Sanqiao 三锹话 (三橇) 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]

Classification

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]

Distribution

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.

• Liping County
  • Pingdi Township 平底乡, Shangchong District 尚重区: Cendun 岑趸, Wushan 乌山, Bijie 俾嗟, Yanpi 眼批, Dongweng 董翁, Guidou 归斗, Guiya 归雅, Wule 乌勒, Pingdi 平底, Wupeng 乌碰, Tangtu 塘途, Gaoliang 高练, Biyazhai 俾雅寨
  • Dajia Township 大稼乡: Cennuzhai 岑努寨
• Jinping County
  • Pinglüe 平略 and Qimeng 启蒙 townships: Zhaizao 寨早, Wendou 文斗, Shengli 胜利, Guben 固本, Xinming 新明, Dicha 地茶, Qimeng 启蒙, Yuhe 裕河

References

• Yu Dazhong [余达忠]. 2017. "Ethnic Interactions and the Formation of the Sanqiu People in the Borderland of Modern Hunan, Guizhou and Guangxi Provinces [近代湘黔桂边区的族群互动和“三锹人”的形成]". In Journal of Guizhou Education University [贵州师范学院学报], Vol. 33, No. 1 (Jan 2017).

External links

• “锹人”释考