Caijia

Audio recordings: Andrew Hsiu. (2017). Caijia (Niujiaojing) audio word list. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1122547

Papers: Hsiu, Andrew. 2018. The Niujiaojing dialect of Caijia in Weining County, Guizhou, China. Manuscript draft. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1249165

My Caijia informant in Niujiaojing 牛角井, Yangjie Town, Weining County, Guizhou, China was an illiterate elderly woman named Wang Jinzhi 王金之 (born 1940), whom I interviewed on April 7, 2013.

Caijia locations reported by residents of Niujiaojing are Niujiaojing 牛角井村, Xinglongchang 兴隆场村, Niuchishui 牛吃水 (reportedly with very fluent Caijia speakers), and Fadi 发地. Like the Caijia of Puding County, the Caijia of Weining County (or at least Niujiaojing) are officially classified as ethnic Gelao. However, the Caijia (locally Caizu) there told me that they do not like that classification at all, and are a completely distinct ethnic group that should be officially recognized. These are all previously unknown locations of Caijia.

On April 1, 2013, one of the Puding County government officials also said that there are ethnic Caijia in 贵州 织金县 猫场乡 新国村 (Xinguo, Maochang Township, Zhijin County), but they do not know whether Caijia is still spoken there. There are also Caijia in Puding County, but they no longer speak the language, and are classified as ethnic Gelao. This is because their customs were similar to that of the neighboring Gelao. However, none of the government officials had any idea where ethnic Caijia are located within Puding County.