E language

E
E
Ei, Wuse
Kjang E
Region	Guangxi, China
Native speakers	5,000 (2016)
Language family	mixed Tai–Pinghua
Language codes
ISO 639-3	eee
Glottolog	eeee1240
	Guangxi, of which E is spoken in a small area
	Wuse is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

E (IPA:

alveolar lateral approximant

.

Etymology

The E language's unusual name, which is also an autonym, derives from the pinyin transliteration of the rare Mandarin syllable 诶; 誒; ê (IPA: [ɛ⁵⁵]), which conventionally denotes an expression of affirmation (and is distinguished from the usual pronunciation of e by the use of a circumflex).^[2]^[3] The language's speakers also refer to their language as Kjang E [kiaŋ⁵⁵ ɛ⁵⁵].^[2] Wusehua is a derogatory name for E.^[4]

Geographical distribution

In 1992, E was spoken by about 30,000 people,^[5]^[2] but by 2008 this number had dwindled to 9,000.^[6] Gao (2016) reported that there were 5,000 speakers of E.^[1] Most E speakers are classified as Zhuang by the Chinese government. E speakers live in Rongshui Miao Autonomous County and border areas of Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County in Guangxi. In Rongshui County, the three main villages inhabited by E speakers are Xiatan 下覃村, Simo 四莫村, and Xinglong 兴隆村 in Yongle Township 永乐乡.^[1] E speakers' most commonly spoken other languages are the Liujia dialect (六甲话) of Yue Chinese and the Guiliu variant of Southwestern Mandarin.^[1]

Phonology

E's consonant and vowel inventories are mostly similar to those of its parent languages. However, it contains a few unusual consonants: the

l̥]. All are voiceless versions of consonants that, in most languages, are always voiced. E allows syllabic consonants and diphthongs.^[6]

E consonants
		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
		Labial	plain	sibilant	Palatal	plain	labialized	Glottal
Nasal	voiced	m	n			ŋ
Nasal	voiceless	m̥	n̥			ŋ̥
Plosive	unaspirated	p	t	t͡s		k	kʷ
Plosive	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	t͡sʰ		kʰ
Fricative		f		s	ɕ			h
Approximant	voiced		l		j		w
Approximant	voiceless		l̥

E vowels
	Front		Central	Back
Close	i	y		u
Mid	e		ə	o
Open	ɛ		a

Like most Southeast Asian languages, including Tai and the

tonal.^[7] The language is described as having seven tones, with the seventh varying allophonically with the length of the vowel it is attached to. With numbers ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest tone and 5 the highest, the contours of the various tones in E are as follows.^[6]

Tone contours
Number		Contour	Tone letter
1.		42	˦˨
2.		231	˨˧˩
3.		44	˦
4.		35	˧˥
5.		24	˨˦
6.		55	˥
7.	short	24	˨˦
7.	long	22	˨

Grammar and lexicon

E is usually classified as a

Caolan language of Vietnam also displays many similarities with E.^[7]

The vocabulary, however, is mostly Chinese, based on Guiliu and the Tuguai variant of

negation expressed with auxiliary words (pat⁶, m²) and no pronominal agreement.^[6]

In its pronouns, E distinguishes for person between first, second, and third; in number between singular and plural; and, in the case of the first-person plural, between inclusive and exclusive we. E does not, however, make distinctions for grammatical gender.^[6]

Pronouns
Person	Singular	Plural
1.	ku¹	lau² (incl.) kju¹ (excl.)
2.	ŋ²	su¹
3.	mo⁵	mo⁵ kjau¹

Numbers
No.	E	No.	E
1	je꞉t⁶	6	l̥ok⁶ lok⁷
2	soŋ¹ ŋ̥i⁵	7	tshat⁶
3	sam¹	8	pe꞉t⁶
4	si⁴	9	kjəu³
5	ŋ̥a³ ŋo³	10	tɕəp⁷ ɕəp⁷

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Gao, Huan 高欢. 2016. Guangxi Ronghsui Aihua yanjiu 广西融水诶话研究. Beijing: Chinese Social Sciences Academy Press 中国社会科学出版社.
^ ^a ^b ^c Edmondson 1992, p. 138.
^ Unihan Database 1991.
^ ^a ^b Encyclopedia of Linguistics 2003, p. 207.
^ E language at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Greenhill, Blust & Gray 2008.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Edmondson 1992, pp. 135–144.
^ Moseley 2012, p. 72.
^ Sun, Hu & Huang 2007, pp. 2596–2620.