Jingpo

Kachin women in costume

Jingpo dancer

The Jingpo or Kachin or Singpho ( Chinese 景颇族 , Pinyin Jǐngpōzú ; also: Jingpho , Jingp'o ) are an ethnic group in China , Myanmar and India .

In China, the Jingpo are one of the 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities . Most of them live in Yunnan Province . According to the last census in 2010, they counted 147,828 people. In China as well as in Myanmar, several groups, linguistically z. Sometimes they differ greatly from one another, counted as part of the Jingpo or Kachin nationality.

In Myanmar (Burma), especially in Kachin State , in the far north of the country, the Jingpo are a very large ethnic minority. They make up around 1.4% of the total population of Myanmar. In Myanmar, the term "Kachin" includes groups that speak different Tibetan Burmese languages, i.e. the Jingpaw (Jingpo in the narrower sense), the Duleng, the Maru (Lawngwaw), the Rawang, the Zaiwa and the Lachik (Lashi). Sometimes even the Lisu are added, who like Zaiwa and Maru speak a northern Lolo-Burmese language and are recognized as a separate nationality in China, Thailand and India.

In India, around 7200 Jingpo (Singpho) live in 13 villages in the districts of Lohit and Changlang in the state of Arunachal Pradesh and in the district of Tinsukia (capital: Tinsukia ) in the state of Assam . Since China regards over 90% of the territory of Arunachal Pradesh as its own national territory, it sees the Jingpo (almost 7,000) living there as part of its own ethnic minority, the Jingpo.

languages

Five languages are spoken among the Jingpo of China, four of which are also spoken by the Kachin in Myanmar.

Jingpo

Around 900,000 people in Myanmar and around 40,000 in China speak Jingpo (景颇语, also written Jinghpaw in English , often called Kachin in Myanmar ). The Jingpo language belongs to the Bodo-Konyak-Jingpho subgroup of Tibetan Burmese. It serves as a lingua franca among the various groups of the Jingpo / Kachin, both in China and in Myanmar. A standardized version taught in China is based on the dialect of Enkun.

Zaiwa

Zaiwa (also written Tsaiva or Tsaiwa ; in Jingpo the language is Atsi , in Chinese Zǎiwǎyǔ载瓦语 and in Burmese Zi ) is spoken by about 80,000 people in China and about 30,000 in Myanmar. Zaiwa belongs to the Lolo-Burmese subgroup of the Tibeto-Burmese . After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a written language was created based on the dialect of Longzhun (in Xishan Township, Luxi County), which is written using the Latin alphabet. This written language was officially introduced in 1957.

Maru

Maru ( 浪莪語Làng'éyǔ in Chinese , also called 嬤魯語Mólǔyǔ ) is spoken by around 100,000 people in Myanmar and around 3,500 in China. In some Chinese sources, however, up to 20,000 speakers of the Maru in China are given. Like the Zaiwa, it belongs to the Lolo-Burmese subgroup of Tibeto-Burmese.

Lashi

Lashi (in Chinese勒期語Lèqíyǔ ) is spoken by around 30,000 people in Myanmar and nearly 2,000 in China. Like the Zaiwa, it belongs to the Lolo-Burmese subgroup of Tibeto-Burmese.

Bela

2,000 to 3,000 Jingpo near the city of Luxi in the Dehong Autonomous District of the Dai and Jingpo represent a special case. A good 400 of them speak Bela (also Pela , in Chinese波拉語Bōlāyǔ , also 布拉語Bùlāyǔ ), a language that was only described in 2004 and is apparently very close to the Zaiwa. No Bela speakers are known from Myanmar.

literature

Liú Lù 刘璐: Jǐngpōzú yǔyán jiǎnzhì - Jǐngpōyǔ景颇族语言简志 —— 景颇语 ( Introduction to the languages of the Jingpo nationality - Jingpo ; Běijīng 北京, Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族出版社 1984).
Xú Xījiān 徐悉艰 u. Xú Guìzhēn 徐桂珍: Jǐngpōzú yǔyán jiǎnzhì - Zǎiwǎyǔ景颇族语言简志 —— 载瓦语 ( Introduction to the languages of the Jingpo nationality - Tsaiva ; Běijīng 北京, Mínzú chūbǎnshè 民族出版社 1984).