Hezhang Buyi
Audio recordings (Dazhai): Andrew Hsiu. (2017). Hezhang Buyi (Dazhai) audio recordings. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1122579
Audio recordings (Tiejiang): Andrew Hsiu. (2017). Hezhang Buyi (Tiejiang) audio recordings. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1122581
Conference presentations: Hsiu, Andrew. 2013. “Shui” varieties of western Guizhou and Yunnan.
Papers: Hsiu, Andrew. 2017. Hezhang Buyi: a highly endangered Northern Tai language with a Kra substratum. m.s. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1249222
Hezhang Buyi is a highly endangered mixed Kra-Dai language with a Northern Tai (Buyi) superstratum and Kra substratum.
On April 8, 2013, I interviewed Yang Zhenmei 杨珍妹 (born July 15, 1928), who was the mother of a local village official in Tiejiang village 铁匠村, Tiejiang township 铁匠乡, Hezhang County 赫章县, Guizhou, China.
In Dazhai 大寨, Fuchu township 辅处乡, Hezhang County 赫章县, Guizhou, China, my informant was Gao Chunjie 高春姐 (female, illiterate; born May 5, 1928 in Yuguo village 雨果村, Weining county). She was the best native speaker of “Shui” in the village. There were also “few” other elderly fluent speakers in the village.
Gao's middle-aged male relative said their ancestors had migrated from from Dashiban, Taihe County, Fuguang Prefecture, Jiangxi 江西福广府太河县大石板. He also reported other locations of Shui in Hezhang County as Zhuyuan, Kele Township 可乐乡竹园 (and one other village) and Tangbian, Zhuming Township 朱明乡塘边.
Yang's speech differed slightly from Gao's speech, but both speak the same mutually intelligible dialect. Gao was more fluent in Hezhang than Yang was.
Hezhang Buyi is most closely related to Western Qian dialects, and has lost all final stops. It also has a Kra substratum. There are various words borrowed from an unknown Kra languages that likely belonged to a currently extinct branch of Kra.