basically pictographic and ideographic, which was created in the late Tang Dynasty. Lisu characters, Marimasa characters, Lisu Wang Renbo 1924 written in Naxi Goba are all syllable characters, each character represents a syllable, and the font is slightly like Chinese, but the strokes are simpler than Chinese. Naxi, Lisu and Zawa are phonetic characters that express initials and finals by reversing Latin capital letters. Miao Wen, Hani and a Lisu people have squares, circles, large letters and small letters. The characteristic of these three languages is that each word consists of a capital letter and a lowercase letter. Capital letters denote initials and lowercase letters denote finals. Vowels can be placed at the top, upper right corner, right side and lower right corner, indicating the tone. Xinping Dai language, Fang Zhuang language, Fang Bai language and Fang Yao language are all created by word formation of six Chinese characters, some of which are borrowed from Chinese characters, and some are created by adding and subtracting strokes on the basis of Chinese characters. Other languages such as Lahu, Wa and Dulong are all pinyin in Latin alphabet.

These characters have been used in different occasions in history, and some of them are common, such as Tibetan, Dai, Dai and Jingpo. Lahu, Lisu and Miao Wen are mainly used by religious people; Although some of them are used in a few areas, such as the Lisu prose created by Wang Renbo, they are only used by Lisu people in several districts of Weixi County. Mary Masavin of Naxi nationality is only used by some Naxi residents who call themselves Mary Masa in Weixi County. Except for Wang Renbo's Charming Prose and Naxi's Mary Masa Prose, which were created and used by their own farmers, almost all other characters are closely related to religion.

Among these scripts, besides Tibetan, Dai, Dai, Yi and Dongba languages of Naxi, there are abundant manuscripts or woodcut scriptures, and few other scripts have been handed down.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), since the 1950s, the Party and the people's government have set up specialized institutions and organized professional teams to conduct a comprehensive and systematic investigation and study on Hani, Dai, Lisu, Lahu, Naxi, Wa, Jingpo, Miao, Yi and Bai 10 national languages. On this basis, it has helped seven ethnic groups, including Hani, Lisu, Naxi, Wa, Jingpo (a branch of the Wa), Miao and Zhuang, to create nine languages (including two Hani and two Miao). It helps the Dai, Lahu and Jingpo ethnic groups (Jingpo branch) to improve four languages, including two Dai languages.

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, he helped the Dulong people to design a pinyin scheme (draft) based on Latin letters on the basis of the original characters (Japanese Wang Wen); According to the requirements of the Miao people, they helped them to improve the old Miao Wen in northeast Yunnan; Standardized the original Yi language. Liangshan can be used to standardize Yi language except Yi people who belong to the northern dialect area of Yi language. The other five dialect areas have standardized an ideographic Yi language scheme on the basis of the original Yi language.

By 1989, there were Yi, Bai, Hani, Zhuang, Dai, Miao, Lisu, Wa, Naxi, Yao, Jingpo, Tibetan and Dulong ethnic groups in Yunnan 14. The spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities have made remarkable achievements in the fields of ethnic education, social literacy, press and publication, radio, film and television, etc., and the use range of spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities is expanding day by day.

It can be said that Yunnan is a treasure house of national languages. In the long history, all ethnic minorities have created splendid national culture and enriched the cultural treasure house of the motherland with their diligence, wisdom and expressions marked by their own national languages. In the socialist period, minority languages, as a kind of social resources, have been developed and utilized, which plays an active and important role in the social development and economic construction of ethnic minorities. (Source: Yunnan National Culture Network)